ROSES IN HISTORY, LEGENDRY, AND HERALDRY - Part 2

Articles In This Section:

· ROSE CALENDAR - Part 1

· ROSE CALENDAR - Part 2

· ROSE CALENDAR - Part 3

· ROSES IN HISTORY, LEGENDRY, AND HERALDRY - Part 1

· ROSES IN HISTORY, LEGENDRY, AND HERALDRY - Part 2

· ROSES IN HISTORY, LEGENDRY, AND HERALDRY - Part 3

· ROSES IN HISTORY, LEGENDRY, AND HERALDRY - Part 4

· ROSE SOCIETIES - Part 1

· ROSE SOCIETIES - Part 2

In Egypt the rose appears to have been unknown until about 300 B.C., but it gradually replaced the lotus as the most favoured flower. It had probably been taken to Egypt by the Greeks. Many Egyptian tombs dating from a.d. 100 to 300 have been found containing garlands of roses, rosebuds, and rose petals. They have usually been pink and white, but occasionally there have been single yellow blooms, probably R. foetida, the Yellow Austrian Briar.

Feasting and intoxication were disapproved by the Church of Rome, and the rose fell into ecclesiastical disfavour for many years because of its association with these excesses. Later it was used frequently as an emblem. The Golden Rose of the Church of Rome, dating from the fourteenth century, is blessed by the Pope on Laetare Sunday and is occasionally bestowed on persons or institutions of special merit in the Roman Catholic

*From translation by Fawke. faith. In the Middle Ages, roses were used in crowning priests, wreathing candles, and adorning shrines.

These are only the most notable instances of documentary references to the rose in what might be called its social relationships with early history. There are many others, some less outstanding and some less authentic.

The rose has many associations with the legends and myths so seriously regarded by the ancient polytheist Greeks and later by the Romans.

The dog-rose (R. ccmina) takes its name from the virtue attributed by the ancients to its root, as a cure for hydrophobia. Pliny states that the gods revealed this, in a dream, to a mother whose son had been bitten by an affected dog.

On finding her favourite nymph dead, Flora, the goddess of flowers, appealed to all the gods of Olympus to transform the corpse into a flower surpassing all others in beauty. In response, Venus bestowed form, Apollo gave light, Bacchus gave nectar, Vertumnus gave perfume, Pomona gave fruit, and Flora herself gave colour. In this way was the rose created.

The rose, the emblem of love, was given by Cupid as a bribe to Harpocrates, the god of silence, to obtain secrecy for the meetings of the other gods. Hence the rose became the symbol of secrecy and the traditional flower to be suspended from the ceiling in chambers where clandestine meetings were held. So came the term "sub rosa", privately, or under the rose, still used today. Later a rose or an arrangement of roses was often carved on the ceiling, from which has evolved the frequently seen centre-piece of ceilings, even though the carvings or mouldings bear no resemblance to a rose.