ÿþ<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> <meta name="author" content="Frederick John Kluth"/> <meta name="description" content="Gardens in Ancient Greece were attached to most houses and provided much needed fresh produce."/> <meta name="keywords" content="garden, vine, vinyard, olive, grape, Greece, Greek, art, symbol, fjkluth"/> <style type="text/css" media="screen"> h2 {color: red; text-align: center} img.photo { float: left; margin-right: 20px;} </style> <title>Gardens in Ancient Greece</title> </head> <body> <p><img class="photo" src="logo.gif" width="200" height="150" alt="Logo of The Role of Women in the Art of Ancient Greece"/></p> <p><a href="index.html">RWAAG Home</a>, Gardens--></p> <h2 align="center">Gardens in Ancient Greece</h2> <p>Advertisement:</p> <p><a href="grepga.html">Vendors of Flower and Garden Supplies</a></p> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-0012620521126070"; /* Goddesses */ google_ad_slot = "1441480835"; google_ad_width = 300; google_ad_height = 250; //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <p><a href="sguide.html">Shop in a catalog of almost everything</a></p> <p><a href="grepw30.html">Buy Greek items on Amazon.com</a></p> <p><a href="grepq36.html">Discounts, Sales, Specials, and Savings available from offers on the Internet</a></p> <p>If you click above and follow the links to a purchase then this site receives a commission for its support.</p> <h2 align="center">Gardens in Ancient Greece</h2> <h3 align="center">Gardens in Homer</h3> <p>In the Odyssey of Homer book VII lin 113 Homer uses the word '¿ÁDZĿÂ' and the word '±Å»·Â'. Sometimes the first word is translated 'garden' and other times 'orchard'. Both words relate to the concept of enclosure. The root of '¿ÁDZĿÂ' is Indo-European 'gher-2', 'To grasp, enclosure'. The root of '±Å»·Â' is Indo-European 'aulo-', 'Hole, cavity'. It seems as though the concept of a house in the shape of an open square with a central garden or surrounded by a garden may be a concept that is basic to the Indo-European culture. The word 'gher-' may also be a root of the word 'khoros' which is a dancing ground. Though we seen dancing in the Minoan culture and what may be dancing courts in the construction of those buildings there seems to be a sychronicity in this regard between the Minoan and Myceneans. The difference is that the Minoans seem to have built large complexes around courts while the Myceneans built many individual houses each with its own court. When Odysseus arrives at the palace of Alcinous the leaders of the country are having a feast. Though the palace has an open court and an orchard or garden around it still when the feast is over Alcinous says, "You have finished your feasting; now go home to rest..". It is easy to assure that the other leaders has similar shaped homes that are less pretentious. This would be in contrast with information that has been revealed in the Archaeological researches of the Minoan culture.</p> <p><span><img src="t.d/garden.jpg" alt="Garden in Ancient Greece"/><br/>Garden in Ancient Greece</span></p> <p>Homer provides an image of watering a garden in the Iliad (Book XXI): "As one who would water his garden leads a stream from some fountain over his plants, and all his ground-spade in hand he clears away the dams to free the channels, and the little stones run rolling round and round with the water as it goes merrily down the bank faster than the man can follow-..."</p> <p>In the Odyssey Book V Homer describes the garden of Calypso: "And round about the cave there was a wood blossoming, alder and poplar and sweet-smelling cypress. And therein roosted birds long of wing, owls and falcons and chattering sea-crows, which have their business in the waters. And lo, there about the hollow cave trailed a gadding garden vine, all rich with clusters. And fountains four set orderly were running with clear water, hard by one another, turned each to his own course. And all around soft meadows bloomed of violets and parsley, yea, even a deathless god who came thither might wonder at the sight and be glad at heart."</p> <p>Homer describes the garden of Alcinous, king of the Phaeaceans, in Book VII, line 13 of the Odyssey: "And without the courtyard hard by the door is a great garden, off our ploughgates, and a hedge runs round on either side. And there grow tall trees blossoming, pear-trees and pomegranates, and apple-trees with bright fruit, and sweet figs, and olives in their bloom. The fruit of these trees never perisheth neither faileth, winter nor summer, enduring through all the year. Evermore the West Wind blowing brings some fruits to birth and ripens others. Pear upon pear waxes old, and apple on apple, yea and cluster ripens upon cluster of the grape, and fig upon fig. There too hath he a fruitful vineyard planted, whereof the one part is being dried by the heat, a sunny plot on level ground, while other grapes men are gathering, and yet others they are treading in the wine-press. In the foremost row are unripe grapes that cast the blossom, and others there be that are growing black to vintaging. There too, skirting the furthest line, are all manner of garden beds, planted trimly, that are perpetually fresh, and therein are two fountains of water, whereof one scatters his streams all about the garden, and the other runs over against it beneath the threshold of the courtyard, and issues by the lofty house, and thence did the townsfolk draw water."</p> <p>Odysseus remembers his father's garden: "But come, and I will even tell thee the trees through all the terraced garden, which thou gavest me once for mine own, and I was begging of thee this and that, being but a little child, and following thee through the garden. Through these very trees we were going, and thou didst tell me the names of each of them. Pear-trees thirteen thou gavest me and ten apple-trees and figs two-score, and, as we went, thou didst name the fifty rows of vines thou wouldest give me, whereof each one ripened at divers times, with all manner of clusters on their boughs, when the seasons of Zeus wrought mightily on them from on high."</p> <h3 align="center">Gardens in Hesiod</h3> <ul> <li>Hesiod, Works and Days line 233: "the oak bears acorns upon the top and bees in the midst."</li> <li>Hesiod, Works and Days line 571: "But when the House-carrier1 climbs up the plants from the earth to escape the Pleiades, then it is no longer the season for digging vineyards," </li> <li>Hesiod, Works and Days line 571: "Set your slaves to winnow Demeter's holy grain, when strong Orion first appears, on a smooth threshing-floor in an airy place" Note: grains include wheat and barley. Homer mentions both grains (Odyssey, 9.110)  "Thence we sailed on, grieved at heart, and we came to the land of the Cyclopes, an overweening and lawless folk, who, trusting in the immortal gods, plant nothing with their hands nor plough; but all these things spring up for them without sowing or ploughing, [110] wheat, and barley, and vines, which bear the rich clusters of wine, and the rain of Zeus gives them increase." In Odyssey 2.290 "barley meal, the marrow of men," suggesting that barley was more highly regarded at that time </li> <li>Hesiod, Works and Days line 582: "But when the artichoke flowers,"</li> <li>Hesiod, Works and Days line 609: "But when Orion and Sirius are come into midheaven, and rosy-fingered Dawn sees Arcturus,1 then cut off all the grape-clusters, Perses, and bring them home."</li> <li>Hesiod, Works and Days line 678: "when a man first sees leaves on the topmost shoot of a fig-tree as large as the foot-print that a crow makes;" </li> </ul> <h3 align="center">Gardens in Aristophanes</h3> <ul> <li>Aristophanes, Peace line 1143: "I would willingly drink myself, while the heavens are watering our fields. Come, wife, cook three measures of beans, adding to them a little wheat, and give us some figs. Syra! call Manes off the fields, it's impossible to prune the vine or to align the ridges, for the ground is too wet today."</li> <li>The following garden produce is mentioned in the <cite>Acharnians:</cite> <ul> <li>úÌÁ¿´¿½ -- garlic, Allium sativum, line 165, 521, 550</li> <li>ïºÅ¿Â -- a cucumber, line 520</li> <li>ºÁ̼¼Å¿½ -- onion, Allium Cepa, line 550</li> <li>»±¯± -- olive, line 550</li> <li>¸Å¼¹Ä¹´¶½ -- flavored with Thyme, line 772</li> <li>Á­²¹½¸¿Â -- chick-pea, line 800</li> <li>0ÃǬ -- a dried fig, line 802</li> <li>²»®Çɽ -- pennyroyal, a common cooking herb in ancient Greece but no longer used due to its toxicity, line 869 </li> <li>@Á¯³±½¿½ -- marjoram, line 874</li> <li>½ÄµÅÄ»±½Ì¿¼±¹ -- to be stewed in beet, line 894 (ĵÍĻɽ -- beet)</li> <li>¼Å»¿¹ À»±º¿æ½ÄµÂ ֖¼¿æ½ÄµÂ 4ÄÁ¹± -- a cake made of the the finest unground sesame seeds formed into a cake (probably the same ÷ð¼! -- a mixture of sesame-seeds, roasted and pounded with honey). </li> <li>krommnon -- ºÁ̼¼Å¿½ -- onion, Allium Cepa, line 1099</li> <li>thrion -- ¸ÁÖ¿½ -- fig-leaf -- , line1100 </li> <li>¼­»¹ -- honey, line 1130</li> <li>šÅ´É½­± -- quince tree from Cydonia in Crete, line 1199</li> </ul></li> <li><cite>Birds</cite> line 1583: "Wait a bit till I have prepared my silphium pickle." silphion -- ï»Æ¹¿½ -- laserwort, Ferula tingitana, a strong flavored spice from Cyrene in Africa</li> </ul> <p>Images of ancient plants and gardens:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?img=1990.14.0209"> Asterope, Chrysothemis, and Lipara, surrounding the apple tree and snake in the Garden of the Hesperides</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1998.01.0075"> Heroized Youth in a garden on a Relief from Loukou</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1992.06.1145"> Frieze between the handles depicts a flower rising from between akanthos leaves, surrounded by additional floral elements</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1991.01.0216"> Flower held by woman</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1990.03.1325"> lotus flower</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1990.26.0650"> Silphium plant</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1992.08.0034"> Plant (fern?) and bird</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1992.11.0072"> Cowherd seated in a garden</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1990.01.1950"> Stylized garden plants</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1992.07.0784"> Hermes carrying a ram</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1990.03.0380"> Stylized plant patterns and murex shells.</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1991.08.1066"> Tree with leaves and fruit</a></li> </ul> <h3 align="center">Resources:</h3> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.gardenvisit.com/got/3/greek_garden_history.htm">Ancient Greek Gardens</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.superbherbs.net/design.htm">History of Garden Design</a></li> <li><pre>Isager, Signe (University of Odense, Denmark);Skydsgaard, J.E. (University of Copenhagen, Denmark Title: Ancient Greek Agriculture ISBN: 0415116716 Format: paperback (C format) Price:S 19.00 Publisher: Taylor &amp; Francis Books Ltd, London - UK Publication date: 1995-08-24 Agriculture was the central economic activity of ancient Greece. This introduction describes and discusses the natural conditions, the techniques, the plants cultivated and the animals reared. It demonstrates how agriculture fitted into the society of gods and men in the Greek city-states.</pre></li> </ul> <hr/> <p>To ask a question about this topic note the topic (gardens) and <a href="comm.html">Click here</a></p> <hr/> <h3>Questions and Answers</h3> <p>Question: detals about land scaping and gardening in greece</p> <p>Answer: read above. The Hespeides, who lived in the extreme west tended a garden with a tree of golden apples for Hera. These apples were stolen by Hercules:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?lookup=1997.03.1482"> Hercules standing in the Garden of the Hesperides, with three Hesperides and a serpent entwined around an apple tree</a></li> </ul> <p>Priapus was the god of gardens. His symbol was the phallus and he was portrayed a a small, sometimes mishaped man with enormous genitals.</p> <p>Epicurus (341-270 BCE) moved to Athens around 307 BCE and set up his school of Philosophy in a house with a garden which he bought. His school was later known as "The Garden" (?????)</p> <p>Question: plese give me details of the gardens of greece, landscpe architecture too</p> <p>Answer: See above.</p> <p>Question: What kind of plants were grown in gardens in Ancient Greece?</p> <p>Answer: Read above.</p> <p>Question: please tell me more of the layouts and namesof the gardenplants</p> <p>Answer: Hesiod mentions artichokes, vinyards, ivy, barley, wheat, bean-pods, apples, radishes, cabbages, pumpkins, green leeks, parsley, mallows, green beet-leaves, cabbage-leaves.</p> <p>Question: We are doin an interdisciplinary unit on ancient Greece and Rome. Our Science component is to have the students create scale gardens of what might have been found in ancient Greece and Rome. Do you have any ideaof what kinds of flowers and plants were used? Do you have layouts?</p> <p>Answer: All I have is what is above. Note that pumpins are native to North America, but "pumpkin" is used to translate the word for some kind of Greek squash.</p> <p>Question: where do i find more information on the importance of gardens and foilage of ancient greece</p> <p>Answer: Be more specific.</p> <p>Question: What kind of tools were used in ancient greek gardens??</p> <p>Answer: Pruning knives, scythes, and wooden hoes, shovels, rakes, and pehaps an adz for hoeing.</p> <p>Question: pepon - large melon in Greek, but pumpkins are originally from central america, were there also pumpkins in ancient greece?</p> <p>Answer: No. But melons are from asia and melons were known in ancient Greece.</p> <p>Question: role of owls</p> <p>Answer: Owls were seen as beneficial. They ate mice.</p> <p>Question: what plants can I use today to design a Greek Garden?</p> <p>Answer: This, of course, depends on the climate where you live. A garden from ancient Greece requires a warm Mediterranean climate. Such a climate exists at Malibu, California, and the Getty Museum has established such a garden. The most characteristic plant is the acanthus which provided folliage decoration for ancient Greek architecture. Also characteristic is the grape plant. At the the studio of Augustus St. Gaudens in Cornish, New Hampshire, a grape arbor is all there is of the Greek garden. But this was enough to stimulate Maxfield Parrish to include elements of Greek gardens in his paintings.</p> <p>Question: fig as a symbol of what in ancient greece</p> <p>In ancient Greece, the fig was sacred to the sensuous, flabby, procreative god Dionysus, and was the most pronounced symbol of procreation and of fruit-bearing. <a href="http://www.calfreshfigs.com/cffgahistory.html">Reference</a></p> <p>Question: Is there a goddess of the garden or vegetables or the earth?</p> <p>Answer: Demeter is the goddess of the grain crops, while Dionysus is god of the vines. Persephone, as goddess of spring, may also be applicable.</p> <p>Question: Do pumpkins grow in Greece or the Greek islands?</p> <p>Answer: They can, but they are native to North America. But there are squash native to Greece. The situation is somewhat confused by the fact that what North Americans call pumpkin, is called squash by Europeans and vice versa. There are also squash that look like pumpkins.</p> <p>Question: what was the climat in ancient greece listed by month?</p> <p>Answer:</p> <pre> seacost, Ancient Greece Month Av. high Av. low Warmest Coldest Av. dew point Average precip JAN. 55 44 70 28 39 1.9 FEB. 55 44 72 25 39 1.6 MARCH 60 47 77 28 42 1.6 APRIL 66 52 82 39 47 0.9 MAY 74 60 92 46 53 0.7 JUNE 83 67 100 55 58 0.3 JULY 89 73 108 61 58 0.2 AUG. 88 72 104 50 58 0.3 SEP. 83 67 99 55 56 0.4 OCT. 73 60 93 37 53 2.1 NOV. 64 53 79 32 48 2.2 DEC. 58 47 68 32 43 2.4 Latitude: 37 degrees, 54 minutes north Longitude: 23 degrees, 44 minutes east </pre> <p>Temperatures are Fahrenheit. Dew point is a humidity measure in Fahrenheit degrees; readings above 60 make the air feel humid and most people are uncomfortable at dew points around 70 and above.</p> <p>Question: what is the violetta</p> <p>Answer: Violetta is an Italian name that is a variation of the English name violet for the purple flower of that name. The word for purple in Greek is porphyry. one of the earliest written accounts of the violet and its cultivation comes from Ancient Greece, where it is said violets were cultivated in plantations at Attica (outside Athens) around 400 B.C. The violet is a flower in the Genus viola.</p> <p>Question: How did they create their wine?</p> <p>Answer: The process was only slightly different than today. The grapes were collected and then crushed underfoot. The grapes are crushed with the feet so the seeds do not break. Broken seeds in wine give it a bad taste. The resulting juice-grape mixture was then placed in large ceramic containers possibly amphora. Yeast does not need to be added because it usually clings to the outside of the grapes. The containers could not be filled because the mash would boil up and needed space to expand. Some mash would be pressed but others just drained off. When the wine was created it was poured off into other containers and sealed with a layer of olive oil at the top. A yeast mixture usually settled to the bottom of the containers. This could be used for making bread, but bread is more usually made with yeast used to make beer or mead. The yeast is easiest to separate from the mead drink. Notice the the grape juice immediately after pressing was palatable. But if it was stored it would usually turn into wine. The wine would usually keep much longer than the juice. But some wine would spoil and make vinegar. And the longer the wine was stored the more likely it would turn into vinegar. Eventually all wine would spoil and turn into vinegar or worse. I do not know how long the wine could be stored in jars with oil but it might be a year or two. Bottles with corks have allowed wine to be kept much longer as long as 100 years. What Pasteur showed was that if the juice was cooked and the bottles and equipment were sterilized the formation of vinegar could be prevented. </p> <p>The ancient Greeks often drank wine that was diluted. This is not a statement of the quality of their wine. The suspicion is that much of the wine contained some vinegar. There is also a question of the alcohol content. Obviously there was enough alcohol to make a person drunk. But the wine could also make a person very sick. This is also not a statement of quality.</p> <p>Advertisement:</p> <p>Buying links: <a href="grepar.html">Art Supplies and Original Art</a> -- <a href="grepe.html">Audio Books</a> -- <a href="grepp.html">Auto Parts and Accessories</a> -- <a href="grepeb.html">eBooks(books in digital form)</a> -- <a href="grepq.html">Traditional Books</a> -- <a href="grepb.html">Business to Business</a> -- <a href="grepcoe.html">Collectibles</a> -- <a href="grepcol.html">College and Education</a> -- <a href="grepcomh.html">Computer HW(Hardware)</a> -- <a href="grepcoms.html">Computer SW(Software)</a> -- <a href="grepcon.html">Construction and Built-in Decoration of Homes</a> -- <a href="grepce.html">Consumer Electronics</a> -- <a href="grepcos.html">Cosmetics and Fragrances</a> -- <a href="greppa.html">Costumes and Party Goods</a> -- <a href="grepev.html">Events</a> -- <a href="grepk.html">Furniture and Removable Decoration of Homes</a> -- <a href="grepg.html">Games</a> -- <a href="grepga.html">Garden and Flowers</a> -- <a href="grepj.html">Gifts</a> -- <a href="grepgr.html">Groceries, Gourmet Food, and Wine</a> -- <a href="grepha.html">Hair Care</a> -- <a href="grepl.html">Handbags and Luggage</a> -- <a href="greph.html">Health Food</a> -- <a href="grepho.html">Hotels</a> -- <a href="grepo.html">Jewelry</a> -- <a href="grepki.html">Kitchen and Dining</a> -- <a href="grepmal.html">Malls and Virtual Malls</a> -- <a href="grepme.html">Men&#39;s</a> -- <a href="grepu.html">Movies/DVD&#39;s</a> -- <a href="grepmu.html">Music</a> -- <a href="grepou.html">Outdoors</a> -- <a href="grepph.html">Photo</a> -- <a href="greppo.html">Posters, Prints and Painting Reproductions</a> -- <a href="greps.html">Shoes</a> -- <a href="grepte.html">Teens</a> -- <a href="grepto.html">Toys</a> -- <a href="grepa.html">Travel</a> -- <a href="grepw.html">Women&#39;s</a> -- <a href="grepeur.html">Geschäft in Europa</a> -- <a href="grepuk.html">United Kingdom Vendors</a> --</p> <p>If you click above and follow the links to a purchase then this site receives a commission for its support.</p> <p><a href="index.html">Click Here for Menu Directory</a></p> <p><img class="photo" src="logo.gif" width="200" height="150" alt="Logo of The Role of Women in the Art of Ancient Greece"/></p> <p><a href="index.html">RWAAG Home</a>, Gardens--></p> </body> </html>