|
I must confess to being fond of pomegranates, although I have never discovered a method of eating them in elegant company. Perhaps the practical difficulties of dealing with a preponderance of seeds are responsible for our family tradition that we indulge in the fruit only at Christmastide. This is not the end of the story, however, since I collect the seeds, place them in the fridge until March, to promote their germination, and then pot them out for indoor decoration for months ahead. The dainty pomegranate plants make a pleasing adornment in windows. |
 |
The pomegranate, Punica granatum, wandered from its original habitat in Asia Minor, Armenia, Persia and the Caucasus to Carthage, hence its Roman name malum punicum, Carthaginian apple. It was greatly venerated by the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians, who used it not only for temple offerings but as tribute and currency. Inscriptions of both cultures show pomegranate fruits carried in long strings, in the same manner as used to be done by our itinerant onion vendors. The Assyrian medical herbals recognised two varieties, sweet and bitter, but when the fruit reached Italy Pliny distinguished no less than nine. The pomegranate tree will grow in walled gardens in southern Britain, but the fruit of our plants is seldom worth tasting.
As Patricia Langley has explained in the British Medical Journal for November 4, the pomegranate has ranked in sacred symbolism of many early religions, representing life, regeneration and marriage, probably because of the prolific nature of its seeding. Persephone was reputed to have been confined to the limits of Hades on account of having eaten a few pomegranate seeds. In Buddhist legend the plant was believed to counteract demonic influences. For the Chinese it became a symbol of fertility, abundance, posterity and future blessings.
In Christian art it symbolised resurrection and everlasting life, and in medieval times its seeds represented fertility. In Islamic legend the pomegranate had a similar reputation, and the gardens of Paradise were rich in pomegranate trees. How the legend arose that the apple with which Eve tempted Adam in Eden was in fact a pomegranate is not clear, but in some quarters the fruit became known as the Apple of Eden.
It is intriguing to note that the pomegranate fruit is included in the coats of arms not only of the British Medical Association but also of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Catherine of Aragon brought the pomegranate into English heraldry when she married Henry VIII in 1509, and by the middle of that century the Royal College of Physicians had adopted it as part of its coat of arms. It certainly seems a strange development from the myth of Persephone.