There is a fruit that has accompanied the diet of the Greeks for centuries. The tree that gives us this fruit, grows in the Greek countryside even in the most inhospitable soils.
He is associated with gods and goddesses, kings and mortals. Even with "traitors" and "protoplasts". It's the fig. What is the myth and what is the History behind it? Let's unroll the tangle.
In Greek mythology, and especially in the local mythological tradition of Attica, an Attic hero is known as Fytalos, who became the ancestor of the Attic genus of Fitalides. Among the many who accepted the wandering goddess Demeter, who was desperately looking for her Daughter Persephone, was Fytalos who lived along Kifissos, on the road to Eleusis. In Fitalos, whose name refers to tree plantations, the goddess of agriculture, Dimitra, taught for the first time the cultivation of the fig tree in return for the hospitality he had offered her when she was looking for her daughter.
Fitalos was also honored in Elefsina. The procession of the Eleusinian mysteries, which started from Athens to Eleusis, always stopped at the place called
"Sacred Sykia", where there was still that first tree that Dimitra had donated, under a tiled roof and which the Eleusinian priests took care to repair every now and then. His tomb was also on the Athens-Elefsina road with a relevant four-line epigram saved by Pausanias (AD 37: 2-4):
"Hero and king, Fytalos received here the majestic Demeter, when for the first time she made appears the first autumn fruit, which the generation of people calls "sacred fig".
Mythology also connects the tree with the Goddess Athena, who is said to have donated this valuable plant to the Athenians when the city was mourning the capture of Persephone by Pluto. Other mythological accounts want this tree to be the last form of Sykeas, the only Titan who survived the Titanic and was transformed to escape the wrath of Zeus.
In Athens, however, the fig was considered not only a sacred but also a valuable fruit for health and was undoubtedly associated with the battle, since according to sources, the peltastes (soldiers with light weapons) who walked 10-15 parasagas a day (1 parasangis = 5.5 km) they carried, together with the shield, the helmet and the spear, definitely dried figs with them. They valued them so much that they forbade their export. At that time, the one who paid the reward for illegally exporting figs was called a slanderer. Later, because false allegations were made about money alone, the word acquired its meaning today. He is the one who knowingly unleashes a false accusation against someone.
Today, the fig tree, rumored to be of Asian descent, is disputed because, according to Herodotus, it was not cultivated in either Lydia or Persia. The historian of antiquity states that the main reason for the campaign of the Persian king Xerxes was the conquest of Attica, and it was taken when he first tasted dried figs from Athens. to be able to eat not only dried but also fresh figs. Fig leaf from Kamiros, Rhodes, 500-480 BC.
The more nutritious the fig is. Filled with all these tiny seeds, it ended up symbolizing fertility and prosperity, unity and knowledge. His viscous white buttocks are slowly shed, acquiring sexual extensions with reference to both male sperm and breast milk. Under a fig tree, the wolf was roaming the Romos and Romylos. And according to Homer, Laertes recognized Odysseus because he reminded him that he had planted the forty fig trees that he had given him.
This fruit, which symbolized fertility as we said, gave the nickname of the god Dionysus, Sykitis and became the sacred tree of the goddess Hera.
To another
mythology of course this sacred tree was demonized and became the tree where a "traitor" was hanged and some "protoplasts" cut from a fig leaf to hide their shame for their own body.
Why is a big story, but we will tell it one more time. The research was done by Giovi Vasiliki and information was collected by: Emmy Patsi-Garin: Abbreviated Dictionary of Greek Mythology- The Marriages of Cadmus and the Harmony of P. Kalasso- "The Greek Myths" by P. Graves- olympios1.blogspot.gr- Wikipedia. http://mythiki-anazitisi.blogspot.com/2017/08/blog-post_4.html Holy fig: The gift of the goddess Demeter to Fytalos ~ DARK FACE (skotinoprosopo.blogspot.com) from MYSTERY WORLD
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