Violets


 * Violets

~*~LITERATURE AND ART~*~**

[|**Mozart**] **used violets in a poem he wrote, called The Violet, to represent personal encounters and experiences. In German the poem was called das Velichen.**

[|**Aristophanes**] **who was a Greek dramatist wrote a play that he referred to Athens as the VIOLET CROWNED CITY because the Kings name was ION which means Violet.

The poet Shelly uses the flower to commemorate the grief of a lost love in the poem "On a Faded Violet."** //The odour from the flower is gone// //Which like thy kisses breathed on me;// //The colour from the flower is flown// //Which glowed of thee and only thee.//

//A shrivelled, lifeless, vacant form,// //It lies on my abandoned breast,//

//And mocks the heart which yet is warm,// //I weep--my tears revive it not!// //I sigh--it breathes no more on me;// //Its mute and uncomplaining lot// //Is such as mine should be.//

**
 * Violets have made their appearance in literature and painting as symbolic of human emotions.**
 * In __The Death of Ophelia__ by the English painter John Millet, her lifeless body is borne down the stream amidst the drifting flowers that surround her.

[|**Athenians**] **used violets to moderate anger, to obtain sleep, and comfort/strngthen the heart.
 * ~*~HEALTH AND BEAUTY~*~**

Violet root and vinager was a treatment for [|gout] and a [|disorder in the spleen.]Violets were also good for garland in the hair because it was said to prevent [|headaches] and dizziness. (The garland would give off fumes that smelled similar to wine.)

[|Ancient Britons] used violets for cosmetic purposes.

In Macer's //Herbal// (tenth century) the Violet is among the many herbs which were considered powerful against 'wykked sperytis.'

The violets color may indicate the love of truth or, conversely, the truth of love.** [|**Violets act**] **on the liver and kidneys, purifies the blood, and is an excellent tonic.**


 * ~*~HISTORY~*~

Violets appear in the rites and rituals of the ancient East and in the classical world.**


 * It is said that the tomb of the [|Roman tyrant Nero]was decorated in the spring with violets by unknown persons who had secretly admired or loved him.**


 * Violets were often used as symbols of fasting or mourning.

The monks of the Middle Ages called the little [|pansy,] //Viola tricolor//, the Herb of the Trinity (Herba Trinitatus) and used it to make a type of cordial because of its sweet scent.**


 * Medieval Herbalists believed that Violets had antispetic properties and used them to soothe pain and halt growth of tumors.**


 * ~*~MYTHS~*~**


 * Their significance varies, but usually they have been associated with the resurrection of the seasonally dying Earth god, **Attis**, who, according to one legend, mutilated himself under a pine tree and died from the flow of blood from his open wounds. According to a practice originating in antiquity, during the spring equinox, a pine tree was felled in the woods and brought into the sanctuary of the earth-mother goddess, **Cybele**, where it was venerated as a deity. It was wrapped in swaths of wool and garlanded with violets because of the belief that these flowers had appeared from the blood of Attis as it spilled on the ground from his self-inflicted wounds. (A similar legend has it that when the Greek **Ajax** slew himself in shame over a cowardly act he had committed against his allies, violets -- some claim hyacinths --- sprung up from the spot where his blood dripped on the earth.)

> > > **~*~SUMMARY~*~**
 * **According to Bullfinch's Mythology, the daughter of Demeter, the Earth Mother, was playing with her companions, gathering lilies and violets, and filling her basket and her apron with them, when Pluto saw her, loved her, and carried her off to live with him in the underworld. A similar English myth about the change of seasons had the violet playing the central role in the return of the captive bride to the earth again in the spring**
 * Violets were used in Hamlet (written by Shakespeare) as a symbol of Ohpelia's learning of her fathers death. (Ophelia's fathers name was Polonius.) Pansies and Violets - relatives of one another symbolize love and faithfulness. Ophelia gave the Violets to her brother Laertes because of Laertes lack of faithfulness to his father. Laertes did not have a good relationship with his father as he should have seen it is important to have family. They are the ones always there in their troubled times and Polonius tried to form the relationship with him. Laertes wanting his independance came off to his father as ignorant and the relationship never formed. Ophelia used the violets to remind him that Polonius was Laertes' father and that he was there for him, but now it was time for Laertes to be there for his father and his family. Laertes was now the man of the family.**


 * Sources**

[|http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/v/vioswe12.html\] http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc13.htm http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=17-9780380804894-0 http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/h/hearts10.html http://www.americanvioletsociety.org/HistoryTraditions/Traditions.htm


 * Picture Sources**

http://flowers109.tripod.com/violets-susan.jpg - - purple violets first picture http://avflower.com/flowers/violets_en/pink_amiss.php -- pink violets http://www.unspace.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/marbled_african_violet.jpg -- African violets http://www.toffsworld.com/art_artists_painters/images/ophelia.jpg- The death of Ophelia