An ancient rose, what do you know about the history of the rose? The birthplace of the flower of the rose, the cult traditions associated with the rose, etc. About all this read in this article.
Of all the known flowers, none has such a rich, ancient and fabulous story as a rose. This wonderful creation of nature has been hypnotizing people for several thousand years with its virtues – color, shape and smell. Gulustan or “Country of Roses” – Persia – modern Iran – are considered the birthplace of the culture of garden roses. The cultivation of these flowers took up about 5 thousand years ago. In ancient sources found during the excavation of the tombs of the kings of Chaldea, it is written that King Sargon brought a pink bush out of the military campaign. Already from ancient Sumeria, the rose was found in Crete, Greece, Syria, Egypt, Transcaucasia. There are many more stone roses on the monuments of Babylon and Assyria, on silver coins of the mounds of Altai there are minted roses.
A beautiful flower later became a cult for the ancient Greeks: it was dedicated to the god of love Eros and the goddess of beauty Aphrodite. For them, he was a symbol of love, beauty, joy and sorrow at the same time, peace and infinity. A pink wreath was on the head of the bride, and petals littered the wedding bed. The winner was given the honor of roses and decorated the grave of the deceased, urns with ashes and monuments. Girls and women who owned, ideally, weaving wreaths of roses, became famous. Many ancient poets praised the rose in their immortal creations – Sappho and Homer.
With the rise of the Great Roman Empire, the cult of the rose, along with all its meanings, migrated to the Romans. The Romans so honored this flower that even at a time when the terrible famine was going on all over the empire, they ordered roses from Egypt for fabulous money. But then they learned how to plant roses, and it turned out to be very profitable business. However, because of excessive enthusiasm for roses, agriculture was abandoned, and famine began. As a result, hunger riots began and Rome fell. So the rose also made a contribution to the death of the Great Roman Empire.
After the fall of Rome, the ancient rose ceased to be a cult flower, but not for long. Soon, early Christians made the flower a symbol of the blood of the crucified Christ and dedicated her to the Mother of God. Together with this, many legends connected with the rose and symbols of Christianity appeared, for example, a film based on the book by D. Brown “Da Vinci Code”, etc.
Over time, the popularity of roses rose in France to such an extent that for several centuries there was a profession of a knitter of pink wreaths, and in the vicinity of Rouen there was the first nursery for roses (13th century AD).
