Uncovering the Many Myths About Flowers

A lot of us enjoy flowers simply for their beauty. They offer us stunning colors and sweet smells. They mean romance, friendship, and so much more. But the appreciation of flowers is nothing new. It goes back almost as far as time itself.

There are a lot of myths and legends about flowers. Sometimes the gods turned people into flowers as a reward for their loyalty and service. Other times, they did it as a form of punishment or as a warning to other humans not to make the same mistake. Let's explore some of the most popular and beautiful myths and legends surrounding these stunning gifts of nature:

The anemone myth goes all the way back to ancient Greece to the goddess Aphrodite and her mortal lover Adonis. The handsome young man caught the goddess's attention one day as she was hunting and the two fell immediately in love. As the story goes, they would often meet in the woods in order to stay out of the sight of Aphrodite's jealous ex, the god of war - - Ares.

Unfortunately, Ares was quite aware of Aphrodite's affair and vowed to end it, and Adonis. So he turned himself into a wild boar and attacked the youth as he waited for his lover to come to him. By the time the goddess arrived, Adonis was already dead, having been gored to death by Ares.

The goddess put her beloved into her chariot and drove him slowly through the forest. As they traveled, drops of his blood fell into the earth, mixing with Aphrodite's precious tears. Wherever, both fell together, anemones sprung up. It was named anemone because it means wind flower. The wind often blows the flower apart, spreading its seeds throughout the land where they grow anew. It seems an appropriate name since the wind ends one life only to bring to life another through its actions.

The beautiful aster was supposedly created when the Greek goddess of the stars, Asterea, looked down at the earth to discover that no stars dwelled there. This brought tears to her eyes. As her tears fell from the sky, they and with the stardust, uniting and falling to the earth. Where ever this happened, it formed a dainty flower that was named aster after the goddess.