500 pfant Tsorc, Tscgef^/, ansL "l2>ijrle/", 



amoured of his daughter Side (Greek for Pomegranate-tree): to 

 escape his cruel persecution, the unfortunate young girl killed 

 herself; but the gods, compassionating her, metamorphosed Side 

 into the Pomegranate-tree, and her unnatural father into a sparrow- 

 hawk: so, according to Oppian, the sparrow-hawk will never 

 alight upon the Pomegranate, but always persistently shuns the 



tree. According to M. Lenormant, the Pomegranate sprang from 



the blood of Adgestis. The name Rimmon (Pomegranate) was 

 that given in certain parts of Syria, near Damascus, to the young 

 god, who died but to spring into a new life — reminding one of the 



story of Adonis. The great number of seeds which the fruit of 



the Pomegranate contains has caused it to become the symbol of 

 fecundity, generation, and wealth. Probably on this account the 

 plant was sacred to Juno, the patroness of marriage and riches. 

 In the Isle of Euboea, there was formerly a statue of this goddess, 

 holding in one hand a sceptre, and in the other a Pomegranate, 

 Prof. De Gubernatis suggests that the uterine form of the opened 

 Pomegranate is the reason why Pausanias, after having said 

 that Juno held a Pomegranate in her hand, adds, that she did not 

 wish to divulge the mystery which appertained to this symbolic 

 fruit. This is also the reason why (according to Cicero) Proserpine 

 did not wish to leave the infernal regions without having eaten the 

 Pomegranate which she plucked from a tree growing in the Elysian 

 Fields. Ceres, inconsolable for the loss of her daughter, had begged 

 Jupiter to release her from the power of Pluto. Jupiter decreed 

 that if Proserpine had not tasted any food in the infernal regions, 

 she might be restored to her mother; but, as Ovid tells us, by an 

 unfortunate mischance, 



" As in the garden's shady walk she strayed, 

 A fair Pomegranate charmed the simple maid, 

 Hung in her way, and tempting her to taste, 

 She plucked the fruit and took a short repast. 

 Seven times, a seed at once, she eat the food : 

 The fact Asculaphus had only viewed. 

 He saw what passed, and, by discovering all, 

 Detained the ravished nymph in cruel thrall." 



Ceres, enraged, would not permit the earth to yield any fruits till her 

 daughter was restored to her, and Jupiter at last decided that Proser- 

 pine should spend six months of the year with her mother, but as she 

 had partaken of the Stygian Pomegranate, she was to stay the other 



six months with Pluto. A legend states that from having been 



planted on the grave of King Eteocles, the fruit of the Pomegranate 

 has ever since exuded blood. Another account relates that the blood 

 of the Pomegranate had its origin in the life-blood of the suicide 

 Menoeceus. On account of this blood which seems to flow from its 

 fruit, the Pomegranate has acquired a somewhat sinister significa- 

 tion. As a rule, however, the sanguineous juice and innumerable 

 seeds of the Pomegranate are considered a happy augury of fecun- 

 dity and abundance. There is a tradition that the fruit of the 



