4 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 
Plutarch, a Greek writer, A. D. 50-120, enlightens us as to the early 
use of the pear by the Greeks, and also as to the Grecian name for the fruit 
and tree. He says in his Greek Questions (51): 
“Why do the boys of the Argives playing at a certain festival call 
themselves Ballachrades? (Ballo, I throw; achras, a wild pear.) 
“Tt is because they say that those who were first brought down by 
Inachus (founder of Argos) from the rural districts into the plains were 
nourished on wild pears (achrades). But wild pears (they say) were first 
seen by the Greeks in Peloponnesus, when that country was still called 
Apia; whence wild pears were named apioi. (Apios, a pear-tree; apion, 
a pear.)’’ 
The pear is one of the “‘ gifts of the gods ” which Homer tells us grew 
in the garden of Alcinéus. It is certain, therefore, whether or not this is 
the earliest mention of the pear in Greek literature, that in Homer’s time, 
nearly one thousand years before the Christian era, the pear was cultivated 
in Greece. As this garden of Alcindéus furnishes the earliest noteworthy 
landmarks of the pear, and is moreover the most renowned of heroic times, 
an early paradise of trees, vines, and herbs, it is worth while to take a look 
at it with a view of discovering the status of the pear at this early date. 
Stripped of the harmonious rhyme and pleasing rhythm of Homer’s poetry, 
the garden is described in English prose as follows: 
“ And without the court-yard hard by the door is a great garden, 
of four plough-gates, and a hedge runs round on either side. And there 
grow tall trees blossoming, pear-trees and pomegranates, and apple-trees 
with bright fruit, and sweet figs, and olives in their bloom. The fruit 
of these trees never perisheth, neither faileth winter or summer, enduring 
through all the year. Evermore the West Wind blowing brings some 
fruits to birth and ripens others. Pear upon pear waxes old, and apple 
on apple, yea, and cluster ripens upon cluster of the grape, and fig upon 
fig. There too hath he a faithful vineyard planted, whereof the one part 
is being dried by the heat, a sunny plot on level ground, while other grapes 
men are gathering, and yet others they are treading in the wine-press. In 
the foremost row are unripe grapes that cast the blossom, and others there 
be that are growing black to vintaging. There too, skirting the furthest 
line, are all manner of garden beds, planted trimly, that are perpetually 
fresh, and therein are two fountains of water, whereof one scatters his 
streams all about the garden, and the other runs over against it beneath 
the threshold of the court-yard, and issues by the lofty house, and thence 
did the townsfolk draw water.— These were the splendid gifts of the gods 
in the palace of Alcinéus.'”’ 
1 The Odyssey, Book VII. Translated by S. H. Butcher and A. Lang. 
