226 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
was worn as a symbol of office. By the Greeks, it was 
dedicated to Venus, either because it grows near the sea, 
whence she is said to have arisen, or because the sweet 
and unfading nature of its foliage made it a suitable 
tribute to the goddess of beauty. The Greeks planted 
the myrtle abundantly in those groves which have been 
so renowned in song, and where he who wandered was 
greeted by such a succession of delightful odours, that 
he might believe himself transported to some sweet land 
of enchantment, where every breath was sacred to poetry. 
The myrtle was sacred as a symbol of love and beauty, 
and the first temple erected to Yenus was surrounded 
by a grove of myrtles. When the ancient poets or 
painters represent Yenus rising from the ocean, they 
tell us that the Hours or Seasons, who were the 
offspring of Jupiter and Themis, present her with a 
scarf of many colours, and a garland of myrtles. There 
is an old fable concerning Eratostratus, who burned the 
famous temple of Diana at Ephesus, on the same night 
as Alexander the Great was born. He was a Naucra- 
tian merchant, and during one of his voyages, there 
arose a terrible storm. Eortunately, he had. in his 
possession a small statue of Yenus, whose protection he 
immediately implored. The goddess caused a prodigious 
number of green myrtles to spring up in the ship, and 
of these the sailors made garlands, and by wearing them 
were saved. They arrived in safety at Naucratis, the 
great commercial city of Egypt, and from that period 
the garlands of myrtle were called Naucratites. By 
Papirius Cursor, who erected the first sun-dial at Borne, 
the myrtle was made a symbol of the Bomai/ empire; 
