Myrtle. 
(LOVE.) 
T HE Myrtle, like the rose, is generally considered symbolic 
of love , and by the Greeks and Romans was consecrated 
to Venus, around whose temples they planted groves of it; 
and, when the votaries of this goddess sacrificed to her, they, 
like her attendant Graces, wore myrtle chaplets. Mythologists 
assert that she, the Goddess of Beauty, was crowned by the 
Hours with a wreath of this plant when she sprang from the 
foam of the sea, and also that her head was decked with it 
when Paris awarded her the golden apple, the prize for supre¬ 
macy of beauty. Once, when surprised by a troop of satyrs 
as she emerged from her bath, she found shelter behind the 
foliage of a myrtle ; and it was with bunches of the same plant 
that she caused the unfortunate Psyche to be chastised, for 
having been so audacious as to compare her earthly charms 
with the celestial beauty of her mother-in-law. It was under 
the name of Myrtilla that Venus was worshipped in Greece. 
This shrub is supposed to have derived its name from Myr- 
sine, an Athenian maiden, and favourite of Minerva, said to 
have been metamorphosed into the myrtle; at any rate, it 
owes its origin to a Greek word signifying perfume. Why this 
plant was dedicated to Venus remains an unsolved query : 
some fancy because it often grows near that goddess’s natal 
element, the sea, and others because the fragrant and perma¬ 
nent nature of its foliage might seem to render it a suitable 
tribute to the Goddess of Beauty. 
“ Sacred to Venus is the myrtle shade,” 
says the poet, and, as such, it obtained great repute with the 
ancient Greeks and Romans. 
