Flora Unveiled

118 i Flora Unveiled

Identification of women with fruit trees can also be seen in the love poetry of the Turin
Papyrus of the Twentieth Dynasty (1190– 1077 bce). Two secret lovers meet beside a pome-
granate tree in a flower- filled garden. The pomegranate tree feels like the proverbial “wall
flower” in their presence— utterly neglected. In an emotional soliloquy, she vows to reveal
their secret unless she is ministered to as she deserves:

The Pomegranate: ... My seeds are like her teeth,

My fruits like her breasts (...)

I remain constant in all seasons:

When the “sister” acts with the “brother”!

While they are intoxicated upon wines and liquors,

And liberally sprinkled with oil and balm (...)

Though I stand upright, shedding my flowers,

Those of next year are (already) in me.

I am the first of my companions,

(but) I have been treated like the second!

In future, if they again begin to act this way

I will not keep my silence on their behalf. ^74

(a)
(b)

956

Figure 5.11 A. Bas- relief of date palm with one arm poised to pour a libation and the other offering
a tray full of food offerings. Note the breast at top of the arm holding the food, indicating a tree
goddess, Nineteenth Dynasty B. Bas- relief of date and sycamore tree goddesses, Nineteenth Dynasty.
A is from Danthine, H. (1937), Le palmier dattier et les arbres sacrés dans l’ iconographie de l’Asie occidentale
ancienne Sacres. Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris, figure 955 (originally from L. Borchardt, Die
aegiptische Pflanzensäule, Berlin, 1897, figure p. 45); B is from Danthine, figure 956.