The “Plantheon” j 191191 191
Fast- forwarding to Roman times, Ovid, in his epic poem Metamorphoses, compiled
Greek myths in which “forms are changed into new bodies.” Such metamorphoses symboli-
cally associate the attributes of a person or deity with those of some object in nature. Not
surprisingly, women were often changed into plants, usually plants whose stories concern
sexuality.
For example, the nymph Mintha was changed into a mint plant. Mintha’s story is intri-
cately connected to Persphone’s journey to the Underworld. Prior to Persephone’s arrival,
Mintha had been the mistress of Hades. When Hades announced his intention to wed
Persephone, Mintha flew into a rage and provoked Persephone’s anger by insulting her.
According to one version of the myth, Persephone tore Mintha limb from limb, prompt-
ing Hades, as an act of mercy, to turn her into a mint plant so she would not feel the pain.
Mint is sweet- smelling and freshens the breath, and Greeks considered it an aphrodisiac.
At the same time, many garden mints are sterile hybrids. According to one myth, Demeter
cursed the mint so it would not bear fruit, and eating mint before intercourse was therefore
thought to prevent conception.^23
Leucothoe was a princess, the daughter of King Orchamus, King of the Persians. When
the sun- god, Apollo, fell in love with the king’s daughter and slept with her, the king had
Leucothoe buried alive in a trench and covered over with sand. By the time Apollo arrived to
rescue her it was too late. Unable to revive her, he covered her with a fragrant nectar and vowed
that she would rise again. Apollo’s nectar melted Leucothoe’s body away, and in its place grew
the shrub, Boswellia sacra, from which the aromatic resin frankincense is obtained. ^24
The girl Myrrha (or Smyrna), had strong Oedipal feelings toward her father, Cinyras.
One night, while her mother was away at a Thesmophoria festival, Myrrha disguised her-
self as Cinyras’s mistress, slipped into his bed, and had sexual intercourse with him. She
then repeated the illegal act twelve consecutive nights. When her father discovered her
true identity, he chased her with a sword, and when he caught her threatened to kill her.
Myrrha prayed to the gods to make her invisible, and they responded by changing her
into a fragrant myrrh tree. Ten months later, the god Adonis was born from the Myrrh
tree, tying him closely to the vegetable realm. The physical identification of the tree with
Myrrha’s body is graphically illustrated in the sixteenth century illustration shown in
Figure 7.4.
In the satirical play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, the Greek women attempt to bring an
end to the Peloponnesian war by withholding sex from their husbands. Lysistrata urges
the women first to inflame their husband’s sexual appetites before refusing to consummate
their desires. The character Myrrhina (“Little Myrtle”) provides the perfect demonstration
of this technique:Pretending to yield to her husband’s desire, Little- Myrtle allows herself to be coaxed
into the grotto of Pan ... but she then finds a thousand excuses for procrastination.
... Finally, just as she uncovers her breasts, Myrrhina remembers they have both
forgotten to rub themselves with perfumes. Despite the protestations of her hus-
band, she runs off to fetch a flask of balm and carefully rubs herself with it, inviting
her husband to do likewise. Then just as the wretched man, by now consumed with
desire, thinks he will clasp his wife in his arms, Myrrhina slips away, this time for
good.^25