There is so much beauty, fragrance, and inspiration hidden in just one word: rose!
Throughout thousands of years, roses have moved from nature and gardens into stories and myths, becoming a motif in artistic works and inspiring poets, botanists, rulers… The oldest painted trace of a rose is a fresco from 1700 BC in the palace of King Minos in Crete, and the discovery made by English archaeologist William Flinders Petrie in the Pyramid at Hawara is also interesting: a wreath of roses woven around 180 AD, still in excellent condition. In the famous War of the Roses (1455-1485), fought between two English noble houses for the English throne, the House of Lancaster had a red rose (Rosa gallica officinalis) in its crest, while the House of York had a white rose (Rosa alba semi-plena). After the conflict was over, the united red and white rose found their place on the coat of arms of the United Kingdom.
All of this clearly speaks to the significance of roses. In the West, roses are valued like lotus flowers in the East and are in a lasting and strong connection with the Western man, as Maybe no other flower.
The rose belongs to the Rosa genus from the Rosaceae family, to which almost all fruit species of the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere belong: apple, pear, plum, cherry, almond, apricot, raspberry, blackberry, and others. The Rosa genus consists of about 140 different species with around 13,000 recognized cultivated sub-species of roses. The majority of species originate from central Asia, while a smaller number come from Europe, North America, and northwest Africa.
It is believed that the earliest European garden roses, from the time of the Romans, were Rosa gallica officinalis, also known as the Apothecary Rose due to its use in pharmacy, and Rosa alba. Crusaders brought other species from their expeditions, and the most famous of them is the Damask rose, named after the Syrian city of Damascus where it has been known since ancient times.
It is unknown which wild species the first rose originated from, so myths and legends fill that gap. One legend says that before becoming an earthly flower, the rose grew in heavenly realms. In gardens, without thorns. After the first humans were expelled from paradise, the rose acquired thorns to remind people of their sin, while its beauty and scent remained as a reminder of the lost paradise. Per aspera ad astra (Through hardships to the stars) has become the motto of the human earthly journey.
Greek mythology associates the origin of the rose with the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, but there is also a myth according to which it was created by Chloris, the goddess of flowers. One day, Chloris (Roman Flora) was passing through the woods and found the lifeless body of a beautiful nymph. She called upon Aphrodite for help in granting her new life and beauty, the god Dionysus to provide her with the sweet scent of his nectar, and the three Graces to bestow upon her charm, cheerfulness, and gracefulness. The wind god Zephyrus blew away the dark clouds so that Apollo could illuminate the nymph with sunlight rays and allow her, now revived as a flower, to blossom. And thus the rose was born…
Roses were dedicated to both Aphrodite and Athena at the same time – symbols of love and wisdom. We and wisdom. The myth says that the rose was originally a white flower, but when Aphrodite’s lover Adonis was fatally wounded, the goddess ran to his aid and injured herself on a thorn. Her divine blood colored the roses that were dedicated to her thereafter.
The rose is often mentioned in ancient writings. Greek poet Anacreon composed an ode in the 5th century BC in praise of the rose and its beauty, enchanting fragrance, healing power, and significance in the world of gods. Sappho called it the queen of flowers: If Zeus wanted to crown a queen over flowers, that crown would belong to the rose… Herodotus writes about the gardens of the Phrygian king Midas… where roses grow on their own, each bearing sixty flowers and having an extraordinary scent… Theophrastus recorded that in the gardens of Adonis, especially beautiful roses were cultivated in silver vessels – for their fragrance believed to ward off diseases, but also for the purpose of making flower wreaths that adorned various celebrations. He also provided a botanical description of the roses that grew in Egypt and In Greece, Confucius describes the beauty of the rose cultivated in imperial gardens.
In Rome, the rose was a beloved flower, both for people and gods. Military leaders adorned themselves with roses, and its petals embellished many celebrations and feasts. The flower was dedicated to the goddess Venus as a symbol of beauty, to Cupid as a pledge of love, to the goddess of dawn Aurora for its beauty in the early morning hours, and to the god of silence Harpocrates as a symbol of keeping secrets. Placing a rose on the table or hanging a rose wreath at the entrance of a room warned those present that an oath of silence was required for everything spoken at that table or in that room, expressed by the term “sub rosa” (“under the rose”).
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the guardians of ancient knowledge became Christian monks. The new worldview did not approve of cultivating roses for secular purposes, however, they grew them in monastery gardens along with medicinal herbs, in specifically fenced beds called rose gardens. The rose enjoyed a special status in monastery gardens. mentions the rose as a symbol of love in his poetry, and the Sufis see the rose as a metaphor for the soul. In Sufi tradition, the rose is associated with the concept of divine beauty and the intoxication of love. Just as the red rose is the result of the union between the nightingale and the white rose, the Sufis believe that the soul can achieve union with the divine through the experience of love. The rose garden, therefore, becomes a symbol of spiritual contemplation and the journey of the soul towards divine union. In his work “Rose Garden,” Shirazi writes: I went to the garden to pick roses, but the scent of the rose bush intoxicated me… The path of practical mysticism, established by Abdelkadir Gilani in the 12th century, was called “Sebil-el-Ward” (“The Path of the Rose”), and Gilani himself was called the Light of the Rose. Sufi poets used the symbol of the rose to express their mystical longing for God; to them, the rose was a symbol of hidden knowledge, wisdom, and the attainment of perfect unity with God.
Alchemists called the rose flos sapientiae, the flower of wisdom, and their discussions were called “roses of the wise.” Most of these roses have seven petals, each evoking a metal or an action in alchemical work. In the alchemical secret language, the Red King and the White Queen are often present. Their union is expressed through the symbol of the rose. The rose is also found in the tarot card depicting Death, where it is a symbol of eternal renewal of the manifest world.
As a symbol of secrecy, the rose is the main symbol of secret societies, especially the Order of the Rose and Cross, the Rosicrucians, k The cross symbolizes the human body, and the rose symbolizes individual development of consciousness. For Angelus Silesius, a German mystic and poet from the 17th century, the rose is an image of the soul.
The spread of rose cultivation in France at the beginning of the 19th century, and then throughout Europe, can be attributed to Empress Josephine, Napoleon’s wife, who had all the known varieties of roses planted near the Malmaison Palace. In 1805, the Empress instructed the French artist Pierre Joseph Redoute to paint every rose that grew in Malmaison. From the one hundred and seventy portraits of roses, three volumes of Les Roses were created, and reproductions of these paintings are still very popular.
The rose has been our beautiful companion throughout centuries of history. With the fall of the Roman Empire, luxurious and fragrant roses retreated from worldly life into enclosed monastery gardens where they were nurtured due to their symbolic connection with the Virgin Mary. Over time, the rose found its place in court gardens, places of encounter for knights and ladies; it was then woven into troubadour In poetry, it has become synonymous with elevated emotions.
As the modern era approaches, the rose increasingly becomes a symbol of earthly love and beauty, but it remains the most famous and revered flower that never ceases to amaze.