[Sca-cooks] Fig Symbology

[Chris Stanifer]

--- kingstaste at mindspring.com wrote:

> I was just contacted by one of our local Laurels who is writing a paper on
> the symbology of food and sex as regards to women in literature.  She wanted
> some info on figs, which I was able to pull from several books on my shelf.
> Since I typed all these in, I thought those here might be interested in
> reading through what I found.

Quite fascinating, actually.  I do not think it was an innocent occurance that Adam's nether
regions were covered by a fig leaf in the common version of the biblical story, and there is
speculation that the 'apple' of Eden was actually a fig (if you allow that piece of fiction to
carry any weight at all).


William de Grandfort





> And, since figs are in season, it is especially timely.
> Enjoy - but be cautious - the dedication in front of one of the references -
> "Lewd Food" - reads: "For Marilyn, radiantly pregnant as a result of our
> researches.  I love you more than yesterday, less than tomorow."
> Christianna
> 
> Fig Symbology
> 
> “The Symbolism of Figs and Fig Trees –
> 	The symbolic meanings of figs preceded those of the fig tree: figs have
> connotations of abundance and initiation.  Ancient Egyptian priests ate them
> at the moment of their consecration ceremonies, and the first desert hermits
> at them too (their nutritional value is also obvious).  The many seeds in
> the fig are supposed to signify unity and the universality of true
> understanding, knowledge and sometimes faith.  The same idea is found in the
> symbolism of the pomegranate.
> 	The white sap of the fig tree, which also runs from the stem of the cut
> fruit, is a kind of latex and was symbolically associated with both milk and
> sperm.  Feminine and masculine at once, it conveyed universal energy.
> African women use it in ointments against sterility and to encourage
> lactation.
> 	The Indians consecrated the fig tree to Vishnu, the second god in the
> Brahman trinity, saviour of the world, and the ancient Greeks to Dionysos,
> god of renewal.  It sheltered Romulus and Remus at their birth.  I have
> already mentioned the importance of ‘sycophant’ priests in ancient Athens,
> charged with announcing that the figs were ripe; a proof of the regeneration
> of nature, the news was celebrated by ritual copulation.
> 	The fig trees of East Asian tradition are sacred.  One of them was Buddha’s
> famous banyan.  Power and life, the axis of the world, inhabited by genies,
> they stood for knowledge acquired by meditation.
> 	In North Africa the fig is still a fertility symbol, and more particularly
> a blessing of the earth, itself fertilized by the dead.  This gift from the
> invisible world is restored to it again in offerings of figs left on the
> rocks at ploughing time, a Berber custom severely criticized by orthodox
> Muslims.  The Berbers have retained many of the ancestral animist beliefs of
> their race, going back to the dawn of time.
> 	There is some ambiguity in the Arab attitude to the fig, which is
> nutritionally valuable, and beneficent in its symbolic association with
> fertility, but also suggestive in shape.  Its similarity to the male
> genitals has led to their being called ‘figs’, and the word is not now
> applied to the fruits themselves in polite usage.  They are called khrif,
> autumn, after the season that brings them.”
> Toussaint-Samat, Maguelonne, History of Food (translated by Anthea Bell)
> Original French copyright © BORDAS, Paris, 1987, (published as Histoire
> naturelle et morale de la nourritur);  pgs. 674-675
> English translation © Blackwell Publishers, Ltd, 1992, 1994
> ISBN 0-631-17741-8
> 
> “Figs – Figs were anciently associated with sexual symbolism.  Plutarch, the
> Greek biographer and philosopher, has this to say: The festival of the
> Dionysia was anciently celebrated in a popular and lively manner.  A
> wine-jar was carried round and also a vine-branch.  Then someone brought
> forward a goat, and another a basket filled with figs; and over all the
> phallus.
> 	The fig was also symbolic of the male and female sex organs.  The French
> expression faire la figue means to make the obscene gesture with two fingers
> and thumb.  This gesture was well-known in the antique lupanaria of the
> Romans.”
> Wedeck, Harry E. A Dictionary of Aphrodesiacs © 1989 by Philosophical
> Library.  Co-edited by Jenna Bassin and Jane Lahr.  pgs. 63-64
> ISBN 0-8022-2562-4
> 
> “Figs
> 	The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender
> grape give a good smell.  Arise, my love and my fair one, and come away.
> 						- The Song of Solomon
> 
> 	Figs, by all evidence, have been causing men and women to cast off their
> fig leaves from ancient to present times.  Consider, for example, these
> lines from Aristophane’s The Peace (421 B.C.)
> 
> 		Now live splendidly together.
> 		Free from adversity.
> 		Pick figs.
> 		May his be large and hard,
> 		May hers be sweet.
> 
> 	Even that symbol of prudery the fig leaf itself has been held to be
> aphrodisiac in nature over the years.  The fig leaf was once thought to hold
> the same powers as mandrake (…), shaped as it is “like the pendulant penis
> with the two testicles.”  But then figs themselves were considered potent
> love food to primitive peoples because of their resemblance to the
> genitalia.  The Greeks, too, associated the fruit with phallic worship and
> made a point to serve it at Dionysian orgies.  As for the Romans, they
> considered the fruit a gift of the god of wine and revelry, Bacchus, and
> held it sacred, brewing several love potions from the fig.  One grisly one,
> recorded by Horace in his Epodes, was prepared from a “wild fig growing on a
> grave”, “bones snatched from the mouth of a hungry bitch”, and “feathers of
> a screech owl.”  Pleasanter is the fertility rite still surviving in many
> southern European countries of (gently) throwing figs instead of rice at
> newlyweds for good luck.
> 	The fig is mentioned in the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden and
> Buddhism was born under a fig tree, Buddha’s revelations coming to him while
> he sat under a Nepal species called Bo.  To the Hindus the fruit is the
> symbol of both the yoni, the female genitalia, and the lingam, the penis.
> Certainly few other foods rival figs for use as scatological slang.  To the
> Turks “fig” means anus, and among the Arabs “to nibble a fig” is
> cunnilingus.  English features it in various expressions from “fig you” to
> far worse, and in French faire la figue means “to give the obscene finger
> gesture”.
> 	Figs are more alkaline and contain more mineral matter than most fruits and
> have been recommended as everything from an anemia cure to a laxative.  They
> are especially delicious cut in two and soaked in orange liqueur an hour or
> two before being served with whipped cream.”
> Hendrickson, Robert Lewd Food © 1974 by Robert Hendrickson
> Published by Chilton Book Company and simultaneously in Ontario, Canada by
> Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd.  pgs. 242-243
> ISBN 0-8019-5766-4
> 
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> 


=====
Every heart to love will come... but like a refugee.


		
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