[Sca-cooks] Persephone and pomegranite seeds

[Sue Clemenger]

I don't read Greek, and my Latin never got into copies of myths, being
mostly concerned with the political satire of Catullus, or the wanderings of
Virgil's Aeneid, but I've never heard of the fruit that Persephone ate in
the underworld as being anything except pomegranite seeds.  It's also one of
the only fruits that I'm (personally) aware of, in which one distinctly eats
the seed (or whatever the little capsule around each seed is actually
called), and discards the other parts of the fruit.  The pomegranites I see
for sale here range in size from small apples to medium grapefruits.  They
have a leathery, usually reddish outer skin, and the interior of the fruit
has a dryish, creamy-colored membrane that creates a number of goodly
pockets within the fruit.  The pockets within this membrane are crammed full
of ruby-red, translucent "seeds" that each comprise an actual seed
surrounded by a shell of the fruit part (There's a technical term, but I
don't recall it right now.)  Pomegranites remind me a bit of a raspberry
with a leather coat on--there's something of the same composite nature to
them.
I don't have a dictionary, let alone a good dictionary, handy to
double-check the ceres/cereal reference, sorry.  It may be that they share
the same root word in Sanskrit or something ;o), but I was always under the
impression that the English word "cereal" was derived from the name "Ceres."
Maybe one of the other list members can give you a more definite answer on
that....
--Maire

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stefan li Rous" <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
To: "SCA-Cooks maillist SCA-Cooks" <SCA-Cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 11:35 PM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Persephone and pomegranite seeds


> Chatty Maire replied to me with:
> > Actually, it's one month per seed.
> > Stefan, in the version of the Persephone myth that I first heard, she
> > is the
> > daughter of Ceres, the goddess responsible for fertility/growth/
> > crops, etc.
> > One day, when Persephone is out picking flowers, she's abducted by
> > the god
> > who's the lord of the underworld/lord of the dead.  She knew better
> > than to
> > eat or drink anything while she was done there,
>
> Ummm. Interesting way of putting it. :-)
>
> > but one day (distracted?
> > hungry?), she ate 6 pomegranite seeds which she was offered.
> > Because of
> > this, even after she was rescued by her mother, she was committed to
> > spending 6 months out of every year down in the underworld.
>
> So pomegranites were known in Italy and Greece in classical times? Or
> has the meaning of this name changed through the centuries and been
> applied to different fruits? I don't think I've even seen a
> pomegranite. The seeds are edible?
>
> > The side effect of this is winter--when her mother grieves her
> > daughter's absence, plants cease to grow and flourish.
> > See? Actually even kinda food-related, especially when you catch the
> > mother's name (Ceres-->source of the word "cereal").
>
> Oh! Did "cereal" come from "Ceres"? Or the other way around? Or did
> they both just come from the same root word?
>
> Stefan
> --------
> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>     Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas
> StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
>
>
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