Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe

[shanmonster]

I think I make the same observation every year, so since it's pretty much a tradition, here I go again. Poppies were big with the gods. Did you know the poppy was created by either the tears of Aphrodite, or by Demeter so she could get some emotional surcease after the rape of Persephone (who was herself connected to the Cretan Poppy Goddess)? "Persephone's pomegranate, which fed her but three seeds during her stay in Tartarus, was originally a seedpod of the same Red Poppy. It became a pomegranate in a later age, when artworks showing Persephone with a giant seedpod was mistaken for a similarly-shaped pomegranate" (from Papaver orientalis "Brilliant"). This seedpod was given to Persephone by Hades since the poppy was considered a plant of the Underworld. The twin brothers Thanatos and Hypnos (Death and Sleep) are depicted with poppy crowns or holding poppies in their hands. Morpheus slept in a cave decorated with poppy flowers. Poppy cakes also came in handy for Underworld-bound Aeneas when he needed to make Cerberus go to sleep. Is it any wonder that Dorothy fell asleep in The Deadly Poppy Field?

But poppies are about more than sleepy-time and forgetfulness. Poppies are also the causes of war, rather than the sanguine botanical bystanders in Lt.-Col. John McCrae's "Flanders Fields". In 1839, they were one of the main reasons for the war between China and England.

The East India Company was faced with a problem. For centuries opium had been cultivated in India, grown and processed in Bengal. But the East India Company realized that opium's addictive properties would certainly diminish their unskilled labor force in India so why not sell it to the Chinese instead? However China did not want any "foreign mud." The East India Company kept its skirts clean by auctioning off its opium crop to "country firms" that is, independent merchants who hired ships and ran the contraband into Canton, which was the only port in which "barbarian " ships were permitted. This illegal trade was supported by the hong merchants, who were a monopolistic group that had no support from the Chinese government in dealing with foreigners. They handed out vast sums to "fix" government officials from asking inconvenient questions and in so doing fastened upon their countrymen a most destructive habit. Their cooperation made the opium trade possible. They had a large network similar to the organized crime of some of our own great cities. While the opium trade grew by leaps and bounds, the difficulties of doing business in China increased. The highhanded and insulting regulations laid down by the hongs became intolerable and England, with Waterloo behind her felt war was the answer. England sent several men-of-war to escort some of the opium ships putting in at Canton. The Chinese fired on these ships. The men-of-war returned the fire and the war was on. It lasted three years. At the peace table China ceded Hong Kong to England and opened up five treaty ports to trade with the west. Opium was never mentioned in the peace treaty, so it was still contraband and the illegal traffic continued until 1908. It is an ugly story. Not all Englishmen approved of England's action in regards to China. Many people including Gladstone spoke out against it - (from The Poppy)

Poppies were also thought to bring strength and vitality. I find it ironic how the Greek athletic tradition incorporated comestibles (Greek athletes were given concoctions of wine, honey, and poppy seeds) which would get today's athletes kicked out of the Olympics. No poppyseed bagels for today's Olympians. Nuh-uh!

Poppies, with their big-bellied, seed-filled pods, and their association with Aphrodite, were also symbols of fertility. "Poppy seeds have been known to germinate after being buried for fifty to a hundred years" (from Dried Poppy). In the Middle Ages, poppy was an herb of choice for philtres. "Ergine (LA-111) a water soluble psychotropic alkaloid that can easily be extracted from Turbina corymbosa, Claviceps paspali (ergot of Paspalum), and Acremonium loliae (ergot of Lolium) can be considered an aphrodisiac in a similar manner to psilocybine and psilocine (Montezuma's aphrodisiac chocolate recipe). Opiates are certainly considered an aphrodisiac for women - however, like alcohol, they could be a male contraceptive - depending on the dose" (from Poppy: Divine Herb of Joy or Evil Weed of Daemons?)!

So what bearing does all this have to do with the plastic poppy I've been wearing for the past few days? Remember how poppy seeds can germinate after buried for many years? "Their seeds can lie on the ground for years and years, but only when there are no more competing flowers or shrubs in the vicinity (for instance when someone firmly roots up the ground), these seeds will sprout. There was enough rooted up soil on the battlefield of the Western Front; in fact the whole front consisted of churned up soil. So in May 1915, when McCrae wrote his poem, around him bloodred poppies blossomed like no one had ever seen before" (from The Heritage of the First World War 1914-1918). I wear my cheap-ass poppy to remember larks flying above makeshift graves and mortar fire.

Comments

[pumagirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you.
Symbols are wonderful things and it's always nice to understand their meanings.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[goth-hobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you as well. I did a poppy post as well today, much more Armistice Day related. Maybe one of these days I'll post about why I've always been obsessed with that particular flower.

>I wear my cheap-ass poppy to remember larks flying above makeshift graves and mortar fire.
Yup. Me too.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

In case you're interested, a while back I posted my memories of Guy Flowers, WWII veteran.

[goth-hobbit.livejournal.com]

That's a wonderful tribute.
The elderly gent from whom I learned jewelry design was also a WWII vet; he served on MacArthur's command staff during the Japanese Occupation, and he had some amazing stories to tell, too. Jim was a character and a half, as well as being the quintessential Old Goat.
He died shortly after his wife, also; he had a massive heart attach three days before what would have been her 70th birthday.

The veteran who made the earliest impact on me, though, was my much older cousin. I knew that he had served in Korea, but he didn't talk about it much. I was very little (about 3 years old) when, one day, I overheard him talking about his service with my aunt, and I couldn't figure out why he was so upset. The place he kept mentioning sounded wonderful, because they had no guns.

It wasn't until I was much older that I heard the name No Gun Ri, and understood.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of people still look at war as a messy but glorious thing, kinda like a John Wayne movie. My grandmother, who was a Spitfire nosecone riveter back in the day, appears to share this belief. I was watching Hamburger Hill with my Dad when she stopped by. She was horrified at the movie. Not because of the horrendous violence and gore (and there was plenty of that), but because the soldiers were using so many swear words. She claims that no one talked like that in WWII. Yeah, right. She was also upset because in one scene of the movie, the soldiers are talking with some prostitutes. That sort of stuff just didn't happen.

Of course, she also claims there was no such thing as premarital sex and teen pregnancies when she was young.

My grandmother is delusional.