Pomegranate - Food of the Ancients
- Sylvia Rose
- Jan 6, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 18
Pomegranate (Punica granatum) is one of the seven ancient foods of the southern Mediterranean. Figs are also part of the group. Pomegranate trees are cultivated for millennia throughout the ancient world.
A shrub-like tree with spiny branches, pomegranate can grow to a height of 5 to 10 m (16 to 33 ft). Drought-tolerant, it prefers dry soils where its roots won't rot. It can deal with moderate frost.
Pomegranate is beloved for the juicy red pulp surrounding the seeds inside the fruiting body. The number of seeds in a pomegranate varies from 200 to 1400. The plant is considered a type of berry.
Pomegranate juice is famous for its red dye properties in fabric or food. An Egyptian myth tells of the War Goddess Sekhmet, as the Eye of Ra, killing people in a bloodthirsty rage. She consumes the blood of thousands.
Finally Ra fears the end of humanity is nigh. He tricks Sekhmet into drinking a lake of beer dyed red with pomegranate juice. He tells her it's blood.
She gets drunk, ends her killing spree and returns amiably to the realm of the Gods. Every year at a festival in her honor, people drink beer dyed red with pomegranate juice.
Pomegranates are also called apples in some regions. They're one of the fruits transported along the early trade routes, with archaeological remains found in houses of the elite.
Pomegranate is used in traditional dishes of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, the Mediterranean and Aegean. It's been naturalized in countries such as Arabia, inland Asia and the United States.
In ancient Iran and later Persia, pomegranate juice is used as a dye in carpets. In Greek myth, the pomegranate is called the "fruit of the dead", believed to have sprouted from the blood of Adonis.
As an early gathering food pomegranate fills many of the nutritional requirements a Stone Age or Bronze Age person would have. It's high in fiber, Vitamin K and the ubiquitous Vitamin C.
In one of the oldest medical texts of Egypt c. 1500 BCE, pomegranate is recommended to treat tapeworm and other such infections. In Greece the pomegranate tree arises from the blood of a virgin who, threatened with rape by her father, kills herself on her mother's grave.
According to some Jewish scholars, the pomegranate is the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. It's traditional to eat pomegranates on Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) because the abundance of seeds symbolizes fruitfulness.
Pomegranates are also one of the Seven Species (Hebrew: שבעת המינים, Shiv'at Ha-Minim) of fruits and grains identified in the Hebrew Bible. These are the most ancient plants of the land which together can sustain the people through the year.
In Armenia, a bride throws and smashes a pomegranate against a wall. Its many seeds signify abundance. The best known pomegranate myth may be the one developed around Greek Persephone, who eats six seeds in the Underworld therefore must stay with God Hades for six months of the year.
In the ancient world the two seasons are summer and winter, six months each. Summer includes the current spring, and winter includes fall. Another such Underworld tale is that of Mesopotamian vegetation god Dumuzi, who commits a grievous faux pas.
He's the consort of Goddess Queen of Heaven Innana. When she dies for three days in the underworld, due to the treachery of her sister Ereshkigal, Dumuzi is the only one of her entourage who doesn't properly mourn her.
In hotheaded wrath she commands Galla demons to take him to the Underworld. In the end he's allowed to come back for six months, during which time his sister takes his place. In the six months of Dumuzi's "death: the land is hot and dry, and nothing will grow. Life returns when he does.
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