Myths About Roses

The rose is a beautiful and mysterious flower that is found in many gardens across the country. Everyone, or just about everyone, is familiar with the beauty of a rose, but what about the mystery of a rose? The mystery that I am speaking of is the many myths that surround the origin of the rose species of flowers or flowering plants. These myths are found in Arab legends, Christian legends, Greek legends, Roman legends and Persian legends.

In Arab legends, roses are believed to have originated from a sweat droplet off of Mohamet's brow. Arab legend also states that roses were white from the time that the first one was created from the sweat droplet until a nightingale fell in love with a rose and pressed it's body so hard on the rose that the thorns of the rose pierced the nightingale's heart and the blood from the pierced heart turned the white rose to red.

In Christian legends, roses are believed to have originated in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, the roses had no thorns on their stems until after the fall of man.　

In Greek legends, roses are believed to have originated when a nymph was woke up from a sleep by Apollo with a kiss and the nymph transformed herself into a rose. Also for Greeks the rose is the symbol of love and beauty and is dedicated to Aphrodite who is believed to have named the beautiful flowers "roses". Also Greek legend has the first bloom from a rose occurring when Aphrodite stuck a thorn in her foot when she was assisting Adonis.

In Roman legends, roses are believed to have originated when Rhodanthe, a beautiful Roman maiden who had so many suitors that she took refuge from them in her friend Diana's temple. Unfortunately Rhodanthe's friend Diana became jealous of Rhodanthe and turned her into a rose after Diana became angry when Rhodanthe's suitors broke down the gates of the temple. Diana also turned Rhodanthe's suitors into the thorns of the rose.

In Persian legends, roses are believed to have originated in Gulistan when the flowers approached Allah and asked him to choose another leader as lotus slept at night instead of staying vigil as a leader. Allah gave the flowers a white rose with thorns.

Roses, even though they are beautiful, are very mysterious. This can easily be seen in the number of legends surrounding their origin. No matter how they really did originate, they are just as beautiful today as they were when ever they originated.