Naked in the Garden. Helleborus sp., Hellebore, Our Little Garden, Groningen, The Netherlands
It's still Cold Winter here and my sincere feelings go out to all the Carnaval Revelers down South, dancing - often scantily clad - in the frosty streets. This morning I looked in our small garden here in Groningen and saw hardy little Hellebore. It immediately reminded me of the really serious Revelries of Antiquity.
Originally - as Dioscorides, the Classical Physician and Botanist tells us - Hellebore was called Melampodium. That name goes back to Classical Times Immemorial and the magical doctor Melampus. He's the one who could understand the speech of animals because when he'd been a baby two snakes had licked out his ears attuning him to the Natural World. So he knew Nature well, it would seem. Once in the city of Argos, when the king's daughters were running amok and naked in the streets, Melampus brought them to their senses by administering Hellebore.
Here then is My Hellebore quite unprotected from Winter in the shadow of Acer japonicum from under whose dried fallen leaves it's quite suddenly sprouted. Though the cold is almost drivng me crazy, Hellebore - Melampodium - for one, if not the Pharmacist from V., holds me back from madly Dancing Nakedly in the Streets.
Naked in the Garden. Helleborus sp., Hellebore, Our Little Garden, Groningen, The Netherlands
It's still Cold Winter here and my sincere feelings go out to all the Carnaval Revelers down South, dancing - often scantily clad - in the frosty streets. This morning I looked in our small garden here in Groningen and saw hardy little Hellebore. It immediately reminded me of the really serious Revelries of Antiquity.
Originally - as Dioscorides, the Classical Physician and Botanist tells us - Hellebore was called Melampodium. That name goes back to Classical Times Immemorial and the magical doctor Melampus. He's the one who could understand the speech of animals because when he'd been a baby two snakes had licked out his ears attuning him to the Natural World. So he knew Nature well, it would seem. Once in the city of Argos, when the king's daughters were running amok and naked in the streets, Melampus brought them to their senses by administering Hellebore.
Here then is My Hellebore quite unprotected from Winter in the shadow of Acer japonicum from under whose dried fallen leaves it's quite suddenly sprouted. Though the cold is almost drivng me crazy, Hellebore - Melampodium - for one, if not the Pharmacist from V., holds me back from madly Dancing Nakedly in the Streets.