0.

5 AN OUTLINE OF THE CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PLANTS

This chapter and the section on ‘Plant Iconography’ in the Literature Review chapter
provide general information which might be useful for students who intend to study
images of plants in ‘ancient’ art.

0.5.1 Introduction

Plants have an omnipresent role in society and this section provides a brief overview
of their cultural roles in medicine, ritual and religion, in order to understand their
wider social value.1 It is intended to provide context to the study of the visual imagery
which will be observed and analysed in the forthcoming chapters (of the thesis). Both
Graeco-Roman and Iranian sources are discussed since these cultures are most
relevant for Tillya-tepe.

0.5.2 Medicine
Throughout the history of mankind plants have been the dominant source of
medicine,2 and this central function continues in those parts of the world where
modern synthetic remedies are unavailable or too expensive.3 The written evidence is
often sporadic since plant-lore was traditionally passed on by word-of-mouth even
after the advent of the pharmacopeia, a list of medical remedies with instructions on
use. However, writers such as Theophrastus employed information supplied by
rhizotomoi, ‘root-cutters’ who were experts on medicinal plants, ensuring their
knowledge was transmitted.4

Those herbals and medical treatises which survive from the Graeco-Roman world
represent just a small proportion of the original corpus. 5 Furthermore, there are
limitations to the interpretation of these medical texts because no early illustrated

1
Artistic images of plant are not discussed in this section. Plants in diet, trade and commerce are not
reviewed here but are covered in journals such as Economic Botany; see also: PRICE AND NESBITT
2005; ZOHARY AND HOPF 2002; DALBY 2000.
2
DRURY 1873; ELGOOD 1934; KUTUMBIAH 1999; NUNN 1996, SCARBOROUGH 2010;
SIGERIST 1987.
3
On the continuity of traditional medicine into the modern world, see: GRIEVE 1931; HAMEDI et al.
2013; KAUSHIK and DHIMAN 2000.
4
SCARBOROUGH 2006, p.1.
5
NUTTON 2013, pp.1-2.

1
versions survive.6 Therefore there are often taxonomic problems correlating these
plants with specific botanical identifications in modern Linnaean classification.7

Many remedies were ‘simples’ consisting of a single plant, but there were also more
sophisticated recipes comprising parts of the different plants combined together. The
vegetal material was sometimes mixed with animal fats, milk, wine, honey, beer and
other substances.8 The functioning of these simples and compounds as astringents,
psychotropics, poisons, anti-dotes to poison, antimicrobials, styptics, purgatives and
emetics were well-defined by Dioscorides.

To some considerable degree the medical applications of many plants have remained
consistent throughout time and across a broad range of topographies, and therefore
Roman literary sources, such as Pliny or Dioscorides are often relevant to later eras.
This commonality arises because the active biochemical properties in plants are
universal, they are present within each species wherever it is grown, although, as
Dioscorides correctly observes, they may vary in concentrations according to different
climates and growing conditions.9

0.5.3 Greek and Iranian medical interaction

There is limited evidence of ancient Iranian medical practices, thereby precluding a

comprehensive account of Achaemenid, Parthian or Sasanian pharmacology here, but
it is possible to trace interactions between Greek and Persian schools of medicine
from the late 6th century BCE onwards. Several Greek doctors served at the
Achaemenid court, since both Darius (ca. 550-486 BCE) and Artaxerxes II Mnemon
(ca. 435-358 BCE) had Greek doctors.10 Persian ideas influenced the development of
Greek medical thought, as demonstrated in the medical writings of Hippocrates (ca.
460-370 BCE),11 and Greek practitioners incorporated Iranian medical plants into
their pharmacological armoury. 12 In the 1st century CE, Pliny records that both

6
An illustrated herbal, now lost, was compiled by Krateuas of Pontus (ca.120-63 BCE), SINGER
1927, p.5.
7
HARDY AND TOTELIN 2015, pp.93-104 for Graeco-Roman nomenclature.
8
DIOSCORIDES Osbaldeston (ed.), passim provides particular evidence of this.
9
DIOSCORIDES Osbaldeston (ed.), ‘Introduction’, xi.
10
ELGOOD 1934, pp.23-26.
11
ELGOOD 1934, pp.11-12.
12
ARATA 2008 (accessed February 2016).

2
Pythagoras and Democritus wrote treatises on plants (now lost) and ‘visited the Magi
of Persia, Arabia, Ethiopia and Egypt’.13 Dioscorides makes regular references to the
Magi’s names for plants in his 1st century CE Materia Medica.

Dioscorides himself was a soldier and his familiarity with Iranian sources possibly
arose from his role as surgeon with Nero’s army, which fought long campaigns
against the Parthians in Armenia (58-63 CE).14 Indeed, he himself remarked on his
travels with the army and attributed his pharmacological knowledge to his
inquisitiveness.15 The Armenian campaign would have provided Dioscorides with
both the opportunity to take samples of local flora and perhaps also to interrogate
captured Parthians and learn from their knowledge of battle-wound treatments using
locally-available remedies. Bearing in mind that Tillya-tepe was situated on the
margins of the Parthian empire and there were Parthian coins in the burials, this
brings the world of Dioscorides a little closer to that of Tillya-tepe.

Finally, recalling that Tillya-tepe artefacts exhibit a close association with Sarmatian-
Alan culture, it is also worth noting that Dioscorides considered the Sarmatians were
especially skilled in medicine.16

0.5.4 Ritual plants

Plants also fulfilled a wide range of ritual functions. They were exploited for their
decorative qualities and were woven into wreaths and crowns to be worn both by
worshippers and cult statues.17 Particularly important in this regard are those leaves
and flowers which have some longevity as cut plants: evergreen leaves like bay-laurel
and myrtle, and flowers such as marigolds and roses which decay slowly, retaining
both colour and form. These species also provide sweet scents which were considered
an important virtue. Archaeobotanical material and wall-paintings in ancient Egyptian
tombs provide an unmatched volume of information on the use of plants,18 but as will
be discussed in the following chapters, there is also extensive evidence from the

13
PLINY: XXV.v.13. Physicians were selected from the Magi class, ELGOOD 1934, p.19.
14
ARATA 2008 (accessed February 2016). Theophrastus, earlier authority on plants, too was a soldier
in Alexander’s army, SINGER 1927, p.2.
15
DIOSCORIDES ‘Introduction’ viii
16
DIOSCORIDES ed. Osbaldeston 2000, ‘Introduction’, lxviii.
17
BRUN 2000, pp.281-282.
18
GERMER 2001; 1989; HEPPER 1990; MANNICHE 1999; TÄCKHOLM 1956.

3
Graeco-Roman world.

Flowers were used to decorate temples and were particularly important as offerings to
the dead, not only at the funeral itself but also sometimes in annual commemorations
of the dead, most importantly in the Roman festivals of Rosalia and Violatio,
celebrated respectively with roses and violets.19 At a more modest level, a plant such
as vervain (Verbena officinalis) might be tucked into amulets during purificatory
rituals, thereby according it a ‘sacred’ status.20

Plants played a fundamental role in the veneration of the gods, including psychoactive
species, such as cannabis and opium poppies, which were consumed as a means to
reach out to deities.21 Flower petals, roots and bulbs were processed to create precious
and costly aromatic oils. The 2nd century CE writer Pausanias wrote of using rose oil
on wooden statues to prevent them from decay.22 Aromatics were also used as libation
offerings and were burnt for ritual purification, all practices intended to facilitate
communication with divinities.23

Fragrant oils played an important role in cleaning and anointing the bodies of the
dead. The production of floral oils, not only for ritual functions but also for cosmetic
and pharmacological purposes, was an important industry. Theophrastus described the
production of scented oils using crocuses, irises, lilies, roses and other plant materials
such as leaves, resins and balms.24 The survival of oil presses, storage jars, furnaces,
and steeping basins all provide evidence of Hellenistic period perfumeries at Delos.25
The production of aromatics from flowers is illustrated on wall-paintings at
Herculaneum and in the House of the Vettii at Pompeii where Erotes are shown
steeping roses in basins and extracting oil with a press.26

Plants also played an essential role in rituals beyond the Mediterranean world and
Egypt. An important example of this was the central status of haoma in Zoroastrian

19
JASHEMSKI 1979, p.142; PERDRIZET 1900, p.300.
20
DIOSCORIDES IV: 60.
21
There is a vast literature on entheogens and religion, and relevant material is referenced in later
chapters of this thesis. The key works in the first instance here are: KENNEDY 2014, pp.6-10;
MERLIN 2003; EMBODEN 1989; NENCINI 1997, VII.
22
PAUSANIAS IX: XLI.7
23
BRUN 2000, p.278.
24
THEOPHRASTUS On Odours, vols. IV, V and VI.
25
BRUN 2000.
26
BRUN 2000, p.297.

4
worship.27 The Zoroastrian sacred text the Avesta describes how haoma was pounded
and made into a drink to accompany ceremonies. Some scholars considered
Zoroastrianism to have been the religion observed by Parthian royalty.28

0.5.5 Plants in religion and mythology

Although vegetal imagery was absent from the artistic vocabulary of many societies,
when plants did occur they were sometimes present for emblematic purposes. The
principle of plant symbolism was well-established in many cultures, whereby
particular plant types embody religious concepts or sentiments: as symbols of deities
or allusions to sacred stories, such as the Buddhist lotus29 and the cult of the Bodhi
tree at Bodh Gaya, and the Christian lily.30 Fruit more commonly than flowers had a
special status in the Jewish religion.31 Plants frequently appeared in Greek and Roman
literature and two specific functions predominated. Firstly, they were attributes of
particular gods32 and this sometimes extended to imagery, in which a deity is depicted
wearing the appropriate crowns, especially on coins, such as Demeter with wheat,33
and Apollo with bay-laurel. 34 Secondly, as described in Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
humans were transformed into flowers, shrubs and trees although these were less
commonly represented in the art of antiquity.

In terms of the potential symbolism of plants, one might propose a spectrum of

interpretations based on an analogy with grapes and vine imagery which were among
the most popular motifs in the Roman world and far beyond. Grapevines often weave
their way as an entirely ornamental contribution to an artistic composition. When
grapes appear on vessels such as ewers or amphorae, sometimes combined with other
Dionysiac imagery such as vintaging putti, they indicated a function related to wine.35
Alternatively, grapes might be present in cultic circumstances to signify Dionysos,
god of wine, a metaphor for the god himself.36 Or the motif of grapes and wheat,
typically expressed in late Roman art in terms of ‘The Four Seasons’ (autumn and

27
This widely-discussed topic is summarised in TAILLIEU 2003/2012 (accessed March 2106).
28
DE JONG 2015, p.95; SARKHOSH CURTIS 2012, 2007.
29
KINTAERT 2012; 2010.
30
HALL 1974, pp.192-193.
31
GOOR AND NUROCK 1968; ZOHARY 1982.
32
GIESECKE 2014.
33
LIMC vol. IV-2, figs. 168-186, p.573.
34
LIMC vol. II-2, figs 547-559, pp.224-225.
35
HARDEN 1987, cat.33, pp.74-78 and cat.43, pp.79.
36
FRAZER 1998, p.396; OTTO 1965, p.152.

5
summer respectively) in Christian contexts alluded to the sacrament of the Eucharist,
in which wine symbolised the blood of Christ. 37 Finally, when depicted on
sarcophagi, vine imagery might express notions relating to a happy afterlife in both
pagan and Christian contexts.38

Plants also possess religious associations in Iranian culture, since they constitute one
of the seven sacred Spentas, divine beings, in Zoroastrian belief.39 Moreover, in the
Greater Bundahišn, ‘Primal Creation’, compiled around the 9th century CE but
reflecting accumulated wisdom and beliefs from many centuries earlier, a number of
plants were associated with spiritual beings.40 A look through the list of Zoroastrian
sacred flowers shows that there were a number which were also ritually important in
the Graeco-Roman world, such as violets, roses, myrtle, narcissi, marigolds, saffron
crocuses, demonstrating that these plants preserved a special status across at least two
cultures.

Finally, there is a corpus of esoteric literature which explores the magical uses of
plants, often in the form of spells.41 This subject is barely touched upon in this thesis
since these texts are usually complex, disparate and obscure. Even when subjected to
extensive exegesis the material is at best speculative. Moreover, the texts are
concentrated around the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, a little late for this research.

0.5.6 Secular plant symbolism

Alternatively plants sometimes represented secular values. For the Assyrians, trees
might denote the gift of abundance bestowed by a benevolent king to his subjects,42 in
an environment in which gardens themselves had a political significance.43 They were
associated with war propaganda and power, when kings seized trees and planted them
in their own lands.44 This custom was also practised in the late Roman Republic and
the Roman Empire when plants were symbols of conquest, taken as booty to celebrate

37
MALBON 1990, p.102.
38
MALBON 1990, p.206.
39
BOYCE 1989 (accessed February 2016).
40
MACKENZIE 1989 (accessed February 2016).
41
Discussed in DUCOURTHIAL 2003; VONS 2000.
42
PORTER 2003, p.95.
43
STRONACH 1990.
44
FOSTER 1998, p.320. This was in addition to the cultic functions of certain trees: GIOVINO 2007;
PORTER 2003.

6
famous victories.45 The notion was not uncommon, since ‘The connections between
plants, displays of power, and kings are as old as civilization itself’.46

Plants were particularly important to the Romans, 47 and it is no surprise that

numerous plants, among them many flowers, were used as expressions of imperial
status on Emperor Augustus’s Ara Pacis. They have been interpreted as contributing
to a propagandist expression of political purposes in a complex programme
celebrating the Golden Age of peace under Augustus, supported by the divine
patronage of Apollo and other deities. 48 Moreover, according to Pliny, vegetal
crowns were worn outside the cultic environment by victors in sport and war.49

In later history, plants and particularly flowers served as emblems of families or rank,
indicated by the wide range of species depicted on coats-of-arms and seals. An early
example of this practice may appear on 3rd century CE Sasanian wall-reliefs close to
Persepolis in Iran, in which a nobleman attending the Investiture of Ardashīr both at
Naqsh-i Rajab and Naqsh-i Rustam is shown wearing a ‘Phrygian’ cap decorated with
a bud device.50 In a further image of a joust at Fīruzābād, apparently the same figure
wears a different headdress but with the same device which is also replicated on the
horse-blanket.51 Other competitors have horse-blankets with tamga-type devices. In
these circumstances it seems that the bud motif represents something akin to a
personal or family signifier.

0.5.7 Summary

Plants were important in ancient society for their roles as medicines, and for a whole
range of functions related to religious practices and beliefs. Since individual plants
possess more-or-less consistent biochemical properties and aesthetic qualities
wherever they are grown, it should not be surprising to find that to some degree their
uses were consistent across different societies, including both Graeco-Roman and
Iranian cultures.

45
MACAULEY-LEWIS 2008.
46
MACAULEY-LEWIS 2008, pp.205-206.
47
GOODY 1993, pp.56-59, pp.62-64.
48
CASTRIOTA 1995; SAURON 2000; see also remarks by ROSSINI 2014, pp.80-88.
49
PLINY XXI.V-VI; much of book XXI concerns ‘chaplets’.
50
HERRMANN 1969.
51
HERRMANN 1969.

7
Both texts and images demonstrate that certain ‘special’ flowers and leaves were
culturally important, related to their particular virtues and useful characteristics which
are particularly appealing to man –– colour and general beauty, scent (either from
petals or from extracted oils), and longevity –– such as roses, violets, marigolds, bay-
laurel and myrtle. Some species had potent biochemical qualities: psychoactive and
narcotic plants, which rendered them important in both medicine and ritual.

Since plants often possesses significant cultural values for society, then this type of
information might amplify our understanding of their presence when they feature in
art. Any such evaluation is of course dependent on identifying the images of plants in
the first place, as discussed in the Methodology chapter. With this information in
mind, the next stage is to provide a brief account of plants in art.

Bibliography for works cited in this chapter

DIOSCORIDES Osbaldeston (ed.)

Materia medica, tr. Tess Ann Osbaldeston. 2000. Johannesburg: Ibidis Press.

PAUSANIAS
Description of Greece: on Corinth, tr. W.H.S Jones, vol. II. 1964. Cambridge, Mass.;
London: HUP; Heinemann.

PLINY
Natural History, tr. H. Rackham, vol. IV: books XII-XVI. 1923. Cambridge, Mass.;
London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd.

THEOPHRASTUS
De causis plantarum, ed. and tr. Benedict Einarson and George K.K. Link 1990.
Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd.

De odoribus, tr. A. F. Hort. 1926. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University

Press; Heinemann. Available online:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Theophrastus/De_odoribus*.ht
ml

----

ARATA 2008
Luigi Arata, ‘Ancient borrowings of Persian herbs and plants of medicinal value’,
Encyclopædia Iranica online edition. Available online:
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/greece-xv

8
BOYCE 1989
Mary Boyce, ‘Ameša Spenta’, Encyclopædia Iranica online edition. Available online:
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/amesa-spenta-beneficent-divinity

BRUN 2000
Jean-Pierre Brun, ‘The production of perfumes in Antiquity: the cases of Delos and
Paestum’, American Journal of Archaeology, vol.104/2 (April), pp.277-308.

CASTRIOTA 1995
David Castriota, The Ara Pacis Augustae and the imagery of abundance in later
Greek and early Roman Imperial Art. Princeton, Princeton University Press.

DALBY 2000
Andrew Dalby, Dangerous tastes, the story of spices. London: British Museum Press.

DE JONG 2015
Albert de Jong, ‘Religion and politics in pre-Islamic Iran’, in Michael Stausberg and
Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell companion to
Zoroastrianism. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, pp.85-102.

DRURY 1873
Colonel Heber Drury, The Useful Plants of India, with notices of their chief
value in commerce, medicine, and the arts. London: William H. Allen & Co.

DUCOURTHIAL 2003
Guy Ducourthial, Flore magique et astrologique de l’antiquité. Paris: Éditions Belin.

ELGOOD 1934
Cyril Lloyd Elgood, Medicine in Persia: Medical History of Persia and the
Eastern Caliphate from the Earliest Times until the Year 1932. New York:
AMS Press.

EMBODEN 1989
William Emboden, ‘The sacred journey in dynastic Egypt: shamanistic trance in the
context of the narcotic water Lily and the mandrake’. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
21/1, pp.61–75.

FOSTER 2003
Karen Polinger Foster, ‘Gardens of Eden: exotic flora and fauna in the Ancient Near
East’, in J. Albert, Jane Coppock and Joseph A. Miller (eds.), Transformation of
Middle Eastern Natural Environments: legacies and lessons. New Haven: Yale
University Press, pp.320-329.

FRAZER 1998
James Frazer, The Golden Bough. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

9
GERMER 1989
Renate Germer Die Pflanzenmaterialien aus dem Grab des Tutanchamun.
Hildesheim: Gerstenberg.

GIESECKE 2014
Annette Giesecke, The Mythology of plants: botanical lore from ancient Greece and
Rome. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.

GOODY 1993
Jack Goody, The culture of flowers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

GOOR AND NUROCK 1968

Asaph Goor and Max Nurock, The Fruits of the Holy Land. Jerusalem: Israel
Universities Press.

GRIEVE 1931
Maud Grieve, A Modern Herbal. Available online:
https://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/mgmh.html

HALL 1974
James Hall, Dictionary of subjects and symbols in art. London: John Murray.

HAMEDI et al. 2013

Azadeh Hamedi, Mohammad M. Zarshenas, Maryam Sohrabpour and Arman
Zargaran, ‘Herbal medicinal oils in traditional Persian medicine’, Pharmaceutical
Biology, pp.1-11.

HARDEN 1987
Donald B.Harden (ed.), Glass of the Caesars: the Corning Museum of Glass,
Corning; the British Museum, London; Römisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne.
Milan: Olivetti.

HARDY AND TOTELIN 2015

Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, Ancient Botany. London; New York: Routledge.

HEPPER1990
Nigel Hepper, Pharoah’s Flowers: the botanical treasures of Tutankhamun. London:
HMSO.

HERRMANN 1969
Georgina Herrmann, ‘The Dārābgird relief – Ardashīr or Shāhpūr? A discussion in the
context of early Sasanian sculpture’, Iran, vol. 7, pp.63-88.

JASHEMSKI 1979
Wilhemina Jashemski, The gardens of Pompeii, Herculanean and the villas destroyed
by Vesuvius. New Rochelle, New York: Caratzas Bros.

10
KAUSHIK and DHIMAN 2000
Purshotam Kaushik, Anil Kumar Dhiman, Medicinal Plants and Raw Drugs of India.
Dehra Dun, India: Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh.

KENNEDY 2014
David O. Kennedy, Plants and the Human Brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

KINTAERT 2012; 2010

Thomas Kintaert ‘On the role of the Lotus leaf in South Indian cosmography’, Vienna
Journal of South Asian Studies, vol. 54, pp.85-120.

Thomas Kintaert, On the cultural significance of the leaf of the Indian lotus:
introduction and uses, in Eli Franco, Monika Zin, Dieter Schlinghoff, From Turfan to
Ajanta: Festschrift for Dieter Schlinghoff on the occasion of his eightieth birthday.
Bhairahawa, Rupandehi: Lumbini International Research, pp.481- 512.

KUTUMBIAH 1999
P Kutumbiah, Ancient Indian Medicine. Hyderabad: Longman Orient.

LIMC 1981 – 1999

Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae, eight double volumes. Zürich &
München: Artemis Verlag.

MACAULEY-LEWIS 2008
Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis, ‘The fruits of victory: generals, plants and power in the
Roman world, in E. Bragg, L.I. Hau, and E. Macaulay-Lewis (eds.), Beyond the
Battlefields: New Perspectives on Warfare and Society in the Graeco-Roman World.
Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, pp.205-25.

MACKENZIE 1989
D. Neil MacKenzie, ‘Bundahišn’, Encyclopædia Iranica online edition. Available
online: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bundahisn-primal-creation

MALBON 1990
Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, The Iconography of the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.

MANNICHE 1999
Lise Manniche, An Ancient Egyptian Herbal, 3rd edition. London: British Museum
Press.

MERLIN 2003
Mark D. Merlin ‘Archaeological evidence for the tradition of psychoactive plant use
in the Old World’, Economic Botany 57/3, pp.295–323.

11
NENCINI 1997
‘The rules of drug taking: wine and poppy derivatives in the Ancient World’ (9 parts),
Substance Use and Abuse: Part VII ‘Ritual use of poppy derivatives’, Vol. 32/10
(August), pp.1405-1415.

NUNN 1996
John F. Nunn, Ancient Egyptian Medicine. London: British Museum Press.

NUTTON 2013
Vivian Nutton, Ancient Medicine. London; New York: Routledge.

PERDRIZET 1900
Paul Perdrizet, ‘Inscriptions de Philippes: les Rosalies’ Bulletin de Correspondance
Hellénique, vol. 24/1, pp.299-323.

PORTER 2003
Barbara Nevling Porter, Trees, kings, and politics, studies in Assyrian iconography.
Fribourg; Göttingen: Academic Press.

PRICE AND NESBITT 2005

Ghillean Price and Mark Nesbitt, The cultural history of plants. New York; London:
Routledge.

SARKHOSH CURTIS 2012

Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, ‘Parthian coins: Kingship and Divine Glory, in Peter Wick
and Markus (eds.), The Parthian Empire and its Religions, studies in the dynamics of
religious diversity. Gutenberg: Computus Druck Satz, pp.67-82.

SARKHOSH CURTIS 2007

Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, ‘The Iranian Revival in the Parthian Period’, in Vesta Sarkhosh
Curtis and Sarah Stewart (eds.), Age of the Parthians. London: I. B. Tauris, pp.7-25.

SAURON 2000
Gilles Sauron, L’histoire végétalisée: ornement et politique à Rome. Paris: Picard.

SCARBOROUGH 2006
John Scarborough, ‘Drugs and drug lore in the time of Theophrastus: folklore, magic,
botany, philosophy, and the rootcutters’, Acta Classica, vol. 49, pp.1-29.

SCARBOROUGH 2010
John Scarborough, Pharmacy and drug lore in antiquity: Greece, Rome, Byzantium:
collected studies. Farnham: Ashgate.

SIGERIST 1987
Henry E. Sigerist, A History of Medicine, Vol.II: Early Greek, Hindu and Persian
Medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

12
SINGER 1927
Charles Singer, ‘The Herbal in Antiquity’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 47, pp.1-
52.

TÄCKHOLM 1956
Vivi Täckholm, Students’ flora of Egypt. Cairo: Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop.

TAILLIEU 2003/2012
Dieter Taillieu, ‘Haoma i: Botany’ Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition. Available at
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/haoma-i

ZOHARY 1982
Michael Zohary, Plants of the Bible. London; New York: Cambridge University
Press.

ZOHARY AND HOPF 2002

D.Zohary and M.Hopf, Domestication of Plants in the Old World. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.

13