Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The evolution of the ancient Greek garden

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 30; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14601170903403264

1943-2186

Patrick Bowe,

Urban Agriculture and Sustainability

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. The exceptions are valuable. See: Robin Osborne 'Classical Greek Gardens: Between Farm and Paradise', Garden History Issues, Approaches, Methods, edited by John Dixon Hunt (Washington, DC, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1989), pp. 373–391; Massimo Venturi Ferriolo, 'Homer's Garden', Journal of Garden History, ix/2, 1989, pp. 86–94; and Maureen Carroll-Spilleke, 'The gardens of Greece from Homeric to Roman times', Journal of Garden History, xii/2, 1992, pp. 84–101. 2. Homer, The Iliad, translated by A. T. Murray (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1924) and Homer, The Odyssey, translated by A. T. Murray (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1919). All subsequent references to The Iliad and The Odyssey will be from these editions unless otherwise stated. 3. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, translated by A. F. Hort (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1926) and Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, edited and translated by Benedict Einarson and George K. K. Link (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1990). 4. This fictional garden is located by Homer on the island of the Phaeacians in the Ionian Sea. Homer, The Odyssey, book 7, card 107. 5. Homer, The Odyssey, book 6, card 288. Only a brief reference to the existence of this garden is made. 6. Homer, The Odyssey, book 24, card 327. 7. The method of enclosure is translated as 'a hedge' in Homer, The Odyssey, translated by A. T. Murray (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1919), book 7, card 107, while it is translated as 'a wall' in Homer, The Odyssey, translated by Samuel Butler (Project Gutenberg on-line book edition, 1999), book 5, line 58. 8. This is quoted in Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, translated by Charles Burton Gulick (Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press; London: WilliamHeinemann Ltd, 1937), book XIII, pp. 600–601. 9. Sappho, 'frg 2', Greek Lyric, Sappho and Alcaeus, edited and translated by David A. Campbell (Cambridge, MA; London, UK: Harvard University Press, 2002) p. 57. 10. Homer. The Iliad, book 21, line 233. A further reference by Homer to the use of watercourses is in his description of Calypso's cave, the ground outside of which is traversed by four closely aligned watercourses irrigating beds of violets and other luxurious plants. See Homer, The Odyssey, book 5, card 50. 11. Homer, The Odyssey, book 7, card 107. 12. Homer, The Iliad, book 18, card 561. 13. Homer, The Odyssey, book 7, card 107. 14. Homer's description has suggested to Robin Osborne that he is describing a 'utopic' garden. See Robin Osborne, op. cit., p. 389. 15. Homer, The Odyssey, book 24, card 327. 16. Homer, The Odyssey, book 24, card 327. 17. Homer, The Iliad, edited by Samuel Butler, book 18, line 52. 18. Homer, The Odyssey, book 24, card 232. 19. Dolius maintained the garden of Odysseus' wife, Penelope. See Homer, The Odyssey, book 4, card 715. 20. Robin Osborne, op. cit., p. 378. 21. Isaeus, 'On the Estate of Dicaeogenes' Speeches, 5, translated by E. S. Forster (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1923), section 11; and Berthe Carr Rider, Ancient Greek Houses (Chicago: Argonaut Library of Antiquities, 1964), p. 213. 22. Lisa C. Nevett, House and Society in the Ancient Greek World (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 111. The excavations show that the area of these gardens was generally less than that devoted to the houses with which they were associated. 23. A problem must have arisen in such clusters with regard to neighbouring gardens for Solon, an Athenian lawmaker, recommended the adoption of a law restricting tree planting too close to a garden's boundaries. The distance recommended was nine feet in the case of olives and figs. See Plutarch, 'Solon', Plutarch's Lives, translated by Bernadotte Perrin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1914, 1916), chapter 23, section 1. 24. Demosthenes, 'Against Evergus and Mnesibulus' Demosthenes, Speeches 41–50, translated by A. T. Murray (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1939), line 53. 25. Demosthenes, 'Against Evergus and Mnesibulus', op. cit., line 53. 26. Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, edited by John Bostock, H. T. Riley (London: Taylor & Francis, 1855), book 35, chapter 37. 27. Robin Osborne, op. cit., p. 377. 28. Plato, 'Laws', Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols 10 and 11, translated by R. G. Bury (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1967 and 1968), p. 845c. 29. Athens was not the only place to have an area known as the 'gardens'. An area outside the city of Bosporus on the Black Sea was also called 'the gardens'. See Aeschines, 'Against Ctesiphon', Aeschines, 3, translated by C. D. Lamb (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1919), section 171. 30. Demosthenes, 'Apollodorus against Polycles', op. cit., line 61. Solon proscribed a law allowing a well to be dug on private property only if a public well was further than four furlongs away. See Plutarch, 'Solon', op. cit., chapter 23, section 5. 31. Euripides, Hippolytus, translated by David Kovacs (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, forthcoming), line 75. Although irrigation by watercourses may have been efficient, it was not necessarily regarded as best for the plants, and it did bring problems. Theophrastus asserts: ' Fresh cold water is the best, and the worst is that which is brackish and thick: wherefore the water from irrigation ditches is not good, for it brings with it seeds of weeds' Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., II. VII.v. 2. See also Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, op. cit., III.8.3. 32. Irrigation water flowed directly from a public supply or from a storage cistern on the property. See Theophrastus, 'The Unpleasant Man', Characters, translated by R. C. Jebb (London: Macmillan, 1870), chapter 20, line 9. 33. Aristotle, Parts of Animals (668a, 14–21) quoted by Robin Osborne, op. cit., p. 382. 34. Irrigation channels leading to pomegranate and fig trees may have been larger or more numerous as it was considered they were in special need of water. See Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., I. II.vi. 12. 35. Theophrastus asserts that the vine is water loving and so, also, must have needed special irrigation. See note 34. 36. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., I. III.i. 3–5, and II. VII.vi. 2–3. Theophrastus notes that the seeds of perennial plants such as marsh celery were carried through a garden by its irrigation waters. 37. Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, V.6.7. 38. Plato, letter 7, 348. 39. Euripides, 'Electra', The Complete Greek Drama, 2, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr., translated by E. P. Coleridge (New York: Random House, 1938), line 775. 40. Xenophon, 'Economics', Xenophon in Seven Volumes, translated by E. G. Marchant and O. J. Todd (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1979), book 4, chapter 1, 20. 41. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit. I, II.v. 6. He reports olives, figs and vines to be suitable for low ground while apples pears and plums are recommended for the lower slopes of hills. In the choice of fruit trees, local and regional climatic conditions were to be considered and cultivated varieties were to be preferred to wild kinds. See Theophrastus, op. cit., I. I.iv. 1–2, I. IV.v. 3, II. VI.ii. 4–6, I. IV. xiv. 10–12, I. II. viii. 1–3 and I. IV. xiv. 5–6. 42. Aristotle, 'Politics', Aristotle in Twenty Three Volumes, 21, edited by H. Rackham (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1952), book 7, section 1330b.Theophrastus also intimates that vines were planted in rows. See Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., I. IV.iv. 5–8. 43. Aristophanes, 'Peace', The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (New York: Random House, 1938), line 1145. 44. Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, op. cit., V.1.8. 45. Plato, 'Critias', Plato in Twelve Volumes translated by W. R.M. Lamb (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1925), p. 115. 46. Quoted by Athenaeus, op. cit., book VI, section 239. 47. Theophrastus refers to 'a tree-climbing vine'. See Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, translated by Benedict Einarson and G. K.K. Link (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1976), I.10.4. The perimeter of some vineyards may have been planted with olive trees as is suggested in Aristophanes, 'The Acharnians' edited by Jeffrey Henderson (Newburyport, MA: Focus Classical Library, 1997), line 998. Theophrastus decries the practice of planting between vine rows because cultivation may damage the roots of the vines. See Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, op. cit., I.18.1. 48. Demosthenes refers to 'tree-vines'. See Demosthenes, 'Apollodorus against Nicostratus', Demosthenes, Speeches 51–61, translated by Norman W. DeWitt and Norman J. DeWitt (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1949) Speech 53, section 15.This method of training vines is shown on a kylix, catalogued 12.198.2, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 49. Aristophanes indicates that vine props had about the length of a spear. See Aristophanes, 'Peace', op. cit., line 1260 and Aristophanes 'Wasps', The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (New York: Random House, 1938), lines 1200, 1290. 50. Although not explicitly shown in the painting, it is likely these vines may have been trained on a wooden or rope substructure. 51. Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, op. cit., IV,11.6. 52. For other depictions of Dionysos and Ariadne in a vineyard, see Guy Michael Hedreen, Silens in Attic Black figure Painting (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992). 53. Some gardens may have had an area devoted to seedbeds as Theophrastus notes the practice of raising seeds to seedling stage before transplanting them into their final locations in the garden. See Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., II. VII.iv. 8–10. Other gardens had nursery areas. Demosthenes refers to his 'nursery beds of olive trees set out in rows'. See Demosthenes, 'Apollodorus against Nicostratus', op. cit., speech 53, section 15. 54. Xenophon, 'Economics', op. cit., chapter 5, section 3. 55. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., II. VII.i. 2–3. Vegetables were cultivated in different varieties or cultivars. See Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., II. VII.iv. 4–6. 56. Ibid., II. VI.vi. 2–3, II. VII.i. 1, II. VII.i. 2–3 and II. VII.i. 2–3. Because of their need of water, Theophrastus sees an advantage in growing cucumbers around a garden well. See De Causis Plantarum, op. cit., V. 6.5. 57. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., II, VI.viii, 3–5. 58. Ibid., II. VI.vi. 3–5, II. VI.vi. 2–3.I. I.ii. 1–3, II. VII.i. 2–3. Celery, leeks and onion remained in the beds over two seasons. 59. Ibid., II, VI.vi. 2–3. 60. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., I. I.xiii. 1–3, II. VII.ix. 2–4. 61. Xenophon 'Economics', Xenophon in Seven Volumes, Volume 4 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1979), chapter 4, section 13. 62. The practice of producing fruit out of season was ridiculed in Aristophanes lost play The Seasons. See Robin Osborne, op. cit., p. 386. 63. Isocrates, 'Panegyricus', Speeches and Letters, edited by George Norlin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1980), Volume 4, section 28. 64. Athenaeus, op. cit., book 1, p. 37. 65. Thyme, Theophrastus notes, though normally prostrate, i.e. growing in a mat along the ground, could be trained to form a vertical mat, perhaps hanging down over a wall. See Ibid., II, VI.vii. 5–viii. 1. 66. Ibid., II. VI.vii. 2–4. 67. Ibid., I. I.iii. 1–3. Theophrastus records the practice of transplanting wild thyme from nearby Mount Hymettus for cultivation in Athens. See Ibid., II. VI.vii. 2. He also mentions it being transplanted from nearby mountains into the city of Sikyon. See Ibid., II. VI.vii. 2. 68. Demosthenes, 'Apollodorus against Nicostratus', op. cit., speech 53, section 16.Theophrastus notes that roses of many different sizes and colours are in cultivation. See Theophrastus, op. cit., II. VI.vi. 3–5. They included a multi-petalled form that grew on Mount Panageus that the citizens of Philippi transplanted into their gardens. See Ibid., I. VI.vi. 3–5. 69. Aristophanes, 'Peace', op. cit., lines 560–579. 70. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., II. VI.vi. 2–3. 71. Ibid., book XIII, section 582. 72. Plato, 'Letters', Plato in Twelve Volumes, Volume 7, translated by R. G. Bury (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1966), letter 7, p. 347. 73. For an illustration of a further grapevine or, perhaps, ivy arbour, see a bell krater in the Vatican, collection no: 17370. 74. For an illustration showing three such masks suspended in an arbour, see a bell krater in the Vatican collection (collection no. not given) in A. D. Trendall, Red figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily (London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 1989), ill. 372. 75. Some furniture may have been used inside and out, being carried from one to the other as required. See a portable folding stool on a red figure loutrophorous (320 bc), Museo Nazionale 'D. Ridola' Matera, vase no 328. See also furniture being carried on an Athenian red figure skyphos (475–425 bc), Basel, Antikenmuseum und Sammlungen Ludwig, vase no 276060 and on an Athenian red figure pelike (500–450 bc), Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, vase no 206330. 76. Pots are identified as garden pots because of the drainage hole in the bottom. See Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., I. IV.iv. 2–4. Excavations around the Temple of Hephaiston in Athens confirm the use of pots for raising and transplanting plants in the Hellenistic period. See Maureen Carroll, Earthly Paradises (London: The British Museum Press, 2003), p. 92; and D. B. Thompson 'The Garden of Hephaistos' Hesperia 6, 1937, pp. 396–425. 77. Xenophon, 'Economics', op. cit., chapter 8, section 19. 78. A character in one of Aristophanes' plays refers to pots of vegetables being offered to an unnamed god. See Aristophanes, 'Plutus' The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (New York: Random House, 1938), line 1195. There is a reference to a potted seven-leafed cabbage being offered to Pandora in the festival of Thargalia. See Hipponax, Greek Lyric Poetry, 121. 79. Baskets were woven from young twigs of hazel and willow. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., I. III.xiii. 6, I. V.vii. 7, and I. III.xv. 2. 80. Ibid., I. VII.iv. 4–6. See also Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, edited by H. T. Riley and John Bostock (London: Taylor & Francis, 1855), book 19, chapter 38. 81. Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, op. cit., I.12.9, and Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., I. II.i. 1. 82. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (London: J. M. Dent; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1910), book 2, chapter 62, section 3. 83. Robin Osborne, op. cit., p. 377. 84. Pausanias, Guide to Greece, trans. by Peter Levi (London: Penguin, 1971), Vol. 1, p. 323, n. 39. 85. Plutarch, 'Alexander', Plutarch's Lives, edited by Bernadotte Perrin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1919), chapter 12, section 2. 86. Diodorus Siculus, Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes, Volumes 4–8, translated by C. H. Oldfather (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd,1989), book 17, chapter 47, section 4. 87. Pliny the Elder, op. cit., book 19, chapter 19. 88. The environs of Megara, near Carthage, were 'planted with gardens and full of fruit-bearing trees divided by low walls, hedges and brambles, besides deep ditches full of running water'. See Appian, 'The Punie Wars', The Foreign Wars, edited by Horace White, (New York: The Macmillan company, 1899). Jerusalem was surrounded by gardens with 'hedges and walls which the inhabitants had made about their gardens and groves of fruit trees'. See Flavius Josephus, The Works of Flavius Josephus, translated by William Whiston (Auburn and Buffalo: John E. Beardelsy, 1895), book 5, section 106. 89. Polybius, Histories, book 18, chapter 20. 90. See Hyperides, 'Against Demosthenes', Minor Attic Orators, translated by J. O. Burtt (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1962), speech 5. 91. Theocritus, The Idylls, translated by Anthony Verity (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002), idyll 3, line 48. 92. Philostratus, Philostratus the Elder Imagines. Philostratus the Younger Imagines. Callistratus Descriptions, translated by Arthur Fairbanks (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1931), book I, section 6. 93. Philostratus the Elder, op. cit., book 1, section 6. 94. Theocritus, op. cit., idyll 18, line 30. 95. Ibid., idyll 11, line 45. 96. Ibid., idyll 5, line 95. 97. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., I. IV.v. 6. 98. Polybius, op. cit., book 15, chapter 30. 99. Athenaeus, op. cit., book V, p. 496. 100. Inge Nielsen, Hellenistic Palaces (Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1999), p. 81. 101. Xenophon, 'On Economics', op. cit., book 4, chapter 1, section 20. 102. Diodorus Siculus, op. cit., book 14, chapter 80, section 2. 103. Plutarch, 'Alcibiades', op. cit., chapter 24, section 5. 104. Xenophon, 'Anabasis', Xenophon in Seven Volumes, Volume 3 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1980), book 1, chapter 4, section 10.The latter areas must have been distinct, for practical reasons, from the parks, or part of parks, described by Xenophon as stocked and maintained with wild animals. See Xenophon, 'Anabasis', op. cit., book 1, chapter 2, section 7. 105. Plutarch, 'Alexander', op. cit., chapter 73, section 2. 106. Inge Nielsen, op. cit., pp. 131ff. 107. Strabo, Geography, 7.1.8–10. 108. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, translated by R. C. Seaton (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1912), book III, line 215. 109. Inge Nielsen, op. cit., p. 133. 110. Athenaeus, op. cit., book XIV, p. 654. 111. Ibid., book V, p. 449. 112. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., IV,11.8 and IV. 12.3. 113. Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, op. cit., I.11.5 and Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., I.ix. 3–5. 114. Athenaeus, op. cit., Book V, pp. 449–479. 115. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., IV.ii. 5–7. 116. Ibid., IV.ii. 8–11. 117. Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, op. cit., II,13.4. 118. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., VI. V.iii, 5–6. 119. Ibid., book 15, chapter 1, section 58. 120. Theophrastus records that he was successful with box and lime but failed with ivy. See Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, op. cit., I. IV.iv. 1–2. See also Plutarch, 'Alexander', op. cit., chapter 35, section 8. 121. Plutarch, 'Demetrius and Anthony', Lives, IX, translated by Bernadotte Perrin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1920), Chapter 50, sections 1–6. 122. Inge Nielsen, op. cit., p. 127. 123. Strabo, op. cit., book 16, chapter 2, section 6; and Inge Nielsen, op. cit., p. 115 and n.222. 124. Inge Nielsen, op. cit., pp. 138 and 156. 125. Ibid., op. cit., p. 107. 126. Ibid., op. cit., pp. 146ff.