LAUREL IN ART AND SYMBOLISM. The laurel was dedicated by the ancients to Apollo. The very earliest belief of the mys terious virtues of the laurel was that it had purifying qualities. Ancient writers say that Apollo purified himself with laurel after Python, the snake monster who was m Parnassus (near Delphi), home of the oracle, inaccessible. And every eighth year Delphi commemorated this purification of the god by a festival; hence laurel is said to have been used by the ancients for purification from evil consequences that might follow through the slaying of a living animal. The laurel tree was supposed to be inhabited by spirits — this belief and that of purifying influences may have arisen from the fable that Diana (Artemis), the virgin goddess, guarded the purity of her nymphs with great jealousy, and when Daphne offended she was turned into a laurel tree. Hence the ancient terming of the laurel plant Daphne. In depictions Apollo frequently fig ures in purification ceremonies and the laurel accompanies the rite. An ancient writer says that during a pestilence at Miletus, Branchis, the founder of the oracle there, sprinkled the people with laurel leaves and purified them. Of a certain priestess (Gala) we read that in delivering Apollo's oracles she °regularly chewed laurel and fumigated herself with it* before giving her responses. Now, Asclepius, or 2Esculapius, was a son of Apollo and the laurel was made also sacred to him as well as his paternal god (this besides the better-known serpent emblem on his staff, also borrowed from Apollo). And as 2Esculapius was master of the mysteries of the therapeutic values of the vegetable kingdom (taught him by physician Chiron), the connection between the laurel's medicinal values and the persons of Apollo and lEsculapius in the minds of the ancient classic pagans becomes clear. But both Apollo and his son were close patron gods of the oracles, hence their symbolic presentment, the laurel, became the attribute of divination and poetry. The poet Hesiod relates how the Muses (Apollo, as Musagetes, was their leader) put into his hands a branch of laurel and immediately he became a poet. We are told that the guests at feasts who did not know how to play the lyre, recite rhapsodies or poems and could not sing acquired the necessary talent when holding a branch of myrtle or laurel in the hand. The laurel which the diviners carried in the hand they termed ithynterium and those who chewed its leaves for purposes of divination were known as daphnefagi. It was but a short step
from the carrying of laurel for purpose of in spiration to the crowning of the inspired with laurel, and the laurel wreath evolved into a symbol of fame in poetry and the arts of the Muses. Thus we soon see Clio, Muse of His tory, wearing a wreath of laurel; Calliope, Muse of Heroic Poems, gets laurel woven into her wreath; Melpomene, Muse of Tragedy, al though often crowned with cypress, also is seen frequently with a laurel wreath; Thalia, Muse of Comedy, has a laurel wreath as attribute; Polymnia wears a laurel wreath; Terpsichore and Erato are generally so crowned. But their relationship to Apollo permits each of the group a right to the laurel emblem. By some means the before-mentioned connection of spirits with the laurel tree appears to have brought it into contact with the underworld, for we find (in magic) Medea, as a witch, had twigs of laurel in classic art. Leaving the realm of the Muses, the laurel wreath as emblem of fame of the art gifted reached later to the brow of the successful competitor in Grecian athletics; and thence it was but a short step to the brow of the conqueror in battle and the Roman em peror. And the pupils of lEsculapius, who had been prescribing laurel medicinally as cure for °fever, convulsions, the afflictions of lethargy, headache and coughs,° naturally assumed the emblem. Young doctors were decorated with laurel branches (having berries on them)— whence is said to be derived the term °bac calaureatus.° The person crowned with laurel was called gaureatus.° The origin of the Eng lish poet-laureate title is obscure. There was a king's poet (Versificator Regis) in the reign of Henry III (13th century), but Chaucer, on his return from abroad, assumed the title of poet-laureate, and obtained an annual allowance of wine from 1389. Edmund Spenser (died 1599) is generally considered as the first of the officially appointed line of poet-laureates, which have been continued down to our present day. As a decorative art motif the laurel was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans. In copying the classic arts the French styles Louis XIV and Empire, of course used the laurel liberally as one of their favorite decora tive elements. In wreaths, borders and other uses, the laurel is retained in art of recent times.