The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization

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botany

botany
From earliest times, Greeks and Romans had expert familiarity with plants and their growth cycles; agriculture dominates, alongside acute command of medicinal herbs, including production of oils and perfumes. Exact nomenclatures were quite irrelevant; everyone ‘knew’ plants and flowers carpeting fields and mountain valleys in season; flower metaphors became common in Homer and the lyric poets. There is nothing esoteric about early botanical lore; locals understood their plants—from various wheats and vegetables to the widespread poisons (hemlocks, mandrake, the opium poppy, etc.)—and they spoke of parts (roots, seeds, flowers, stems, leaves) as plants providing particulars: food, medicines, poisons, oils, beverages (wine, beer).

Botany figures in Mycenaean Greek texts, suggesting a sophisticated perfume and perfumed oil industry at Pylos, Cnossus, and elsewhere (see Mycenaean...

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