Domestication of Ornamental and Aromatic Plants in the Aegean: The Case of the Madonna Lily

The Madonna lily, a favourite motif of Aegean artists, was presumably grown in Cretan and Theran gardens as an ornamental and perfume plant during the Bronze Age. The lily was also portrayed by Aegean painters working in the Levant and Egypt at that period. During the course of the Iron Age the cultivated Madonna lily was introduced into Egypt, probably by Greek colonists.

INTRODUCTION

Crop domestication in the Near East during the Neolithic period overshadowed subsequent plant domestication in the Old World (Zohary and Hopf 1994, 228-244). Secondary centres of plant domestication contributed only a few aromatic and ornamental plants. Such are the west Mediterranean poppy (Papaver somniferum), the Aegean saffron (Crocus sativus) (Zohary and Hopf 1994, 128-131, 189-190; Negbi and Negbi in press) and the south-east European Iris pallida or Iris germanica var. florentina, cultivated for their flowers and aromatic rhizome (orris-root) (Negbi 1989).⁽¹⁾ Lathyrus clymenum, a pulse whose edible seed can lead to lathyrism, was also domesticated in the Aegean during the Bronze Age (Sarpaki and Jones 1990; Kislev, Artzy and Marcus 1993).

The progenitors of many ornamental plants are feral geophytes, the domestication of which might have involved a shift from sexual and vegetative reproduction in the wild to exclusive vegetative propagation under cultivation (Zohary 1996). Such is the case of saffron crocuses in which the wild and fertile Crocus cartwrightianus is the ancestor of a sterile mutant, C. sativus, which propagates only by corms (Mathew 1982; Negbi and Negbi in press). Another notable example is the sterile garlic (Allium sativum) whose fertile wild ancestor has yet to be identified (Zohary and Hopf 1994, 183-185).

The subject of this paper, the Madonna lily (Lilium candidum), was a favourite floral motif of Aegean artists (Fig. 1). This plant grows wild in scattered localities in the eastern Mediterranean, although its distribution is far from unanimously agreed among scholars. According to O. Warburg (1929, vide Feinbrun-Dothan 1986; Woodcock and Coutts 1936, 101-102; Woodcock and Stearn 1950, 180-186; and Polunin 1980), L. candidum grows spontaneously in Greece from Macedonia (L. candidum var. salonikae) to Crete.⁽²⁾ Davis and Henderson (1984, 280) listed L. candidum from the islands of Cos and Rhodes and the provinces of Izmir, Aydin, Mugla and Antalya in south-west Anatolia where it is indigenous. L. candidum is also considered a native species in Lebanon and Israel (Mouterde 1966 I, 236; Feinbrun-Dothan 1986; Polunin and Huxley 1987, 216).⁽³⁾ Therefore, it may be assumed that in antiquity wild-growing Madonna lily was more abundant in the eastern Mediterranean than it is today.

LILIES IN WRITTEN CLASSICAL SOURCES

The Aegean scripts, notably Linear B, might have been expected to be of crucial importance for reconstructing the domestication history of lilies in the area and on Crete in particular. Since, however, no ideograms or words relating to lilies - even in the documents dealing with the perfume industry - have been identified (Shelmerdine 1985; J. Driessen, personal communication, September 1997), the earliest available literary sources are in the Classical Greek literature.

The Hippocratic corpus, written largely between 420 and 350 BC, contains over three hundred plants of medicinal and dietary value (Morton 1982, 25; Nutton 1995). Lily oil (susinum) is mentioned in the corpus as a cure for various ailments (Littré 1979, 7:361-362, 8:83, 207, 393, 381).

The comprehensive botanical studies of Theophrastus (371-287 BC, cf. note 1) contain about six hundred plants, mostly wild and cultivated eastern Mediterranean plants. The lilies mentioned by him are most probably L. candidum (Madonna lily),⁽⁴⁾ L. chalcedonicum⁽⁵⁾ and L. martagon.⁽⁶⁾ All three are regarded by Theophrastus as coronary plants, hence we may consider them cultivated species (Historia plantarum 6.6.1). That Madonna lily was already cultivated in Theophrastus's time is evident from the following descriptions:

"Lilies grow from pieces of the stems...and...also...when the whole stem is set" (Historia plantarum 2.2.1). Κρίνια (lilies) shew the variation in colour...⁽⁷⁾ The plant has in general a single stem, but occasionally divides into... On each stem grows sometimes one flower, but sometimes more...but this sort is less common.⁽⁸⁾ There is an ample root [bulb],⁽⁹⁾ which is fleshy and round. If the fruit is taken off, it germinates and produces a...plant...of smaller size; the plant also produces a sort of tear-like exudation,⁽¹⁰⁾ which men also plant..." (Historia plantarum 6.6.8; cf. Historia plantarum 9.1.4; De causis plantarum 1.4.4-6).

Such a diversity of propagation methods, seed,⁽¹¹⁾ whole stem, stem cuttings and bulbils, mentioned in these excerpts, are not likely to have been recorded for a wild growing plant. Moreover, Theophrastus says: "...most of the wild kinds have no names and few know about them, while most of the cultivated kinds have received names and they are more commonly observed..." (Historia plantarum 1.14.4).

Theophrastus mentioned lily flowers as being heavily scented (Historia plantarum 3.13.6; 3.18.11) and used as an ingredient in susinum, a perfume considered suitable for men (De odoribus 27, 42).

According to Hort (1916-1926), Theophrastus refers, besides L. candidum, to two other Lilium species (Historia plantarum 6.6.1; 6.6.3; 6.6.11), both of which are coronary plants. These are the crimson-flowered L. chalcedonicum and the rose-petaled L. martagon (Baumann 1984, figs. 382 and 383). The reservations concerning the above nomenclature expressed by Amigues (1983-1989, note 10 to Historia plantarum 6.6) show that Theophrastus did not give enough morphological details to establish a reliable taxonomy of Greek lilies.

Pliny (AD 23/24-79) provides in Naturalis Historia little botanical description of the Madonna lily. He ranks it with the rose as a perfume ingredient in ointment and oil "which they call lilinum''. Pliny says that blending rose and lily perfumes results in "a grand combination". The flowers, borne on stalks that reach three cubits (about 137 cm.), are notable for the whiteness of their corolla and the saffron colour of their pistil and stamens. Pliny reiterates Theophrastus's mention of the lily's various means of propagation and adds that "no plant is more prolific, a single root [bulb] often sending out fifty bulbs" (Naturalis Historia 21.22-26, 64, 68, 133).

The oil and bulb of the lily served in his time as a remedy for a number of ailments as well as for venomous snakes and toxic fungi (Naturalis Historia 15.31; 21.126-127; 25.40; 28.223, 235; 30.50, 110; 32.40, 109). Pliny also recommends the apicultural value of the lily:

"Gardens and chaplet flowers are closely associated with apiaries and bees, bee-culture being a source of very great profit at slight expense...Therefore, for the sake of the bees you ought to plant...lilies..." (Naturalis Historia 21.70).

In Materia medica Dioscorides (first century AD) describes in detail the preparation of Egyptian lily-scented ointment, which consumed thousands of lily flowers (Materia medica 1.52, cited in Manniche 1989, 50-51). Lily oil was not expensive (Naturalis Historia 13.10, 11) and was therefore used to adulterate balsam (Materia medica 1.19, cited in Riddle 1985, 75).

LILIES IN AEGEAN ART

Minoan pictorial depiction of plants reached a climax in the MM III-LM I periods (seventeenth-sixteenth centuries BC, according to the traditional chronology (Betancourt 1985, 103-133; Morgan 1988, 17-40; Immerwahr 1990, 40-50; Walberg 1992; Shaw 1993)). Some of the foreign plants portrayed in LM I paintings were cultivated by the Minoans or otherwise known to them through travel and the adoption of exotic motifs. Included in the latter category are the papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) ⁽¹²⁾ and the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera). Indigenous plants are common in Aegean art at the same date (Baumann 1984, 58-59, 176-180, figs. 356-360; Rackham 1978; Amigues 1988; Morgan 1988, 22-23; Walberg 1992, 245; Sarpaki this volume; Negbi and Negbi in press). Of these, lilies, crocuses, iris, tulip, sea daffodils, rose (Rosa), rock-rose (Cistus), olive, fig, ivy, reeds, sedges (Cyperus species), oaks, the wild Aegean palm (Phoenix theophrastii) and the Mediterranean pigmy palm (Chamaerops humilis), have been identified with reasonable certainty. However, drawings of staple crop plants, legumes and cereals, are quite rare in Minoan and Cycladic art (Evans 1921, fig. 45; 1928, 455 and 469; Marinatos 1969, pl. E3, pl. 36; 1972, pl. 59b; 1974, pl. 73 lower right; 1976, 29, pl. 44d, pl. 45; Betancourt 1985, pl. 16C; Walberg 1992, 246 and n.47).⁽¹³⁾

Excavations at Knossos, Amnissos and Ayia Triada on Crete, Trianda on Rhodes and Akrotiri on Thera have yielded a large number of lily portrayals on LM I wall paintings and pottery vessels (Stevenson Smith 1965, 70, 76, 78-80, figs. 104, 109; Betancourt 1985, 123, fig. 92, pl. 19B).⁽¹⁴⁾ Sir Arthur Evans described the lilies from the South East House fresco at Knossos as follows:

"The most striking of the fragments of wall-painting here brought to light, derived apparently from the columnar hall, was a group of white lilies with orange anthers and green foliage on a dark red ground...Some of the petals of one of the lower flowers seem to have been detached by the passing breeze; a natural touch which goes beyond mere decorative art" (Evans 1921, 537, col. pl. VI).

The lilies adorning the walls of the villa at Amnissos bear about a dozen white-petaled flowers on each flowering stem. Though stylised, they are an almost perfect representation of L. candidum in colour, shape and number of flowers (Marinatos 1933, 294-296, figs. 43, 44; Evans 1935, 1002, suppl. pls. LXVII a, b; Marinatos and Hirmer 1960, 140, pl. 64, col. pl. XXII; Hood 1978, 55, fig. 37; Baumann 1984, 176-177, figs. 352, 361; Davis and Henderson 1984). To the same category belong a less well known fresco fragment from Akrotiri (Xeste 3, Room 3), which illustrates a woman carrying on her shoulder a bundle of flowering white lily stems over a red setting (Catling 1979-80, 5, fig. 2).

Other lilies portrayed in the Aegean at that period are also akin to L. candidum (Fig. 1). Such are the white lilies on the strainer from Akrotiri (Fig. 2), the red lilies displayed in marble vases on a fresco in Room 4 of the West House of Akrotiri (Marinatos 1974, 24-26, col. pls. 3, 5, pls. 48-51; Doumas 1991, figs. 63-64), and entire plants of red lily (Pl. 15) of Akrotiri's 'Spring Fresco' (Doumas 1992, figs. 66-75). The Theran red lilies were considered by Rackham as an artistic hybrid between white flowered L. candidum and red-flowered L. chalcedonicum (Rackham 1978, 756). Baumann's thesis is in disagreement with Rackham's. According to Baumann, the portrayal of the Madonna lily in either white or red is based on the concept of colour contrast: lilies upon red or buff ground are white, and those upon bright ground are red (Baumann 1984, 171 in caption to fig. 351). Therefore, he views white and red lilies as belonging to one species:

"On the beautiful fresco at Amnisos...the slender floral spikes are shown fan-wise on a dark-red-background. The typical features of the white lily are also found in the lilies painted in red on the fresco in Thera. The painter, doubtless for purely aesthetic reasons, chose this colour to give more life to the landscape of barren rocks and to communicate a spring-like atmosphere. " ⁽¹⁵⁾

Examination of the pictorial material from both Crete and Thera led us to similar conclusions.⁽¹⁶⁾ Therefore, we accept Baumann's point of view that the white and red painted lilies represent a single species, namely L. candidum.

It is noteworthy that flowering crocuses and lilies are depicted together on wall paintings from the villa of Ayia Triada ,the 'House of The Frescoes' at Knossos and on a pottery vase from Thera (Marinatos 1976, pl. 47c; Hood 1978, 52-53; Cameron 1987; Shaw 1993, fig. 4). Depiction of autumn-flowering crocuses (Mathew 1982) and spring-or summer-flowering lilies (Davis and Henderson 1984) as blooming simultaneously makes sense only as a decorative pattern.

Of relevance to the present issue are the floral elements with Minoan affinities depicted on wall painting fragments from Avaris (Tell el-Dab'a) on the eastern Nile delta that have recently been ascribed to the early Eighteenth Dynasty (Bietak 1996, 67-70; Niemeier and Niemeier this volume). These include waz-lilies and lily-like plants (Bietak 1995, 24; Bietak and Marinatos 1995, 57-60, figs. 12, 14; Warren 1995, 3-5). On one fresco fragment there are plants which have some characteristics of the lily. They bear single stamenless flowers having white voluted petals on the apices of leaf-bearing stems, and hence may well represent Madonna lilies (Walberg 1992, 242; Warren, here, vol. I).⁽¹⁷⁾

Evidence for the cultivation of L. candidum in Egypt - where it is not indigenous and its cultivation is mandatory - appears only about a millennium later on a relief dating to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (650-550 BC). This 'relief de lirinon' from a lintel of a tomb (Fig. 3) shows the cardinal stages of preparation of lily perfume (Doumas 1975, 333, fig. 314). These are (1) harvesting of lily flowers in the lily garden, (2) lily flowers carried in a basket from the garden and (3) picked flowers pressed in a cloth for their perfume⁽¹⁸⁾ (to be presented to the deceased). During the Saïte Dynasty Greek maritime and commercial activity in Egypt was quite conspicuous and culminated in the establishment of the Greek colony at Naucratis in the Nile delta (Boardman 1980, 111-141; 1994; Spencer 1982). It is possible that the cultivation of the lily for perfume production was brought from Greece to Egypt in this period, though it could have occured earlier.⁽¹⁹⁾

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Literary evidence for the existence of gardens in Greece dates back to Homer (Kitto 1957; Thompson 1963). Homer describes an orchard of pears, pomegranates, apples, figs, olives and grapevines in the palace of King Alcinous. "There...by the last row of the vines, grow trim garden beds of every sort, blooming the year through...[and] two springs, one of which sends its water throughout all the garden...[irrigated this orchard]"  (Odyssey vii.111-132, translated A.T. Murray).⁽²⁰⁾ Thompson (1963) enumerates the following plants in ancient Greek gardens: crocus, violet, grape-hyacinth (Muscari spp.), anemone, cyclamen, Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum spp.), iris, tulip, narcissus, daisy (Chrysanthemum coronarium) and lily.

However, there is archaeological evidence for gardens in Crete and elsewhere in the Aegean islands during the neopalatial period (Evans 1930, 277-279; 1935, 1002; Graham 1962; Rackham 1978; Shaw 1993; Negbi 1994, 75 n.2).

LM I wall paintings from the 'House of The Frescoes' at Knossos and the villas of Amnissos and Ayia Triada indicate that the lily was cultivated indoors or in gardens on Crete during the same period (Evans 1930, 277-279; 1935, 1002; Shaw 1993, 668). Similarly, one may regard the contemporary 'Spring fresco' from Akrotiri as a portrayal of lilies growing in a rock garden rather than in their natural habitat. Saffron crocuses are harvested by ceremonially dressed women in what seems to be a rock garden (Doumas 1992, figs. 116-121; Pl. 8). The rocks on which crocuses and lilies grow are very similar. Note that in both cases there is a single plant species growing in what seems to be a wild volcanic terrain. The Amnissos villa fresco shows bare rocks outside the windows, in what seems - superficially - to be a garden (Cameron 1978, pl. 1). Evidence for indoors cultivation of the Madonna lily in the Aegean is provided by (the restored) Amnissos fresco, on which whole lily plants within and without flowerpots are illustrated on both sides of the room (Cameron 1978, pl. 1; cf. Shaw 1993, 666).

The possibility that a wild plant cultivated ex situ in a garden could mutate, be selected for and become a domesticated plant has recently been discussed by us at some length (Negbi and Negbi in press). The likelihood of locating a plant mutant in a garden rather than in the wild seems greater due to two reasons: not only is a mutant more easily picked by an attentive gardener but also mutation frequency is higher under cultivation (Zohary 1996).

We may assume that the Aegean gardeners already knew what Theophrastus stressed about 1200 years later, namely that vegetative propagation of the Madonna lily is an easier and quicker method of reproduction than that which relies on seed (Historia plantarum 6.6.8; see above). Furthermore, L. candidum is cross-pollinated (Woodcock and Coutts 1936, 98), a situation that may cause sterility of certain types. Such sterility might lead to dependence on man in vegetative propagation and hence domestication of the Madonna lily (Dr A. Carmi, personal communication).

The artistic and botanical evidence presented here supports the suggestion that the wild L. candidum had already become a garden plant during the Late Minoan period. We have no indications when and where a garden-planted Madonna lily mutated into a sterile, and consequently man-dependent (= domesticated), taxon. The similarity of wild to domesticated flowers of L. candidum (Mouterde 1966; R. Tadmor, vide Feinbrun-Dothan 1986) precludes the possibility of determining whether the portrayal of lilies in Aegean art represents (a) wild lilies in their natural habitat, (b) wild lilies planted in gardens, or (c) domesticated lilies planted in gardens.

The Madonna lily is occasionally regarded as the oldest cultivated lily in Europe. The notion that "centuries before Christ the Cretans and the Egyptians were tending it as a sacred and a medicinal plant..." (Woodcock and Coutts 1936, 97; cf. Zeven and Zhukovsky 1975, 103; Jefferson-Brown 1988, 135) presumably reflects the impact of Sir Arthur Evans's ideas regarding the Minoan origin of western civilisation.

(1).      Mentioned by Theophrastus in Historia plantarum 1.7.2; 4.5.2; 9.7.3-4; 9.9.2; De causis plantarum 6.11.13; 6.14.8; 6.18.12; and De odoribus 12, 21, 23-24, 28, 32, 36, 38. A. Hart (1916-1926) describes the iris as I. pallida, whereas S. Amigues (1983-1989) prefers I.germanica var. florentina.

(2).      A new flora of Crete describes L. candidum as "planted and more or less established" in western Crete (Turland, Chilton and Press 1993, 183).

(3).      Wild and domesticated varieties of L. candidum do not differ in their chromosome counts, 24; n=12 (Darlington and Wylie 1955; Feinbrun-Dothan 1986).

(4).      Κρίνον, κρινωνιά, λείριον (1) in Historia plantarum 1.13.2; 2.2.1; 6.6.8; De causis plantarum 1.4.4; 1.4.6.

(5).      Κρίνον τό πορφυρούν, in Historia plantarum 6.6.3.

(6).      Ήμεροκαλλές in Historia plantarum 6.6.11. The common names of L. chalcedonicum and L. martagon given by Hort (1916-1926) vary from those of Mabberley (1993). See also Baumann 1984, figs. 382, 383.

(7).      Here Amigues (1983-1989) notes: "...on doit admettre que l'espèce décrite ici est Lilium candidum L., spontané, quoique rare, dans les montagnes grecques, surtout en Epire et en Thessalie..., et très anciennement domestiqué" (note 16 to Historia plantarum 6.6).

(8).      Actually 2-12 (Davis and Henderson 1984).

(9).      Up to 10 cm. in diameter (Feinbrun-Dothan 1986, 44-45, fig. 63).

(10).     The 'exudates' are bulbils or bulblets. A bulblet is a small bulb formed above grouud...as in the axils of the leaves of the common bulbiferous lily (Lilium bulbiferum) a foreign species in Greek flora (De causis plantarum 1.4.6). "Sur le lis blanc (L. candidum), cultivé dès l'antiquité, la formation spontanée de bulbilles est une anomalie..."  (Amigues 1983-1989. note 1 to 2.2).

(11).     Seed production occurs in wild L. candidum in Israel (Feinbrun-Dothan 1986, 44-45, fig. 63; Dr Avner Carmi, personal communication), in L. candidum var. salonikae in northern Greece and in Britain (Woodcock and Coutts 1936, 101-102; Baumann 1984, 176) and in Turkey (Davis and Henderson 1984, 280-281).

(12).     P.M. Warren (1976) maintains that the papyrus was introduced to the Aegean in the Bronze Age. He supports this claim by pointing out that the papyrus grew in Sicily and still grows there near Syracuse. For a detailed survey of C. papyrus in the Mediterranean basin see Lewis 1974, 3-20.

(13).     See Zohary and Hopf 1994, 99-101, 113-114 for remains of cultivated plants found in ancient Greece.

(14).     Lilies were depicted on other Aegean artistic media: gold foil and faience 'models', inlay and repoussée on metal artefacts (Evans and Evans 1936). Gold foil lilies or daisies (Evans 1921, 97, figs. 67, 69; Davaras 1986, 18, fig. 52) were found in an EM II tomb at Mochlos, Crete. The tradition continued into the Mycenaean period as found on the Greek mainland (Evans 1921, 499, figs. 67-69). To the same chronological context belong the Lily dagger from Grave Circle A at Mycenae (grave V), which has silver cutouts of isolated lily flowers similar to those from the miniature fresco at Knossos, Phylakopi's frieze and a pithos from Akrotiri (Evans 1930, 130-132; Marinatos 1969, 37-38, pls. E7 and 25; Vermeule 1975, 61-62, fig. 61).

(15).    W.T. and E.R. Stearn, the translators and augmentors of this edition of Baumann's book, added the following sentence: "He [the painter] may also have been inspired by the red Lilium chalcedonicum." This taxon is the endemic Greek turban lily (Baumann 1993, fig. 373).

(16).     The concept of contrast is supported by other Theran and Cretan works of art. For examples of white lilies on a dark background and vice versa see Marinatos 1969, 37-38, pls. E7 and 25; 1970, pls. A1, A3 and 48; 1976, pl 47c: Höckmann 1978, figs. 3 and 4; and Doumas 1983, 110-112, pls. 53, 54; 1992, figs. 133, 134; cf Pl. 4.

(17).     An eastern Mediterranean lily has been identified in the 'botanical garden' portrayed in the Syrian campaign relief of Tuthmosis III from Karnak (fifteenth century BC) (Stevenson Smith 1965, 161-162, fig. 199; Wachsmann 1987, 5-6; Hugonot 1989, 37ff., fig. 28). This identification seems inconclusive. The 'lily', situated to the right of the two irises, is shown in Stevenson Smith's fig. 199, with "a long bulbous root", a geophilous organ not found in eastern Mediterranean lilies (Davis and Henderson 1984). Moreover, this plant has neither name nor root in Hugonot's fig. 28 (cf. his fig. 29 where the plants of the Karnak relief are enumerated).

(18).     Manniche (1989, 48) shows a drawing of a Ptolemaic relief from Turin, showing women extracting the essence of lilies. The flowers in this relief are depicted in the same manner as those on the relief in the Louvre.

(19).     Of importance is the 'Lions in a garden' relief from the North Palace at Nineveh (645-640 BC), which shows two lily plants in blossom (Curtis and Reade 1995, 82-83).

(20).    Murray's "garden beds" (πρασιαί), are translated by Fitzgerald (1961, 127) as "rows of vegetables of all kinds that flourish in every season" and by Lawrence (1991, 97) as "garden plots...blooming all the year with flowers". Lawrence's version was adopted by Thompson (1963), but wrongly referenced to Odyssey v.

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