Lore galore: Reseeding the pomegranate's sacred and sensual symbolism
A million arils, a million stories
The harder the labour, the sweeter the fruits.
While this may not be the absolute truth when it comes to nature's sweet bounty — a crisp apple delights just as well as a pudgy chikoo — with the pomegranate, the labour of love somehow makes sense, the only proof of this being the centuries worth of dietary and cultural weathering the rustic, edible ruby has gone through.
Now it isn't all too uncommon to spot a kinky fruit motif here and there (Josephine Baker's banana skirt from 20th century Paris will always be a moment in time).
Berries, avocados, lemons, oranges — the age of sartorially standing out has ensured that nothing truly does. But history, more than anything else, seems to have successfully put the pomegranate in a league of its own. And there is civilisations worth of lore to supplement the fruit's global legacy.
The sensual
{{/usCountry}}Berries, avocados, lemons, oranges — the age of sartorially standing out has ensured that nothing truly does. But history, more than anything else, seems to have successfully put the pomegranate in a league of its own. And there is civilisations worth of lore to supplement the fruit's global legacy.
The sensual
{{/usCountry}}Using sensual and sacred in a co-dependent sense may seem blasphemous to a certain demographic, but there really is no better manner to capture the essence of the pomegranate in history. With more arils than one can casually count, the concept of life and rebirth has lent itself quite seamlessly to the fruit, it's cultivation in Mesopotamia and Asia Minor dating back to over 5,000 years. Besides the obvious context of consumption, life, opens doors to the dual contexts of fertility and reproduction, fortified by the fact that the pomegranate was a prime offering to the Goddess of love, Ishtar.
{{/usCountry}}Using sensual and sacred in a co-dependent sense may seem blasphemous to a certain demographic, but there really is no better manner to capture the essence of the pomegranate in history. With more arils than one can casually count, the concept of life and rebirth has lent itself quite seamlessly to the fruit, it's cultivation in Mesopotamia and Asia Minor dating back to over 5,000 years. Besides the obvious context of consumption, life, opens doors to the dual contexts of fertility and reproduction, fortified by the fact that the pomegranate was a prime offering to the Goddess of love, Ishtar.
{{/usCountry}}But in a more obviously carnal sense, ancient Greek mythology paints the most seething picture. Pomegranate is the fruit which bound an unassuming Persephone, the Greek Goddess of Spring to Hades, the God of the underworld. The lore goes that it was consuming a few arils of the fruit that made her Hades', also crowning her the queen of the underworld.
This happens to be one of the earliest and most far-reaching narratives in painting the pomegranate in its own 'bloody' hues — of desire, want and the forbidden. Even antique art which spotlights the fruit in human context, more often than not displays the flesh cut with the arils spilling, a subtle veiled nod to its very evident sensual presence.
The sacred
Birth, however joyous, always carries with it the reality of imminent death. And for the early Egyptians, pomegranates were the fruit of choice which journeyed with the dead, both in their tombs and their funeral offerings.
In symbolism and prose, the fruit makes innumerable appearances in holy scriptures, across faiths and timelines. The Bible makes mention of it in the Old Testament while the fruit becomes a symbol for the promised land of Israel in Judaism. Christian symbolism reads the pomegranate's arils as a representation of the united Church while Buddhism holds it as one of the three blessed fruits. The Quran mentions the holy fruit as many as three times, with many interpretations referring to it as 'the apple of paradise'.
In many ways, on the spiritual spectrum, the pomegranate's aura precedes its presence.
Printed paraphernalia
Spotting a pomegranate on contemporary couture may mesmerise you but hardly garner a second glance. But its ornamental presence on sartoria is as age-old as it gets. Archaeological evidence suggests how the motif had a stronghold on Mesopotamian art as well as the silhouettes and jewellery of highly placed women. Motifs of the fruit are also believed to have been embroidered on to the robe hems of the Hebrew high priest as well as Church vests — the spilling pomegranate reportedly denoting Christ's suffering and resurrection.
The pomegranate's million arils present a million possibilities — of life, leisure, times past and narratives held. All of this to say, in a simpler sense, it's a fruit worth the trouble.
