The Melograno or Pomegranate (Punica granatum) has traditionally been considered a symbol of
beauty and fertility. Persephone, daughter of Ceres, the Goddess of growth and abundance, was
forced to spend four months of each year in the underworld, because she had eaten four seeds of
the pomegranate, when she was held captive by Pluto. Its large scarlet flowers, red-gold fruit,
and glossy green leaves have inspired countless allusions in literature and art.
According to the Bible, King Solomon boasted an orchard of pomegranate trees, and when the
children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, they remembered longingly the cooling
pomegranates of Egypt.
The ancients say that there is a door through which a man may return to life, to love the
woman to whom he gave the pomegranate. Furthermore, that as the God that ate of the seeds of
the pomegranate is destined to mortality, the man that tastes them while loving and believing
in love will himself become immortal.