As I was reading this article about symbolism on Buzzfeed, I was astonished to read this:
"A generic heart doesn't look anything like the thing beating in your
chest. We all know this. What would you say if we told you that the
original image dates back to ancient Rome, and represented the seedpod
of a specific plant used for natural birth control? You'd say DEAR GOD
NO as you remember the sappy card
you gave your grandmother for her 92nd birthday."
So I thought 'okay, what IS this mysterious plant? After a quick Google, I found this other website called The Straight Dope and this article about what the Romans did use:
"A long list of herbs must be avoided during pregnancy because they're abortifacients, causing contractions or damage to the lining of the uterus. If taken as ancient writers claimed, silphium might have worked as a monthly morning-after pill. Other items touted as contraceptives in antiquity include wild carrot (a silphium relative also known as Queen Anne's lace), pennyroyal, and pomegranate. In small doses many of these are known to stimulate menstrual flow, just as silphium is supposed to have done. But some, pennyroyal for one, are poisonous — and if the abortion fails to occur, the infant can suffer birth defects."
Now, what stood out to me was the usage of pomegranate. If you remember the Greek story of Hades and Persephone, then you know that while in the Underworld, Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds. She was there was six months, thus she ate six seeds probably to ensure there would be no pregnancy as a result of intercouse with Hades. However, this also raises a question, Hermes was the only god who did go back and forth to the Underworld, but if Persophine had a child with Hades while in the Underworld, would that child theoretically be dead? Or alive? And what if she came above ground in the spring, would the child survive?
So many questions.
