Friday, April 28, 2023
Lingering Echoes
George Horton, In Argolis (London: Duckworth and Company, 1903), p. 95:
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After the ceremony in the little church on the top of the hill, we all went to the groom's house together. A pomegranate was lying on the threshold, upon which the bride dutifully stepped, crushing the seeds out of it as an indication of desired fruitfulness. What a thrill of delight that one little act, so appropriate to this land, gave me! The great gods have turned pale and faded away before the fierce sun of Christianity, like the stars at the coming of day; yet many of the old, sweet echoes linger to woo the heart that cannot quite forget its pagan yearnings. There was a pomegranate in the hand of the gold-and-ivory statue of Hera, the goddess of fertility, by Polycleitus, at Argos.
