In Greek mythology, Libanus (Ancient Greek: Λίβανος, romanized: Libanos) is a character in a minor myth who was transformed into an small aromatic shrub. His brief myth survives in the works of Nicolaus Sophista, a Greek sophist and rhetor of the fifth century AD, and the Geoponica, a Byzantine Greek collection of agricultural lore, compiled during the tenth century in Constantinople for the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus.
Etymology[edit]
The ancient Greek noun Λίβανος translates to 'frankincense', and by extension the tree; it is derived from a Semitic root related to the word for white (lbn).[1]
Mythology[edit]
The Syrian or Assyrian Libanus, who shared a name with a mountain range and the land both, was a young man who had been offered to the gods in a temple before he had even been born. Some impious people, in jealousy, killed him. Gaia, the goddess of the earth, honouring the other gods, transformed him into a plant that bore his name and was similarly dedicated to the gods, and people who offered incense to the gods were seen as more pious than those who offered gold.[2][3][4][5] Two distinct plants are connected to Libanus's name; the first the λίβανος (libanos), meaning incense and by extension the frankincense tree (boswellia sacra),[6] and the second the δενδρολίβανον (dendrolibanon, literally "tree Libanus") meaning rosemary.[7] The unidentified author of the Geoponica clarifies that the myth is indeed about the rosemary.[5] If the incense interpretation is taken into account, then Libanus's story can be compared with that of Leucothoe, a Persian princess who was transformed into a frankincense tree as well.[8]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Beekes 2009, p. 860.
- ^ Nicolaus Sophista, Progymnasmata 2.4
- ^ Westermann 1843, p. 377.
- ^ Ascherson 1884, p. 16.
- ^ a b Geoponica 6.15
- ^ Liddell & Scott s.v. λίβανος
- ^ Liddell & Scott s.v. δενδρολίβανον
- ^ Forbes Irving 1990, p. 267.
Bibliography[edit]
- Anonymous (1805). Geoponika: Agricultural Pursuits. Vol. II. Translated by Thomas Owen. London.
- Beekes, Robert S. P. (2009). Lucien van Beek (ed.). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. 1. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Publications. ISBN 978-90-04-17420-7.
- Ascherson, Ferdinand (1884). Berliner Studien für classische Philologie und Archaeologie. Calvary.
- Forbes Irving, Paul M. C. (1990). Metamorphosis in Greek Myths. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-814730-9.
- Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Online version at Perseus.tufts project.
- Westermann, Anton (1843). Μυθογραφοι. Scriptores poeticæ historiæ Græci. Edidit A. W. Gr.
