The Sacred Herbs of Samhain by Ellen Evert Hopman

Author:Ellen Evert Hopman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Celtic Spirituality
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2019-05-29T16:00:00+00:00

Asphodel

(Asphodelus ramosus)

With its gray foliage, this is said to be a favorite food of the dead. In ancient Greece, the living roasted the roots and ate them, or dried and powdered the roots and added them to bread dough. Considered a delicacy, the cooked roots or bread were left as gifts on graves.

Asphodel was planted on graves in the Mediterranean area, where it is native, and was used to ritually bathe corpses. In fact, according to Greek mythology, Hades, the realm of the dead, had a special section called Asphodel Meadows where ghosts were said to reside. In his poem “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower,” William Carlos Williams writes, “I was cheered / when I came first to know / that there were flowers also / in hell.”

In the Odyssey, Homer writes:

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