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Writer's picturePhilosykos

The symbolism of the Fig: knowledge, enlightenment, passion and fertility!

The fig symbolizes knowledge, enlightenment, passion and fertility!

Figs have a long history in human history, they have been mentioned in various ancient cultures and sources. From excavations and archaeological research, we know that figs were cultivated and consumed by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and other ancient peoples.



The ancient Greeks made figs a symbol of the rich and the aristocracy. The fig was associated both with the goddess Demeter, who gave the fig tree to the Athenians when she mourned the abduction of Persephone by Pluto, and with Dionysus, the god of agriculture, wine, fertility and creativity of madness, the vine, the ivy plant, and the fig were his symbols. Plutarch mentions, "the ancestral festival of the Dionysians once had a simple and popular merriment. At the head of the procession was an amphora full of wine and a branch of vine, then a goat being dragged by someone, then a loaf of figs, being lifted by someone else, and finally the phallus", while the nuns wore garlands of fig leaves on their heads.



Figs were of great importance to all ancient peoples especially of the Mediterranean, such as the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Jews and the Persians. You guess from important historical sources, that the main cause of the Persian war was that Xerxes wanted to secure dried figs for his army, as one of the important ingredients of his diet, both from the region of Ionia - Asia Minor - and and from Attica.


Fig, a fruit full of symbolism...


Its tiny seeds symbolize fertility and prosperity, unity, the knowledge. Fertility is symbolized by its white hole, which refers to both male sperm and mother's milk.



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