Re: Henna - Myrtle? (heads up, PJ!)

Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on May 05, 2000 at 16:13:11:

In Reply to: Henna - Myrtle? posted by Chelsea on May 05, 2000 at 13:53:33:

That is EXTREMELY interesting!!!! Please tell me where this powder
came from, and every detail that you possibly can!
Myrtle and henna have similar leaves, and I suspect that the
word myrtle was used interchangeably for henna during the Greek and
Roman periods. Possibly medieval Spanish, also. In one book from
India, henna is referred to as "The colorful Myrtle".
You can't dye skin with myrtle (500 species or so), but if it's
proveable that henna was frequently referred to as myrtle, that makes
a BIG pile of literary references fall into place as part of the
history of henna!
IE.... love and fertility goddesses from 3000 BCE to 800 BCE in the
eastern Mediterranean were closely associated with henna; Aphrodite
and Venus (500 BCE and up) were closely associated with myrtle!

Follow Ups:

• Re: Henna - Myrtle? (heads up, PJ!) Chelsea 19:30:09 5/05/00 (1)
  • help for instructionless henna Catherine Cartwright Jones 09:27:48 5/06/00 (0)