This is the second edition of my series of fig related word origins, definitions, unpleasantness, vulgarity and some fun facts from antiquity. The information, although far from exhaustive, comes from old and current books, and from online sources. Additional sources are listed below the main text [ ].
Ingevald
Interesting Facts & Stories
- Figs and the Holy Land - http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0501.htm There are also other very interesting resources on this site. It has been linked to the forum numerous times.
- Aristophanes, a Greek comic playwright stated “Nothing is sweeter than figs [2]
- Genesis 3:7 “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” [5]
- Fig Sunday – “The custom of eating figs on Palm Sunday gave rise to the name Fig Sunday or Fig Pudding Day in England…” [3]
- During Victorian times, fig leaves were used to cover the private parts of statues. More information here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fig_leaf
- Many more interesting historical tidbits can be found here http://californiafigs.com/page.php?page=18
- Fig – Take a look at the “Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database” to see fig names translated in various languages where figs are grown. http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Ficus.html
- Fig latex was mentioned by Aristotle, used as rennet to curdle milk for the making of cheese. Interesting ancient history. Check out the link under [10]
One of the best collections of this type of information is found in Ira Condit’s The Fig on pages 1 through 8. (a link is provided below [7]). There is too much dense information in Condit’s book to include here. I highly recommend reading through it for the interesting stories, not to mention its value as a fig cultural guide.
Gustav Eisen’s The Fig: Its History, Culture, and Curing is an excellent resource. Pages 15 through 21 contains interesting and useful stories. [11] Link is below.
Resources:
[2] QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson, 4th edition.
[3] - The Free Dictionary by Farlex
[5] King James version of the Bible
[7] The Fig by Ira Condit 1947
[8] Plantae Utiliores; or Illustrations of Useful Plants employed in The Arts and Medicine by M.A. Burnett Vol I. 1842
[9] Chambers’s Encyclopaedia, A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge. Vol. IV. William and Robert Chambers 1889
[10] http://www.romanarmy.net/cheese.htm “Blessed are the Cheese Makers”
[11] The Fig; Its History, Culture and Curing by Gustav Eisen. Pages 15- 21 contain some very good stories and information on the history of figs. The books is also an excellent cultivation resource. There are two links http://figs4fun.com/Links/FigLink270.pdf (some edges of the pages are cut off in this link). The Google Book’s link is complete.