“DIE MYRTE STILL…”: GOETHE AND THE MYRTLE

Myrtle: history, symbol, quality and flavor from antiquity to the present

Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht

– J. W. von Goethe, Mignons Lied

Myrtle plants with fruit on the terrace of the Goethe Haus in Palermo

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Introduction: brief history of myrtle from ancient times to today

Myrtle (Myrtus communis L.) is an evergreen plant of the Myrtaceae family, widespread throughout the Mediterranean region, from the Maghreb coast to the Tyrrhenian islands, from the Iberian Peninsula to Asia Minor. With its small white flowers, glossy blue-black berries and leathery leaves with a resinous scent, myrtle has accompanied human civilization for millennia as an emblem of beauty, sacredness and life.

Myrtus communis lives in a range from the Mediterranean to western Asia and Pakistan; its typical habitat is open forests, garrigue and evergreen shrublands. The species tolerates drought, brackish wind and poor soils, thanks to leathery leaves rich in aromatic glands: this is why it becomes one of the key plants in Mediterranean scrubland after fires and destruction, when it quickly regrows from the stump.

Figure 1. Flowers of Myrtus communis: the white corolla and showy stamens explain myrtle’s ancient association with purity, nuptials and grace. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

In Mesopotamian cultures and Jewish tradition, myrtle(hadas) was a sign of peace and grace: even today it is one of the four ritual symbols of the Sukkot festival, mentioned explicitly in Leviticus (23:40). In the Greek world, myrtle was consecrated to Aphrodite: the goddess of love hid her nakedness behind a myrtle bush as she came out of the sea, and from then on the plant became an attribute of brides and wedding processions. Myrtle garlands adorned cups in Platonic symposia, and Plutarch records how the Athenians crowned magistrates and ambassadors with myrtle as a sign of civic authority.

Among the Romans, myrtle was equally sacred to Venus. In the temple of Venus Myrtea on the Capitol, priestesses wove crowns for newlyweds, and Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia (book XV) carefully describes two varieties: myrtos tarentina, which was wilder, and myrtos domestica, cultivated in gardens. Ovid in the Fasti and Virgil in the Georgics mention myrtle as the plant of marriage and the immortality of love.

In the Middle Ages the pagan sacredness of myrtle was transformed into Christian symbolism: the plant became an attribute of the Virgin Mary, an icon of purity and chastity. Herbals such as Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica (transmitted in Arabic and Latin copies) and pseudo-Aristotle’s Liber de Plantis extolled its medicinal properties. The Renaissance rediscovered myrtle from a Neoplatonic perspective: in Petrarch’s Trionfi the plant adorns Laura’s chariot, and 16th-century botanists-from Pier Andrea Mattioli to Rembert Dodoens-systematized its classification and therapeutic virtues.

From the nineteenth century onward, myrtle enters the great European Romantic literature as a symbol of the ideal Mediterranean, of the Greece and Italy dreamed of by poets and writers from the Northern European area. In the twentieth century, the plant is consolidated as an identity element of Sardinia-where its cultivation and distillation of the liqueur represent a food and wine excellence recognized worldwide-without losing its symbolic value in art and poetry.

Figure 2. Myrtle with fruit near Makrylia, Crete: a dry, bright environment akin to the Mediterranean scrub described by the essay. Photo: Robert Flogaus-Faust, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

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1. Myrtle in Goethe: poetry, science and Weltliteratur

1.1“Mignons Lied“: the myrtle verse.

The most famous myrtle-related poem in German literature-and among the most famous in world lyric poetry-is the Mignons Lied, Mignon’s Song, composed by Goethe around 1782 and included in the novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (The Apprenticeship Years of Wilhelm Meister, 1795-96). The lyric is sung by the character of Mignon, a mysterious and melancholy child torn from her native Italy, who in the arpeggio of regret invokes the land of the South as the lost homeland of the soul.

The text of the first stanza sounds:

Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn, / Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen glühn, / Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht, / Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht? / Kennst du es wohl? / Dahin. Dahin / Möcht ich mit dir, o mein Geliebter, ziehn.

– J. W. von Goethe, Mignons Lied (1782/1796)

In translation:

You know the land where lemons bloom,

Where among the dark leaves burn golden oranges,

Where a gentle wind blows from the blue sky,

Where the myrtle is silent and the laurel stands tall?

Do you know her perhaps?

There, there

I would like with you, O my beloved, to go.

The verse“Die Myrte still” – “the myrtle is silent” – is of extraordinary symbolic density. The myrtle is not decorative ornament: it is silent presence, almost a quality of the Mediterranean air, the humble and fragrant counterpoint to the triumphant laurel. The silence of the myrtle alludes to its sacred nature, to the chastity of the goddess and bride, but also to a discreet melancholy that permeates the entire song. In that“stillness” Goethe concentrates the longing of the North for the South, the romantic Sehnsucht for a bright and unattainable elsewhere.

In the structure of Wilhelm Meister, Mignon’s song fulfills a capital function: it is the lyrical and thematic center of the entire coming-of-age novel(Bildungsroman). Mignon represents Sehnsucht in person, the yearning for an ideal of beauty and homeland that cannot be achieved without life itself dissolving. It is no accident that the character dies before returning to Italy: the “silent” myrtle is also the funeral myrtle, the plant of dignified and loving death. Generations of readers, poets and composers have identified this stanza as the literary manifesto of the Grand Tour and the myth of Italy.

For the entire text of the poem:

Do you know the land where lemon trees bloom? Goethe’s poem

1.2 Musical and literary reception of the Mignons Lied

Goethe’s poem inspired more than seventy composers. The most famous versions are that of Franz Schubert (D. 321, 1815; you can listen to it at the link: F. SCHUBERT, Goethe Lieder “Kennst du das Land”) and that of Hugo Wolf (1888), as well as Ambroise Thomas’s Mignon (1866), an opera in which the myrtle song becomes the soprano’s leading aria. Beethoven, Schumann and Liszt also tried their hand at the text. In literature, the Mignons Lied is quoted or varied by Thomas Mann in The Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain, by Theodor Fontane, by Rainer Maria Rilke, and, in twentieth-century Italy, by Carlo Emilio Gadda.

1.3 Myrtle in other works by Goethe

Beyond the Mignons Lied, myrtle recurs in several places in Goethe’s work. In Faust (Part I, Garden Scene) the plant symbolism of the flower crowns includes references to the nuptial symbolism of the myrtle. In the Römische Elegien (Roman Elegies, 1795), composed after the Italian sojourn of 1786-88, the myrtle appears as an element of the Roman amorous landscape, intertwined with the sensual joy of the South. In the Italienische Reise (Journey to Italy), a diary of his Grand Tour, Goethe observes the myrtle with an eye that is both poetic and scientific: he recognizes the plant on the Neapolitan coast, notes its scent, the shape of its leaves, its rocky habitat. The naturalist in him is never separated from the poet.

In his scientific work-Goethe was a botanist, mineralogist and theorist of plant morphology-the myrtle is an emblematic case of his Urpflanze (archetypal original plant) theory, the idea that all plant forms are variations of a single morphological plane. The myrtle leaf, with its dense veining and simple structure, is in Metamorphosis of Plants (1790) one of the examples of the geometric beauty of nature.

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2. The symbolism of myrtle in universal literature

2.1 From Greek myth to Jewish tradition.

Myrtle is one of the most symbolically charged plants in human history. In Greece it was the main attribute of Aphrodite: its black berries were associated with female fertility, the whiteness of its flowers with purity. Greek brides wore myrtle wreaths; those who fell in battle were buried with myrtle branches. In Orphic tradition, myrtle was the plant of initiates into the mysteries: the woven branches in the tombs of Olbia (4th cent. BCE) testify to its role as a passport to the afterlife.

In the Bible, the myrtle (hadas in Hebrew) is a symbol of divine justice and grace. In the book of Isaiah (41:19; 55:13) its spontaneous growth in the desert is a sign of Israel’s redemption. Queen Esther bears the Hebrew name Hadassah, meaning “myrtle”: a plant identity that encompasses beauty, hidden strength and the salvation of the people. In medieval Jewish mysticism, the myrtle is associated with the Shekinah, the divine feminine presence, and is still carried in procession during the festival of Sukkot along with palm, cedar and willow.

A further symbolic knot, useful in clarifying the continuity between the Greek and Latin worlds, is Pausanias: in the Description of Greece he explicitly links rose and myrtle to Aphrodite and Adonis. Myrtle is thus not only a nuptial emblem, but also a plant of metamorphosis, eros, and ritual memory.

2.2 Myrtle in Latin literature and the Renaissance

Virgil in the Aeneid (Book VI) places myrtle in the Lugentes Campi, the Fields of Mourning of the Underworld, where the souls of the victims of unhappy love “celant se silvis et myrtea circum / silva tegit” – hide in the woods and a forest of myrtle covers them (VI, 443-444). Thus, myrtle is also a funeral plant, a consoler of the pain of love. Ovid in the Art of Loving and Metamorphoses uses myrtle as a background for love episodes. Propertius and Tibullus mention it as an elegiac emblem of passion.

In the Italian Renaissance, myrtle enters the topics of the Arcadian landscape. Sannazaro in Arcadia (1504) populates myrtle and laurel woods as symbols of pastoral poetry. Ariosto in Orlando Furioso and Tasso in Gerusalemme Liberata resort to myrtle as the plant of the love spell and the fairy garden.

To the Latin series can be added Horace, who in the Persicos odi (Carmina I, 38) contrasts the simple myrtle with Persian ornaments: the plant here becomes a measure of understated, convivial and loving elegance. This detail helps to understand why myrtle passes so naturally from temples to domestic interiors, from sacred crowns to the table.

2.3 The “divine myrtles” in D’Annunzio: The Rain in the Pine Grove

Gabriele d’Annunzio’s poem La pioggia nel pineto, published in Laudi del cielo del mare della terra e degli eroi (Alcyone, 1903), is considered one of the absolute masterpieces of modern Italian lyric poetry. In it, myrtle is present in a key passage, dense with symbolic and sensual implications.

The verses sound:

It rains on the tamarisks
brackish and parched,
it rains on the pines
flaky and bristling,
it rains on the myrtles
divine,
On the blazing gorse
Of flowers welcomed.
…and your face
is soft with rain
Like a leaf,
And your hair
aullify as
the clear junipers
On the Adriatic sea;
…
Listen, listen. The song
cicadas
More deaf is made under the weeping
growing;
But one hour is silent.
And I hear in the branches
the divine myrtles
quiver…

– G. d’Annunzio, The Rain in the Pine Grove (Alcyone, 1903)

The expression “divine myrtles” is among the densest and most significant in the entire poem. The myrtle here is not simply a plant of the Mediterranean undergrowth: it is “divine” because it carries with it all the echoes of the classical tradition-the aphrodisiac sacredness, the nuptial symbol, the Arcadian consecration-and blends it with D’Annunzio’s modernist sensoriality. The “quivering” myrtle in the rain is a metaphor for the thrill of pleasure that runs through the woods and through the bodies of the two lovers.

On the phonic level, the word “myrtles” carries a constellation of somber, deep sounds (the initial m, the vibrating r, the occlusive t) that match the “quivering,” the low, continuous sound of rain. D’Annunzio operates a total “panism” here: nature is not a background but a living subject, and the myrtle is one of its sacred guardians. The forest is not simply wet: it is consecrated by the presence of these divine plants that convey to the landscape the legacy of Aphrodite, of Venus, of the whole Mediterranean civilization of desire.

D’Annunzio also uses myrtle elsewhere in Alcyone and earlier poetic production. In the lyric La sera fiesolana, the Tuscan landscape is dotted with sacred plants that harken back to classicism; in the prose Fire and Triumph of Death, the presence of myrtle in lagoon and coastal landscapes reiterates the link between Eros, death, and nature. For D’Annunzio, myrtle is always simultaneously perfume, myth, and flesh.

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3. Myrtle in ancient and modern pharmacopoeia

3.1 The classical sources

Pedanius Dioscorides, in De Materia Medica (1st century A.D., book I, ch. 155), describes myrtle with great accuracy: he distinguishes three varieties (white, black and wild), lists its used parts (leaves, berries, bark, seeds) and indicates its astringent and antiseptic properties. The leaves in decoction were used against ulcers, eye diseases, lung affections and urinary infections. Myrtle must(myrtites) was recommended for stomach disorders.

Pliny the Elder in the Naturalis Historia (book XV, XXXVII) lists the same properties and adds that the juice of the berries was used as a hair dye and that myrtle wood, when burned, produced a smoke suitable for preserving meat. Galen in his pharmacological treatises classifies myrtle as a “cold and dry” plant at the second rank on the humoral scale: thus suitable for treating inflammation and “hot and humid” conditions such as intestinal fevers.

In the Arab Middle Ages, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) in the Canon of Medicine takes up Dioscorides and enhances the prescription of myrtle against diarrhea, bleeding, and skin infections. Al-Biruni and Ibn al-Baytar catalogue myrtle in their herbalist treatises under the Arabic name as (or murd) and extol its hemostatic action.

3.2 Renaissance and modern pharmacopoeia

Pier Andrea Mattioli in Commentarii ai Sei libri di Dioscoride (Venice, 1544) offers a precise botanical description of myrtle and updates its therapeutic indications. Mattia de l’Obel, a Flemish botanist of the sixteenth century, and then John Gerard in his Herball (1597) bring knowledge of myrtle to northern Europe, highlighting its tonic and digestive properties.

Modern chemistry has confirmed and expanded the ancient pharmacopoeia. The leaves and berries of Myrtus communis contain a rich mixture of bioactive compounds:

Essential oils (1,8-cineole/eucalyptol, α-pinene, linalool, limonene): responsible for antibacterial, antiviral and balsamic action. Cineole, in particular, is a powerful expectorant and bronchodilator, hence its use in the treatment of bronchitis, sinusitis and respiratory tract infections.

Polyphenols and flavonoids (myricetin, quercetin, catechins): powerful antioxidant action that neutralizes free radicals, slowing cellular aging and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Tannins (gallic acid, elagitannins): astringent and anti-inflammatory action on gastrointestinal mucosa. Useful in enteritis, diarrhea and intestinal disorders.

Anthocyanins and phenolic pigments in berries: contribute to blue-black color and antioxidant action. It is good to distinguish myrtle from blueberry: some commercial and popular names overlap, but the plants belong to different botanical families.

Organic acids (citric acid, malic acid): digestive and detoxifying properties.

Recent clinical and pharmacological studies (including work by Prof. Giovanni Appendino’s group at the University of Eastern Piedmont and research published in Molecules and Phytotherapy Research) have confirmed the antimicrobial properties of myrtle extract against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans, opening up prospects for pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications.

Organoleptically, myrtle berries have a complex scent: resinous and balsamic notes at the top (pinene, cineole), a floral-spicy heart (linalool, eugenol) and a bitter-sweet base conferred by tannins and anthocyanins. The leaves, more bitter and richer in essential oil, are used as a spice in Sardinian cooking to flavor roasted meat (porcetto) and cured meats.

Figure 3. Ripe myrtle berries: the blue-black color comes from phenolic and anthocyanin pigments, which are also essential for traditional liqueur. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

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4. Myrtle in the modern production of extracts and liqueurs

4.1 Phytotherapeutic and cosmetic extracts

The modern pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry has developed a wide range of myrtle products. In phytotherapy, the following are marketed:

Dry or fluid extracts titrated in polyphenols, flavonoids, and essential oil fractions, with traditional uses as antioxidants, balsamics, and astringents;

Mother tinctures and glycerol of Myrtus communis, used in homeopathy and phytotherapy for bronchial affections and recurrent cystitis;

Myrtle essential oils for use in aromatherapy, environmental diffusers, and inhalation products for respiratory ailments;

Hydroalcoholic extracts for topical use in creams, serums, and tonics for oily and acne-prone skin due to sebum-regulating and antibacterial action.

In contemporary Mediterranean cosmetics, myrtle appears mainly in tonics, cleansers, fragrances and dermocosmetic lines inspired by the Sardinian and Corsican maquis; in phytotherapy it remains more prudent to speak of traditional use and laboratory-studied extracts, not drug substitutes.

4.2 Myrtle liqueur: Sardinian excellence in the world

Myrtle liqueur represents the most famous Sardinian alcoholic production and one of the excellences of the Italian liquor scene. Its history is rooted in the agro-pastoral tradition of Sardinia: shepherds would gather berries in the woods in autumn, let them macerate in grape marc alcohol or brandy, obtaining a digestive that warmed on bivouac nights. The first commercial production dates back to the 1970s, with Sardinian entrepreneurs turning a domestic tradition into a product exported worldwide.

Today the main industrial and artisanal producers in Sardinia include Zedda Piras (the largest by volume), Sella & Mosca, Silvio Carta, Lu Mirtinu, Lussurgiu and dozens of small artisanal distilleries. The Sardinian myrtle market generates sales of about 30 million euros annually, with significant exports to Germany, the U.S., Australia and Japan.

There are two basic types: red (or black) myrtle, made from the blue-black berries ripe between October and January, and white myrtle, made from the white or yellowish berries of a less common variety, or from the leaves and twigs of the plant. Red myrtle is more full-bodied, sweet and tannic; white myrtle is more delicate, floral and aromatic.

Figure 4. Maceration of berries in alcohol: the cold method preserves berry color and aromas. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

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5. Recipes for making myrtle liqueur

5.1 Red myrtle (traditional)

Traditional Sardinian red myrtle is prepared by cold maceration: heat would destroy the delicate anthocyanins responsible for the color and part of the aromas. The berries are harvested strictly between November and January, when they are well ripe and rich in sugars and pigments.

Ingredients (for about 1.5 liters of liquor):

500 g ripe black myrtle berries (fresh, not washed with hot water)

750 ml pure 95° food grade alcohol

400 ml of natural mineral water

350-400 g granulated sugar (or raw cane sugar for a more complex profile)

1 small sprig of myrtle with leaves (optional, to intensify the herbaceous note)

Procedure:

Maceration (30-60 days): Pour the whole berries (not crushed, to avoid excess astringent tannins) into the alcohol in an airtight glass jar. Add the myrtle sprig if desired. Store in the dark at room temperature (16-20 °C), shaking gently every 2-3 days. Minimum maceration is 30 days, but 45-60 days gives a rounder result.

Syrup: At the end of maceration, prepare a syrup by bringing the water to 60-70 °C (not boiling) with the sugar, stirring until completely dissolved. Allow to cool completely.

Assembly: Strain the macerated alcohol through a fine strainer and then through coffee filter paper or cotton cloth. Combine the cold syrup with the filtered alcohol, stir gently. The final strength will be about 28-32° alcohol.

Resting (aging): Bottle and let stand in a cool, dark place for at least 30 days before consuming: the liqueur refines and rounds further. Ideal served chilled (0-4 °C) as a digestive, or lightly frapped.

Note: The sugar/water ratio can be varied as desired. For a drier myrtle (old artisanal style) reduce the sugar to 280-300 g; for a sweeter, velvety myrtle, increase it to 450 g. Some artisanal producers add a teaspoon of Sardinian arbutus honey for a distinctive bitter aftertaste.

5.2 White myrtle

White myrtle is obtained from clear berries or, in their absence (less common), from maceration of fresh leaves and young twigs. The flavor profile is more herbaceous, floral and less sweet than red.

Ingredients (for about 1 liter of liquor):

300 g white myrtle berries (or, alternatively, 150 g fresh leaves + 50 g white berries)

500 ml of 95° food grade alcohol

300 ml of mineral water

250 g of caster sugar

the peel of ½ an untreated lemon (only the yellow part, without albedo)

Procedure:

Maceration (20-30 days): Place berries (or leaves), lemon peel and alcohol in the glass jar. Maceration of white myrtle is shorter because the leaves quickly yield essential oils. Shake every 2 days. The final color will be golden-yellow, lighter and more transparent than red.

Syrup and blending: As for red myrtle, but with reduced proportions of sugar to enhance the herbaceous freshness. Strain carefully, as the leaves can cloud the liquid.

Clarification (optional): To obtain a crystal clear product, leave the filtered liquor in the refrigerator for 48 hours-the low temperature precipitates any particles. Strain again before bottling.

Serving: Great served very cold in an iced glass as a digestif or aperitif; also lends itself to cocktails with prosecco or tonic.

5.3 Variants and advice from the master liquor maker

The most experienced Sardinian liquor makers pass on some of the cautions that make the difference between a mediocre myrtle and an extraordinary one:

Pick the berries after the first autumn rains and do not wash them-the white coating that covers them (the so-called waxy “bloom”) contains valuable fragrances.

Never crush the berries-the inner seeds contain bitter compounds that unbalance the flavor profile.

Use 95° alcohol (not schnapps or vodka for the first maceration): high gradation extracts pigments and essential oils better. Dilution with syrup brings the gradation to ideal values.

The maceration temperature is crucial: between 15 and 20 °C. Cold slows the extraction too much; hot speeds it up but degrades the aromas.

For a “cru” myrtle – monovarietal and territorial – collect at a single site (e.g., coastal Sardinian scrubland or inland cork forest) and note the coordinates: as with wine, the terroir of the myrtle is an added value.

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6. Conclusion: the silent myrtle that speaks to everyone

Myrtle is one of those rare plants in which natural history and human history are so deeply intertwined that they become indistinguishable. Plant of Aphrodite and Esther, plant of Goethe and D’Annunzio, plant of ancient physicians and modern liquor makers: myrtle crosses the centuries without losing either its aromatic concreteness or its symbolic aura.

In literature, the myrtle is the silent guardian of the great human themes: love and mourning, the lost homeland and the longing for beauty, the sacredness of nature and the pleasure of the senses. From Goethe’s verse – “Die Myrte still” – to D’Annunzio’s rain that makes divine myrtles quiver, the plant carries with it a discreet elegance, a depth that does not shout but whispers. It is this eloquent silence that makes it so powerful as a symbol: the myrtle does not need to impose its presence because its essence is already in the air.

In everyday life, myrtle continues to make itself present in a thousand ways: In pharmacies and herbalist shops through its beneficial extracts for respiratory, cardiovascular and digestive health; in Sardinian kitchens that perfume their roasts with sprigs of myrtle as Nuragic shepherds did; in the glasses of liquor that close a meal with a sip of distilled Mediterranean bush; in the crowns of brides who still-in Sardinia, Corsica, and Greece-braid myrtle and orange blossoms in homage to a millennia-old ritual.

To study myrtle is thus to traverse the history of Western civilization from an unusual but revealing perspective: that of a small, hardy, fragrant plant capable of surviving drought and fire, of growing on rocks and in sands. Just like poetry and medicine: rooted in the past, indispensable in the present.

“There, there

I would like with you, O my beloved, to go.”

– Mignon – J. W. von Goethe

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Appendix of quotations

Collected here are passages in which myrtle is directly named or is part of the symbolic core discussed in the essay. Italian translations are editorial, geared toward clarity of botanical and literary reference.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, book III, ch. 1: Mignons Lied

Original text

Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn,

Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen glühn,

Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht,

Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht?

Italian translation

You know the land where lemons bloom,

Where in the dark foliage burn golden oranges,

Where a mild wind blows from the blue sky,

Where the myrtle stands silent and tall the laurel rises?

Reference and links: Goethe, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Book III, ch. 1; text of Mignon’s Lied. https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=6460

Hebrew Bible, Leviticus 23:40

Original text

וּלְקַחְתֶּם לָכֶם … וַעֲנַף עֵץ-עָבֹת … וּשְׂמַחְתֶּם לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם שִׁבְעַת יָמִים

Italian translation

You will take for yourself … branches of a leafy tree … and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. In rabbinic tradition the leafy branch is identified with myrtle, hadas.

Reference and link: Tanakh, Leviticus 23:40; the passage grounds the ritual use of myrtle among the four species of Sukkot. https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.23.40

Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 41:19

Original text

אֶתֵּן בַּמִּדְבָּר אֶרֶז שִׁטָּה וַהֲדַס וְעֵץ שָׁמֶן

Italian translation

I will place cedar, acacia, myrtle and wild olive in the desert (myrtle becomes a sign of a restored creation).

Reference and link: Tanakh, Isaiah 41:19. https://www.sefaria.org/Isaiah.41.19

Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 55:13

Original text

תַּחַת הַנַּעֲצוּץ יַעֲלֶה בְרוֹשׁ תַּחַת הַסִּרְפַּד יַעֲלֶה הֲדַס

Italian translation

Instead of bramble will grow cypress, instead of nettle will grow myrtle (image of consolation and renewal).

Reference and link: Tanakh, Isaiah 55:13. https://www.sefaria.org/Isaiah.55.13

Hebrew Bible, Zechariah 1:8

Original text

וְהוּא עֹמֵד בֵּין הַהֲדַסִּים אֲשֶׁר בַּמְּצֻלָה

Italian translation

He stood among the myrtles that were in the valley: (the myrtle becomes a visionary scenery, a plant of depth and custody).

Reference and link: Tanakh, Zechariah 1:8. https://www.sefaria.org/Zechariah.1.8

Pausanias, Periegesis of Greece, VI, 24, 7

Original text

τὸ δὲ ῥόδον καὶ ἡ μυρσίνη Ἀφροδίτῃ μὲν ἱερά, Ἀδώνιδι δὲ ἐς μνήμην ἔχει λόγον.

Italian translation

The rose and myrtle are sacred to Aphrodite and refer, by mythical memory, to the story of Adonis.

Reference and link: Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.24.7. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=6:chapter=24:section=7

Virgil, Bucolics, VII, 61-64

Original text

Populus Alcidae gratissima, vitis Iaccho,

formosae myrtus Veneri, his Phoebo degree;

Phyllis amat corylos: illas dum Phyllis amabit,

Nec myrtus vincet corylos nec laurea Phoebi.

Italian translation

The poplar is dearest to Alcides, the vine to Iacus, the myrtle to fair Venus, its laurel to Phoebus; Phyllis loves hazel: as long as Phyllis loves them, neither myrtle will win the hazel nor the laurel of Phoebus.

Reference and link: Vergil, Eclogue 7, vv. 61-64. https://www.theoi.com/Text/VirgilEclogues.html

Virgil, Aeneid, VI, 440-444

Original text

Hic quos durus amor crudeli tabe peredit

secreti celant calles et myrtea circum

silva tegit; curae non ipsa in morte relinquunt.

Italian translation

Here those whom a hard love consumed with cruel sickness hide in secluded paths, and all around them a myrtle wood covers them; sorrows do not leave them even in death.

Reference and link: Vergil, Aeneid, book 6, vv. 440-444. https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Aeneis/Liber_VI

Ovid, Fasti, IV, c. 139-144

Original text

Vos quoque sub viridi myrto iubet ipsa lavari;

causaque cur iubeat, discite, certa subest.

Litore siccabat rorantes nuda capillos;

Viderunt satyri, turba proterva, deam.

Sensit et opposita texit sua corpora myrto.

Italian translation

You, too, the goddess commands to wash under the green myrtle: learn the certain reason for the command. Naked, on the shore, she dried her dripping hair; the satyrs saw her, brazen crowd. She noticed and covered her body by opposing myrtle.

Reference and links: Ovid, Fasti, book 4; rite of Venus Verticordia and myth of the protective myrtle. https://www.latin-is-simple.com/en/library/ovid/fasti/book-4/

Ovid, Ars amatoria, III, 689-690

Original text

Ros maris et lauri nigraque myrtus olent.

Italian translation

They scent rosemary, bay laurels, and black myrtle.

Reference and link: Ovid, Ars amatoria, book 3, v. 690. https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovid.artis3.shtml

Horace, Carmina, I, 38

Original text

Simplici myrto nihil adlabores

sedulus curo: neque te ministrum

dedecet myrtus neque me sub arta

vite bibentem.

Italian translation

Do not toil to add anything to the plain myrtle: myrtle does not displease you, cupbearer, nor me who drinks under the thick vine.

Reference and link: Horace, Odes 1.38. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Odes_(Horace)/Book_I/38

Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, XV, 36-38

Original text

Myrtus … Veneris tutelae dicata; Tarentina folio minimo, Romana latiore, coniugula a nuptiis appellata.

Italian translation

The myrtle is placed under the tutelage of Venus; among the cultivated varieties Pliny mentions the tiny-leafed tarentine, the broader-leafed romana, and the coniugula, which is linked to weddings.

Reference and links: Pliny the Elder, Natural History, book 15, chapters 36-38; summary of the passage on myrtle varieties. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Natural_History_(Rackham,_Jones,_%26_Eichholz)/Book_15

Pedanius Dioscorides, De materia medica, I, 112

Original text

μυρσίνη ἡ ἥμερος … ἡ μέλαινα τῆς λευκῆς ἁρμμοδιωτέρα … στύφει δὲ καὶ ὁ καρπὸς αὐτῆς.

Italian translation

Black cultivated myrtle is more suitable for medical use than white; the plant and fruit have astringent properties.

Reference and links: Dioscorides, De materia medica, 1.112; Wellmann Greek text and Beck reference translation. https://archimed.ucla.edu/plant/myrtle/