The language, legends and history for the rose; the flower for those born in the month of June.
Every flower has a history and every flower symbolizes something. Often the history and symbols are confusing and contradictory but they are still fascinating. If your birthday is in the month of June, your flower is the rose. Here is the story and language of your flower.
The Linguistic Roots for the Name Rose
The Latin name for the rose, rosa, literally means red. Diana Wells suggests that saying that rose means red is like ‘saying the heart is a muscle situated on the left side of the rib cage,” (187) it is an incomplete understanding of what the blossom symbolizes.
History of the Flower
Quite possibly the most popular flower in the history of the world, the rose has a multitude of legends and myths surrounding it. A flower of such prominence must be related to the gods of our world or at least one would think so when considering the wealth of otherworldly associations attached to the blossom. Was the smile of Amor the source of our first rose or did it fall from the hair of the goddess of dawn, Aurora?
The sweet scent and frowsy beauty of the blossom resulted in it being popular among the rulers of this world. The infamous Cleopatra had her pillows filled with rose petals. Romans used petals to decorate their feasts and even had canopies filled to shower petals upon the guests. Sometimes the Roman’s love of roses became too much and the shower of petals would actually smother guests.
The Symbolism of Roses
Jewish legends attributed the color of the rose to the first blood that darkened the earth’s soil. The Teutons believed the rose was a symbol of the underworld and called their battlefields rose gardens.
Roses also became a sign of secrecy. The Greeks would plan their battles in the secrecy of a rose bower or sub rosa. As a result, it became customary during the 16th-17th centuries to paint roses on the ceilings of meeting places and council chambers. Prostitutes in Nimes were known as roses. Clearly a visit to a rose would need to be done in secret.
The Roman love of roses undermined the desirability of the flower for Christians since they associated it with the hedonistic lifestyle of the Romans. However, the flower was too popular to ignore and so the flower was added to the bouquet of flowers that are attributed to the Virgin Mary. The white rose symbolized her joy and the red rose symbolized Mary’s suffering. As a result, the rose became viewed as a paragon of virtue.
Speaking with Roses
If you send a rose to someone, you are sending a message that references timeless attributes and places such as love, joy, beauty, blood, celebration, death, enjoyment of life’s pleasures, secrecy struggle, the underworld, youth and war.
Take a look at a complete list of Flowers of the Month.
Sources
Heilmeyer, Marina. The Language of Flowers: Symbols and Myths. Prestel Verlag, 2001.
Wells, Diana. 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1997
To learn more the color classes and meanings behind roses, read Angela England's article Color Classifications of Roses
