Taking our autumn walk on the Western paths of the Stavros Niarchos Park, our gaze will meet the fruit-bearing pomegranates.
The pomegranate is a deciduous fruit tree and belongs to the family of Lythraceae in the genus Punica. It originates from Central Asia and it spread to Europe and the Mediterranean countries during the 16th century. During flowering, it acquires characteristic orange-red flowers, while its fruit symbolizes fertility and is associated with good luck.
This plant has a relatively fast growth, reaching a height of up to 7m. The tree forms a dense crown while its leaves are opposite, lanceolate, smooth and have a bright green color. The shoots have medium-sized thorns. The flowers are large red-orange with yellow anthers, while there are varieties with white flowers. They are divided into two main categories, the long-stemmed and the short-stemmed. It is an autogenous plant and the pollination of the flowers, is mainly done by insects.
The pomegranate shows a wide range of flowering and its flowering starts from May to August, while it bears fruit in the autumn. The shape of the fruit is almost spherical, while its color during ripening is bright red. Internally, it contains a large number of seeds.
Pomegranate fruit contains several antioxidants, the most important of which are flavonoids (mainly anthocyanins), tannins and ellagic acid. The tannins are the ones that give a bitter-astringent taste to the pomegranate juice, while the anthocyanins give the red color to the fruit. Due to these antioxidant properties, pomegranate has a high nutritional value.
The fruit of the pomegranate is referred in many myths of antiquity. One of them mentions that Hades, seeing Persephone, daughter of Demeter, was impressed and took her with him to the underworld.
Dimitra, unhappy with this ending, asked the gods to intervene. The gods, hearing the desperate mother, sent Hermes to bring back Persephone. Hades, however, learning the decisions of gods, offered Persephone 7 pomegranate seeds, in order to force her to stay with him, since the pomegranate was also a symbol of marriage. After Persephone chose to eat pomegranate seeds, the gods obligated her to live a few months in the upper world and some months in the underworld. Thus, when she lived in the upper world with her mother, nature was reborn symbolizing spring, while when she descended to the underworld, the death of nature came, commonly known as winter.
