The Fruit of Sīn, the Sumerian Moon God

Judaism

Jewish scholars believe that the pomegranate was the original “ forbidden fruit ” of the Garden of Eden. The name “ pomegranate ” derives from Latin " pomum "(‘apple’) and " granatus " (‘seeded’)

The ivory pomegranate is a thumb-sized semitic ornamental artifact acquired by the Israel Museum. It is not actually made of ivory, but of hippopotamus bone and bears an inscription; Holy (Sacred) to the Priest of the House of God (YHWH)

At the time of its discovery, it was thought to have adorned the High Priest's sceptre within the Holy of Holies, thus potentially proving the existence of Solomon's Temple

Torah Finials

The finials evolved from knobs at the upper end of the staves (eẓei ḥayyim) on which the Torah scroll is wound. Since the shape of the spherical finial recalled that of a fruit, it was called a tappu'aḥ, "apple," among the Jews of Spain and in the Sephardi Diaspora, and a rimmon, "pomegranate," in all other communities.

The earliest known reference to Torah finials occurs in a document from 1159, found in the Cairo Genizah, from which we learn that by the 12th century finials were already being made of silver and had bells. Around the same time, *Maimonides mentions finials in the Mishneh Torah (Hilkhot Sefer Torah 10:4). Despite the variations on the spherical shape which developed over the centuries and the addition of small bells around the main body of the finial, the spherical, fruit-like form was the basic model for the design of finials in Oriental and European communities.

A most significant variation appeared in 15th-century Spain, Italy, and Germany, where the shape of finials was influenced by that of various objects of church ritual, whose design often incorporated architectural motifs, The resulting tower-like structure, which seems to have appeared around the same time in different parts of Europe, became the main type of finial in 18th-century Germany and Italy, as well as Morocco, brought there by Jews expelled from Spain.

The hem of the robes of the High Priest was said to have been adorned with pomegranates

The pomegranate is found in the Biblical " Stations of the Exodus ", the supposed 42 locations visited by the Israelites following their exodus from Egypt, recorded in Numbers 33, with variations also recorded in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy

Attempting to locate many of the stations of the Israelite Exodus is a difficult task, if not totally infeasible

Though scholars have conceded that it is at the very least plausible for the narrative of the Exodus to have some sort of historical basis, the event in question would be nowhere near the mass-emigration and subsequent forty years of desert nomadism described in the Tanakh. Even if the Exodus had occurred to the scale and sequence the modern Hebrew Bible ascribes to it, there are a plethora of issues in trying to examine the progression of the event outside the lack of material evidence. Descriptions of many of the stations lack recognizable distinguishing features or are very broadly defined. Examples include Marah, the fifth station, which is succinctly defined as a place where the Israelites found the drinking water to be exceptionally bitter, or the " Wilderness of Sin " which is simply described as the area between Elim and Mount Sinai

The Wilderness of Sin or Desert of Sin (Hebrew: מִדְבַּר סִין‎) is a geographic area mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as lying between Elim and Mount Sinai. Sin does not refer to the concept of sinfulness, but is an untranslated word that would translate as the moon, referring to the semitic moon-deity " Sin "

King Solomon is said to have designed his coronet based on the fruit’s serrated crown-like calyx

It is traditional to consume pomegranates at the festival of Rosh Hashana (New Year) because the pomegranate, with its numerous seeds, symbolizes fertility

In one story in the Talmud, the wife of a rabbi (Hiyya Bar Ashi) tests him by disguising herself as a prostitute and then seducing him, demanding he pay her with a freshly picked pomegranate

ccording to the Gemara (Gittin 19b), water soaked in pomegranate rind was used to reveal invisible ink





The pomegranate tree is also noted in Jewish sources: King Saul used it for shade (I Samuel 14:2), and because its branches are particularly dry, spits of the wood were used to roast the korban Pesach (Mishnah Pesachim 7:1)

the juice was used by some cultures as a natural dye (cf. Mishnah Shabbat 9:5)

In the piyyut (liturgical poem) “Eleh Ezkerah” about the Ten Martyrs, recited in the Yom Kippur Mussaf, the martyrs are described as being “full of mitzvot as a pomegranate and as the corners [of the altar].” The piyyut essentially states that just as the corners of the altar were full of many drops of blood from the numerous sacrifices, so too were the martyrs full of mitzvot.

The Talmud’s description of even “the empty ones … are full of mitzvot as a pomegranate …” is descriptive of the lowest rank, the worst elements of society


The midrash (Shemot Rabbah 20:3), in describing the beauty of the Jewish nation, compares it to a grove of pomegranates.

Ancient Greece














In modern Greece, at important festivals in the Greek Orthodox calendar, including Christmas Day, it is customary to adorn the table with pomegranates (known as ‘polysporia’ meaning ‘many-seeded’) and on New Year’s Day it is traditional to break a pomegranate on the ground. On moving into a new home, house guests traditionally bring pomegranates as a symbol of abundance, fertility and good luck for the new owner

In the Greek pantheon pomegranates nearly always appear in the hands of goddesses, and they are connected with spheres that one might, at first glance, describe as antithetical: fertility, life, blood, death.

Pomegranate is, for example, one of Hera’s main attributes in several Hellenistic temples; one of the most famous, the Heraion at Samos, has yielded finds of pinecones and pomegranates (both real ones and clay or even ivory models), connected with fertility.

The wooden statue of Athena Niké venerated in the Acropolis of Athens also depicted the goddess of victory holding a pomegranate (as well as a helmet, a much more predictable attribute for a warrior goddess. I for one was rather surprised at finding our pomegranate here, as in the 6th cent BCE pomegranates didn’t yet explode, nor were they part of the weapon arsenal). Aphrodite, as could be expected, is also linked with the pomegranate.


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Notes

Along with the citrus and the peach, the pomegranate is one of the three blessed fruits. In Buddhist art the fruit represents the essence of favourable influences. In Buddhist legend the demoness Hariti, who devoured children, was cured of her evil habit by the Buddha, who gave her a pomegranate to eat. She is depicted in Buddhist art holding a child. In Japan she is known as Kishimojin and is invoked by infertile women

In China the pomegranate is widely represented in ceramic art symbolising fertility, abundance, posterity, numerous and virtuous offspring, and a blessed future. A picture of a ripe open pomegranate is a popular wedding present

The pomegranate was much used in Zoroastrian ritual and domestic observances

The pomegranate flower is included in Zoroastrian religious rites. During the navjote and marriage ceremonies, a few ‘danas’ grains of the pomegranate fruit are included in the ‘ses’. The child whose navjote is going to be performed is asked to chew a pomegranate leaf, after the purification bath. It is said that a dying Zoroastrian in ancient Iran was given a few sips of the ‘haoma’ juice, but if no ‘haoma’ was available, he was given some pomegranate juice or if already dead a few grains of the pomegranate fruit were placed in the person’s mouth









Pomegranate is also used during the ‘navar’ ceremony whereby a young man is inducted in to Zoroastrian priesthood

A number of ‘mobeds’ meet at the house of the candidate one day before the initiation. They prepare a crown and a ‘vars’. The crown is a turban wound to fit the candidate's head. It is decorated with gold and silver chains with hanging coins and has other ornaments that make it look like a crown. Each twig is wrapped with colored wool to make the vars multicolored. The twigs are made to make a circular pyramid in a plate. It is covered with a thin net. Four mirrors, dry fruit, candies, and a pomegranate fruit are also kept in the plate during the ceremony

In order to be a thoroughly qualified priest, one has to go through two grades of initiations and their ceremonies

The first initiatory ceremony for priesthood is that of Nâvar. The word means "one who is newly initiated in work of offering prayers, rites and sacred things to the Deity."

In Persian mythology Isfandiyar eats a pomegranate and becomes invincible. In “ The Persian War ” Herodotus mentions golden pomegranates adorning the spears of warriors in the Persian phalanx

Heraldic uses

The pomegranate was part of the royal badge of Henry IV, along with the motto “Agro dulce”, meaning " bittersweet "








Because a king should exercise both bitter justice and sweet mercy, which should “temper one another”.

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The British Medical Association and three royal colleges feature the pomegranate in their coats of arms


The pomegranate was part of Catherine of Aragon's coat of arms and was accepted into English heraldry when she married King Henry VIII in 1509

Catherine of Aragon (Spanish: Catalina; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England from June 1509 until May 1533 as the first wife of King Henry VIII; she was previously Princess of Wales as the wife of Henry's elder brother, Arthur

Arthur Tudor (19/20 September 1486 – 2 April 1502) was Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester and Duke of Cornwall. As the eldest son and heir apparent of Henry VII of England, Arthur was viewed by contemporaries as the great hope of the newly established House of Tudor. His mother, Elizabeth of York, was the daughter of Edward IV, and his birth cemented the union between the House of Tudor and the House of York

The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet








The Royal College of Physicians of London had adopted it in their coat of arms by the middle of the sixteenth century

In the second millennium BCE, the king of Yamhad or Halab (modern Aleppo) received a statue of Ishtar from the king of Mari, as a sign of deference, to be displayed in the temple of Hadad located in Halab Citadel. The king of Aleppo called himself "the beloved of Hadad". The god is called "the god of Aleppo" on a stele of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser I.

The element Hadad appears in a number of theophoric names borne by kings of the region. Hadad son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the country of Moab, was the fourth king of Edom. Hadadezer ("Hadad-is-help"), the Aramean king defeated by David. Later Aramean kings of Damascus seem to have habitually assumed the title of Ben-Hadad, or son of Hadad, just as a series of Egyptian monarchs are known to have been accustomed to call themselves sons of Ammon. An example is Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram whom Asa, king of Judah, is said to have employed to invade the northern kingdom, Israel. In the 9th or 8th century BCE, the name of Ben-Hadad 'Son of Hadad', king of Aram, is inscribed on his votive basalt stele dedicated to Melqart, found in Bredsh, a village north of Aleppo.A Hadad was also the seventh of the twelve sons of Ishmael.

Byname are the Aramaic rmn, Old South Arabic rmn, Hebrew rmwn, and Akkadian Rammānu ("Thunderer"), presumably originally vocalized as Ramān in Aramaic and Hebrew. The Hebrew spelling rmwn with Masoretic vocalization Rimmôn is identical with the Hebrew word meaning 'pomegranate' and may be an intentional misspelling and parody of the original.

The word Hadad-rimmon, for which the inferior reading Hadar-rimmon is found in some manuscripts in the phrase "the mourning of (or at) Hadad-rimmon", has been a subject of much discussion. According to Jerome and all the older Christian interpreters, the mourning is for something that occurred at a place called Hadad-rimmon (Maximianopolis) in the valley of Megiddo. The event alluded to was generally held to be the death of Josiah (or, as in the Targum, the death of Ahab at the hands of Hadadrimmon). But even before the discovery of the Ugaritic texts some suspected that Hadad-rimmon might be a dying-and-rising god like Adonis or Tammuz, perhaps even the same as Tammuz, and the allusion could then be to mournings for Hadad such as those which usually accompanied the Adonis festivals.[27] T. K. Cheyne pointed out that the Septuagint reads simply Rimmon, and argues that this may be a corruption of Migdon (Megiddo), in itself a corruption of Tammuz-Adon. He would render the verse, "In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of the women who weep for Tammuz-Adon" (Adon means "lord"). No further evidence has come to light to resolve such speculations