How Mythical Living can transform your life! (& other tales from Greece)

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How a Greek Pomegranate Taught Me the Art of Mythic Living

As far as this outsider-looking-in can tell, there is nothing more uniquely Greek during the holiday season than Christmas themed pomegranate ornaments, amulets, and table toppers. Simply put, pomegranates are so ubiquitous in Greece during this time of year that they might as well be synonymous with Christmas! Adding to the Christmas spirit, the fancy decorative pomegranates even come with an Evil Eye at their center. Nothing quite evokes the warm and fuzzy feeling of Christmas like the omnipresent gaze of the Evil Eye!

All jokes aside, both the pomegranate and the Evil Eye are symbols that go back to Ancient Greece and very generally represent protection and well-being. Now, you can imagine that the mythologist in me was intrigued. I was dying to know why these ancient symbols play such an important role in the modern Greek Christmas tradition!

I began this mythic investigation by canvasing several Greeks about the festive meaning of the pomegranate—three, to be exact—and was told that they represent abundance and well-being. In fact, their New Year’s tradition consists of throwing a pomegranate at the threshold of the door in anticipation of the many seeds that will fly out of the fruit. The seeds are said to represent abundance. Therefore, the more seeds liberated from the pomegranate seems to represent an omen of good luck and wellbeing for the coming year. What a mythic way to usher in the New Year!

This might be a good time to let you know that I have an obsession with the pomegranate, no doubt triggered by their appearance in many Near Eastern mythologies. So, of course, when I hosted an ex-pat American Thanksgiving in my tiny, but Athenian-chic Airbnb apartment, I made sure to prepare my signature Thanksgiving dish: a pomegranate delicacy that I affectionately call, Persephone’s Delight. However, this year, something felt different in the preparation of this dish. As I dug my fingers into its gritty, white flesh and gently plucked the seeds out from their clusters, I watched transfixed as the ruby red juices raced down my fingertips, making little rivers between my fingers that then trickled down my hands. Suddenly, it hit me: I was preparing Persephone’s Delight in Greece, on the land of the culture that originated the myth of Persephone and her pomegranate seeds! I had entered mythic time!

The pomegranate was no longer simply a tasty fruit that I associated with a Greek goddess; it became a gateway into the ancient past and a culture that mythologized the pomegranate as a symbol of life, death, fertility, the afterlife, abundance, and prosperity. In the story of Persephone’s abduction to the Underworld by Hades, the pomegranate plays the key moment in a (very problematic) story that is commonly believed to mythologize fertility and the agricultural cycle. Hades offers Persephone pomegranate seeds, she eats them, and is henceforth destined to return to the Underworld as his bride for several months every year. Having entered the realm of mythic time, I wanted to understand why Hades gives Persephone pomegranate seeds when he could give her any other number of mythically important fruits, such as figs, olive oil, or honey? Why does the pomegranate play such an important role in this story? Does it have any connection to the modern Greek Christmas tradition?

So, like one does, I began a deep dive into all the academic literature I could find and discovered that the pomegranate represents much more than plant fertility in this story. In fact, I’ve come to believe that the pomegranate in this myth represents a complete symbol for the cosmic feminine and masculine powers of creation! How so, you may ask? Well, this newsletter is the early beginnings of an article I’ll be writing on the meaning of the pomegranate in the Persephone-Hades myth. You’ll just have to wait for the full story—with bated breath, I’m sure!

What’s the takeaway from my adventures with the Greek pomegranate? On the one hand, my curiosity is now satiated. I have identified for myself a clear link between the contemporary and ancient symbolic meanings attributed to the pomegranate. Not only is there a symbolic link, but there’s an actual medicinal link, too. Modern science has caught up with the ancients and conducted innumerable studies that have shown the massive curative and preventative health benefits of this fruit—some of which are indeed related to increased fertility! But truly, the greatest takeaway is an awareness of how to live mythically.

What does it mean to live mythically? Canvas any number of mythologists and you’d probably get just as many answers as there are mythologists to this question. When I engage with the Living Myth, I find that it re-enchants the world. In other words, the world around and within in me comes alive. In this vein, every living thing from the tiniest organism to the vastest celestial body, every interaction, and every choice has meaning, purpose, and intrinsic value. Living mythically enables me to connect with the limitless patterns of human experiences and, in that space, discover the transpersonal meanings within my personal experiences. The barriers between time and space become preamble and there is a resonance in which, even if only for a nanosecond, I can feel myself interconnected with all Life (past, present, and future). Therefore, engaging the Living Myth is the secret to Living Mythically.

Since leaving Greece (for now), I have discovered the art of mythic living, at least for me. Sometimes distance is necessary because it brings clarity. The modern Greek holiday tradition taught me that the pomegranate IS the LIVING MYTH. Not just for me, but for you, too! I believe that each time you partake of a pomegranate, whether you are aware of it or not, you too, are stepping into a Living Myth. May you step into the New Year with wisdom, grace, and a little bit of enchantment.

Special thanks to the friends and colleagues who have, for months, engaged with me in a conversation on the meaning of mythic living.

🌺Annalisa, PhD

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