The Tears of the Woods – Cupressus sempervirens

There is more than one side in every story. Sometimes the realities experienced can be so vastly different it’s only in dialogue that we actually find a way forward. The same is true for plants and the myths associated with them. Cupressus sempervirens tells a love story between a man and a god. The youth’s name, Cyparissus, never changes but his lover does. In Ovid’s tale Cyparissus was loved by Apollo but to Virgil the lover becomes Silvanus the god of the woods and the story is much deeper and more poignant than that of Apollo’s love.

The “Italian” cypress is a plant used since antiquity as a medicine and garden tree. In the ancient world it was been prized as an incense for altars, medicine, a decorative feature in the garden, and a funerary symbol. In ancient Rome we know that it was grown in alcoves along walls and along paths and roads. Today it can still be seen in colonnade rows along driveways and paths as it’s still beloved by gardeners after over a thousand years of use .

With a silver green foliage and very decorative cones it forms a pencil like tree in it’s youth. As it matures the foliage and branches will begin to feather until eventually it becomes pear shaped with an open center. The modern cultivars all tend to be fastigiate so that with gentle trimming it will remain upright and tightly formed even into middle age. This makes it a candidate for topiary but like most conifers there is a word of caution. Trimming must be very light and only in the growing season. A snip made too deeply produces a void that’s very difficult to cover up. Because it is also a true native to the Mediterranean climate it can be burnt and killed by harsh winters. Wet, mild winters and hot dry summers are the best for it but with shelter it can survive colder areas and it’s a “wall safe” tree if kept trimmed. The growth rate is dependent on climate slowing down the colder the region is.

If left unchecked the Italian cypress can reach about 115 feet tall and some examples are estimated to be over a thousand years old. Along the Appian way, the aorta of the Roman empire, there are ancient trees that would have seen the march of troops out into the world through the centuries and greeted heroes heading home. It’s wood is intensely fragrant and very durable and is treasured by craftsmen. The most famous example has to be the doors to St. Peter’s in Rome. Given the nature of the tree and qualities of its wood there’s no wonder that it has been loved for so long.

Medicinally too it is extremely useful. Its resin has and is still used in perfumes for men and women and as incense for their gods. The aromatic ingredients also made it extremely useful for colds and breathing conditions. Dioscorides (40-90 AD) mentions that it promotes constipation, refreshes the bladder, useful for those with blood in the lungs, and when the leaves are crushed and placed in a wound that they would weld it shut and restricts bleeding. The nature of the resin also lends itself to sealing wounds from the air too and demonstrates antibacterial and anti fungal properties. In Asia the Chinese are recorded as having chewed on the cones to heal bleeding gums.

For those using it in aromatherapy it offers many properties. Calming and relaxing it can be used to relieve stress and can be comforting to those who are mourning. When used medicinally it’s excellent with circulatory problems. People report that it’s especially useful when used for low blood pressure, poor circulation, varicose veins, and hemorrhoids. For women it’s also recommended during menopause to help discourage fluid retention. Cypress is definitely a go to item in the medicine chest but when used for specific ailments it’s recommended that you check with a professional before trying to treat.

While this healing and beautiful side of cypress is important there is another side to its nature. Since ancient times it has been associated with the rites of the dead and the places their bodies lay. Shakespeare places in the mouth of Feste the jester a beautiful song about unrequited love. Orsino prompts Feste with

“O, fellow, come, the song we had last night.—

Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain;

The spinsters and the knitters in the sun

And the free maids that weave their thread with bones

Do use to chant it. It is silly sooth,

And dallies with the innocence of love,

Like the old age.”

Feste sings

            “Come away, come away, death,

   And in sad cypress let me be laid.

   Fly away, fly away breath,

   I am slain by a fair cruel maid.

   My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,

   O, prepare it!

   My part of death, no one so true

   Did share it.

   Not a flower, not a flower sweet

   On my black coffin let there be strown.

   Not a friend, not a friend greet

   My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown.

   A thousand thousand sighs to save,

   Lay me, O, where

   Sad true lover never find my grave,

   To weep there!”

The use of cypress for coffin wood is an important choice. Unlike other woods it links back to the fragrance of the wood and its value. But in the song it is called “sad cypress”. While the idea of coffin wood is itself sad. Shakespeare would have known the story of Cyparissus perhaps playing with the image of an unrequited lover being laid inside the body of a treasured lover who died of grief.

The story of Cyparissus is traditionally given with Apollo as his lover. In this story Apollo gives his lover a tame deer which he accidentally kills with a spear. Cyparissus weeps uncontrollably and Apollo turns him into a cypress. To read it Apollo seems almost callous. Lover is emotional and ends up as a tree. Indeed a friend of mine once told me Cyparissus was wet. Apollo as we see from the myths never seems to miss or mourn those he turns to flowers for very long and finds someone new to replace them when they get “a bit much to handle”.

The story of Silvanus however is a more beautiful tale of love and includes the emotion of losing it. The format is the same. God loves youth, deer is given as gift, god kills gift, youth unconsolable, but unlike Apollo the transformation is handled very differently. Silvanus doesn’t merely walk away from the tree but rather is shown in art and statues carrying a sapling or piece of the tree as consolation for his lost love. This remembrance wasn’t a short term thing. Spenser in his epic poem the Faerie Queen writes

“So towards old Syluanus they did her bring;

Who with the noyse awaked, commeth out,

To weet the cause, his weake steps gouerning,

And aged limbs on Cypresse stadle stout,

And with an yvie twyne his wast is girt about.”

 Silvanus remembered his lost love and carried him with him even into old age. So rather than being one in a long line, as with Apollo, with Silvanus we see a true love forever remembered in a tree.

Silvanus became over time Sylvan and the word is forever linked with woodlands. Should you see the word “sylvestris” or “sylvatica” in a botanical name it indicates the plant is a woodland one. The god of the trees lives on in the words we use to describe his realm. Linnaeus himself chose the story of Cyparissus to name the Cupressus family. What has never been discussed is the fact that a lot of the homosexual lovers of the gods find themselves chosen and remembered for eternity in the names of plants. Sadly he would have had an education in both Greek and Roman mythology so we will never know if he chose Silvanus or Apollo’s story as the base for the name.

 

 © Peter C. Simms and The Garden of Gods and Monsters, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Peter C. Simms and The Garden of Gods and Monsters with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.