Mythic Monday: Pomona

Nicolas Fouché 001
Pomona by Nicolas Fouché [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

POMONA

Pomona, a Roman goddess or wood nymph associated with abundance and fruitfulness, is considered a Numina or guardian spirit with domain over a specific aspect of nature. She blesses the autumn season by protecting the orchards and gardens and assuring the people of plentiful food. Apple trees are her particular passion. Pomona’s name is from the Latin word for fruit, and pomme is French for apple. Pomona is often shown surrounded by fruit or holding an overflowing cornucopia. Her holy places were among the fruit trees in sacred groves. Admirably, she is one of the few Roman goddesses without a corresponding Greek counterpart. Courted by several woodland gods, she was tricked into marriage by the lusty Vertumnus who astonishingly appeared to her in the form of an old woman brimming with marital advice. Harry Potter’s professor of magical plant life is named Pomona Sprout. The Roman goddess Pomona is an appealing harbinger of autumn.

from To Autumn by John Keats:
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees.

Many thanks to the goddess Pomona for all the delicious varieties of apples and fruit, and for the gourds and stout orange pumpkins so iconic to the month of October.

Cheers & Happy Reading!

Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic in Romance

By Flossie Benton Rogers

Paranormal romance author who loves to shake the edges of reality.

6 comments

  1. I love October. It’s one of my favorite months of the year, and apples are never sweeter than during these autumn days. I love Keats, too 🙂

    Reply

  3. Fall in Romania is the richest season- colors and products, vegetables and fruit. I don’t usually enjoy the cold weather and rain , as it is right now, but autumn rewards diligent peasants, and the parks and streets are like real paintings. All gold and red and rusty leaves.
    Perhaps from Pomona comes the Romanian word = poame- meaning fruits.

    Reply

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