Dead wood growing

Caburus

Active Member
In Greek myth, Heracles reputedly left his club resting against a shrine to Hermes, in Troezen, Greece, where it took root and grew into an olive tree. Pausanias says it was still there in the 2nd Century AD.
In Christian myth, at Glastonbury, England, the staff of St. Benignus (d.c.468) took root and grew into a tree. This sprouting staff was later attributed to St. Joseph of Arimathea (uncle of Jesus), and the supposed tree (a hawthorn) survived until the 17th Century, with plants grown from its cuttings still existing today.
In the Old Testament, Aaron’s rod is said to have sprouted overnight and borne blossoms and almonds. It wasn’t established as a rooted tree, but the branch was placed in the Ark of the Covenant and kept for many years.
Are there any other myths of staffs/clubs growing into trees that were then pointed out to tourists/believers.
 

Rhonda Tharp

Active Member
Off the top of my head, I couldn't think of wood coming alive again, but was reminded of Osiris being buried and his tomb became encased in a palm tree. A few others were Baucis and Philemon - becoming an oak and a linden, Cu Chulann being raised in a hollowed oak till the age of 5, oak representing "king" in Celtic Britton, Buddha receiving enlightenment from under the Bo Tree... sorry, that's all I got, besides the obvious Yggdrasill...
 

Caburus

Active Member
Thanks Rhonda. Yeah, trees are pretty important as mythic symbols - the Tree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge, Yggdrasill, Innana's Huluppu tree, the Tree of the Hesperides, Idunns golden apple tree, The apple trees of Annfywn. They either uphold the universe/order, or their fruits provide immortality. Cutting down the symbolic sacred tree, or even destroying a whole tree grove, meant the destruction of that order and way of life. Persians, Romans and Christians all did this to their enemies.
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But I don't know if any of those trees were produced from miraculously sprouting pieces of wood. As an additional question - are there any historical accounts of this happening (or trees pointed out today as being the product of this)?
 

Alejandro

Active Member
Legend has it that by the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon of Israel had a son Menelik, who took with him the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem when he was leaving Israel to take up his mother's throne, the seat of which domain many Abyssinians believe was in what is now called Ethiopia (though it is conversely argued that it should be located further north, in southern Arabia). The Covenant Box which was left behind in Israel is supposed, then, to have been a copy of the original, so presumably Aaron's rod would have been taken to East Africa along with the other components of the Ark. It is still claimed today that the real Ark is to be found, rod and all, somewhere in Ethiopia.

The weirdest story I've read about your dead wood growing is a Greek myth in which Orestheus, one of the four sons of the Titans Deukalion and Pyrrha, became king of the Ozoloi [Ozolians]. He owned a female dog named Seirios [Sirius, like the star] which (completely at random, it would seem) gave birth to a piece of wood(! :eek:), which the king concealed in the ground. In the spring, a vine grew forth from it, the sprouts from which he derived the name of his son Phytios (Planter) and from the branches (ozoi) of which his subjects were called the Ozoloi, in what later became the region of Aitolia.
 

Caburus

Active Member
What a weird tale (even for the Greeks). I'd not heard of that one. I wonder if the people originally were the fruit of the vine - transformed like as the stones that Deucalion and Pyrrha threw becoming the Greeks(?), the ants becoming the Myrmidons, the dragon's teeth becoming the Spartans, etc.
 

Alejandro

Active Member
Considering that the world's population had just been wiped out by the Flood, and the "Stone-Folk" whom Deukalion and Pyrrha created are otherwise said to have settled in Megara and later become the Leleges (and that therefore Orestheus' domain was not yet peopled at the time of this strange event with his dog?), that sounds about right, and would certainly fit in line with this trend you're citing, of rapid appearances of new peoples in newly-founded cities and towns in ancient Greece. (By the way, the dragon's teeth became the first Theban aristocrats, not Spartans, although their names are similar, since these Thebans were known as the Spartoi, "Sown Ones." Sparta and its citizens derived their name from Queen Sparta, the wife of King Lakedaimon, who founded the city in her name, which city came to be the capital of the region Lakedaimonia.)
 

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
The weirdest story I've read about your dead wood growing is a Greek myth in which Orestheus, one of the four sons of the Titans Deukalion and Pyrrha, became king of the Ozoloi [Ozolians]. He owned a female dog named Seirios [Sirius, like the star] which (completely at random, it would seem) gave birth to a piece of wood
So, that's where J. K. Rowling came up with the name for Harry's godfather in Harry Potter. I always thought it was njust from the star. I stand corrected!:D
 
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