Amaryllis Tattoo Meaning

Hidden strength, pride, and power not visible until the moment it's needed.

The Amaryllis is the flower of hidden strength and proud, radiant beauty — the tall, dramatic bloom that rises swiftly from a bare, dormant-looking bulb to a blaze of color, the flower of the dark winter months, named for a shepherdess and, in legend, for a maiden who bled for love. To carry the Amaryllis is to carry hidden strength, pride, and power not visible until the moment it's needed — the bloom that erupts from the bare bulb, the radiant beauty won through perseverance, the splendor that arrives precisely when all else is bare.

The amaryllis takes its name from the classical pastoral tradition: Amaryllis was the name of a shepherdess in the idylls of the Greek poet Theocritus and the eclogues of the Roman poet Virgil. In these pastoral poems — the great tradition of idealized country verse, celebrating the simple beauty of shepherds, fields, and rustic love — Amaryllis is the idealized pastoral girl, simple and beautiful, a figure of unaffected loveliness and rustic charm. Her name became one of the classic names of the shepherdess in pastoral poetry, evoking the gentle, idyllic world of the countryside.

The name itself is beautifully fitting: Amaryllis is said to derive from a Greek word meaning 'to sparkle' or 'to shine.' The shepherdess who shines, who sparkles with simple beauty — and the flower named for her carries this brightness in its very name, a bloom that shines and sparkles as its namesake did. The amaryllis thus carries within its name the whole pastoral tradition of unaffected beauty: the loveliness that is natural and unadorned, the radiant simplicity of the country idyll. To name the flower Amaryllis is to link it to the shining shepherdess of Theocritus and Virgil, to the idealized beauty of the pastoral world, and to the idea of a beauty that shines with a natural, sparkling brightness. The flower is the shepherdess's namesake, blooming with her brightness. The Greek amaryllis is named for the shining shepherdess of pastoral poetry — Amaryllis, whose name means 'to sparkle.' The Greek amaryllis is the shepherdess of the pastoral — Amaryllis is the name of the shepherdess in Theocritus and Virgil, the idealized pastoral girl, simple and beautiful, whose name meant 'to sparkle' or 'to shine'; the flower named for her carries the pastoral tradition of unaffected beauty — the radiant simplicity of the country idyll, the shepherdess who shines with natural, sparkling brightness, the bloom carrying her brightness in its very name.

The plant commonly called amaryllis (Hippeastrum) is botanically distinct from the true Amaryllis genus (which contains only one species, native to South Africa), but the name is universally applied to the large-flowered South American bulbs in cultivation. The name Amaryllis comes from the Greek amarysso, 'to sparkle,' and was the name Theocritus and Virgil gave to idealized shepherdesses in their pastoral poetry — the simple, beautiful country girl who became the archetype of unaffected natural beauty. The amaryllis bulb contains everything needed for the dramatic bloom — stem, leaves, and flowers all pre-formed inside — and grows with extraordinary speed when warmth and water are provided, producing a flower out of proportion to the naked stem: six inches across on a stem up to two feet tall.

Amaryllis across cultures

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