Myrtle Tattoo Meaning
Love, marriage, Venus, and the bridal crown of two thousand years.
The myrtle is the fragrant evergreen of love and marriage — the shrub sacred to the goddess of love, worn in the bridal crowns of brides for over two thousand years, an evergreen emblem of married love, fidelity, and conjugal happiness whose green leaves promise an ever-living devotion. To carry the myrtle is to carry love, marriage, and the bridal crown of two thousand years — the aromatic evergreen sacred to Venus, the wedding plant of brides across the ages, the emblem of enduring married love and the devotion that stays green through every season.
In Greek tradition the myrtle was sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, and was bound up with her from the very moment of her birth. When Aphrodite was born from the sea and came ashore, she is said to have wrapped or veiled herself in myrtle; in other versions, she hid behind a myrtle shrub when satyrs spied on her as she bathed. The aromatic myrtle thus became, from her origin, the plant of the goddess of love — sacred to Aphrodite and to all that she embodied: love, beauty, desire, and marriage.
Because of this sacred association with the goddess of love, the myrtle became the plant of love and marriage in Greek life. Greek brides wore crowns of myrtle, binding the fragrant evergreen of Aphrodite into their wedding garlands as a blessing of love upon their marriage. The myrtle, with its sweet fragrance and glossy evergreen leaves, was the aromatic shrub of the goddess of beauty, the plant of love and of the wedding, sacred to Aphrodite and worn by brides in her honor and for her blessing. The Greek myrtle is the shrub sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, worn in the crowns of Greek brides. The Greek myrtle is the shrub sacred to Aphrodite — bound to the goddess of love and beauty from her birth (she wrapped herself in myrtle as she came ashore from the sea, or hid behind it from the watching satyrs), the aromatic shrub of the goddess and all she embodies (love, beauty, desire, marriage), so that the myrtle became the plant of love and marriage in Greek life, Greek brides wearing crowns of myrtle and binding the fragrant evergreen of Aphrodite into their wedding garlands as a blessing of love upon their marriage.
Myrtus communis (common myrtle) is native to the Mediterranean region and has been cultivated for over 3,000 years — it appears in ancient Greek and Roman texts as a plant of Aphrodite/Venus, used in wedding ceremonies, garlands, and perfume. Myrtle oil contains myrtenol and other terpenoids — the fragrance is sweet and slightly medicinal. The name Hadassah (Esther's Hebrew name) appears in Esther 2:7 — 'and he raised Hadassah, that is Esther.' The Talmudic classification of Four Species fragrance types (Sukkot, Leviticus 23:40) creates a taxonomy of human virtue from botanical characteristics: the etrog (taste and fragrance) represents those with both Torah learning and good deeds; the palm (taste but no fragrance) those with learning but no deeds; the myrtle (fragrance but no taste) those with deeds but no learning; the willow (neither) those with neither. The British royal myrtle tradition is documented from Queen Victoria's 1840 CE wedding — Queen Elizabeth II carried myrtle in 1947, as did Princess Anne, Diana, and Catherine.
Myrtle across cultures
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