Ficus carica
Fig tree Συκιά
Moraceae - fig family Dicot.
Ficus carica
Fig tree Συκιά
Moraceae - fig family Dicot.
Odysseus and the fig tree
On his hazardous return from Troy, Odysseus had to pass between two rocky islands. On one lived the hideous Scylla, with twelve long necks each with a ghastly head, who plucks from the sea any sword-fish, dolphin, sea monster or ships crew, that came within her grasp. Under the opposite rock lies Charybdus who sucks in the sea and spews it out three times a day, swallowing down, into the roaring sea; no ship has ever passed by and survived.
Advised by the goddess Circe, Odysseus steered his ship close to Scylla’s rock as it was better to loose six men than his ship and the whole crew. As they passed by six men were plucked from the ship and were devoured by the horrendous Scylla. Mourning their comrades and exhausted from their trials the crew insisted on landing on the Island of the Sun, where they rested and feasted on roast meat. Zeus was furious and when the ship set sail he conjured up high winds and raging seas, sending down a thunder bolt which smashed the ship, tossing the crew into the water. The gales drove Odysseus, clinging to the ruined timbers of his ship, back to the two horrific rocks and towards the whirlpool of Charybdus. From the craggy rocks above the roaring sea a great fig tree grew, as he passed by, Odysseus reached out and clung, like a bat to the stout branches until, hours later, Charybdus spewed out again the timbers. Odysseus astride the logs, rowed with his hands and after drifting for several days arrived alone on the island of Calypso.