E X T E N S I O N WHAT S IN A ROSE Admired for centuries for their beauty and as a source of perfume, roses are probably the world s most widely cultivated ornamental plants. Many traditions tell of the first Rose. The Arabs believed that the first Rose originated from a drop of sweat from the brow1 of Mohamet. In Christian tradition, the original Rose grew in the Garden of Eden. It had no thorns2. A flower of pure beauty, it gave only pleasure and never hurt. The thorns were added after man s fall. The Persian poets tell us that the first Rose bloomed in Gulistan when the flowers demanded from Allah a new sovereign because the drowsy3 lotus used to sleep at night. The old Greeks believed that the Rose had once been a nymph, who, roused from sleep by a kiss from Apollo, transformed herself into the flower. For the Greeks, the rose symbolized love and beauty and they dedicated it to Aphrodite. Gradually the shape of the rose attracted people and it also became a symbol of purity that protected people from the devil and caused good health. A Roman legend told that Rodanthe, a beautiful woman, was pursued4 by a gang of suitors5 who broke down the door of her house. The goddess Diana turned Rodanthe into a Rose and each of her suitors into a thorn. In ancient Rome interest in roses enthusiastically spread. Since roses were sent to celebrate a victory at war, they became a symbol of high honour but they were also a symbol of passion, devotion and secrecy.To provide enough roses, rose planting was encouraged. As a flower sent by heaven, the rose is the most frequently mentioned flower in legends of the saints. One of these tells how a girl, unjustly accused of wrongdoing, was condemned to be burned to death. As the flames were about to reach her, she prayed God to deliver her and make her innocence clear to all men. The flames were suddenly extinguished and the wood turned into freshly blossoming6 rose plants: white roses grew from the pieces of wood that hadn t been touched by fire, red roses from those that had started burning. Since then the rose has been the emblem of Christian martyrdom. Roses have been connected to romance in fable and literature. Just to mention a famous writer, Shakespeare, in one of his sonnets, compares the beauty of the beloved woman to the beauty of the rose and he adds that both are made more beautiful, the first by sincerity, the second by its perfume: 1. brow: fronte. 2. thorn: spina. 3. drowsy: sonnolento, insonnolito. 4. pursue: inseguire. 5. suitor: pretendente, corteggiatore. 6. blossom: sbocciare. 50