Title: Pomegranates and Fertility

General Information about Item:

• Genre and Sub Genre
  • Customary Folklore: Superstition

• Language: English

• Country where Item is from: Greece

Informant Data:

• Katie Spanos is a ’20 student at Dartmouth College. She is from Hummelstown, PA. Her dad is Greek, but her mom is not. Her dad’s family comes from a small village called Neohori, and she still has a lot of family there as well as some in other parts of Greece. Katie and her siblings do not speak Greek, but her dad, aunts and uncles will speak Greek with her Yia-Yia. Their family follows most Greek customs and holidays, mainly because her entire family is Greek Orthodox.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: This superstition is passed down in one’s family, but is particularly associated with girls and women because women are the child bearers. For example, pomegranates are given to girls and young women by older women to bring them fertility. The customary knowledge of pomegranates as sources of fertility is also knowledge that is passed down in families and female friend groups.

• Cultural Context: Pomegranates have mythological ties to Persephone and Demeter (the Greek goddess of fertility and harvest). The Greek myth of the abduction of Persephone, daughter of Demeter and Zeus, to the underworld is widely known in Greek culture. In short, the myth of the underworld is that if you eat anything, you have to spend eternity there. So when Persephone was abducted by Hades, lord of the Underworld, she didn’t eat anything, except six pomegranate seeds. As a result, she had to spend 6 months of the year in the Underworld and the other six months she was allowed to spend on Earth with her mother. Consequently, Demeter wouldn’t allow any crops to grow when her daughter was in the Underworld (hence the reason for seasons). Pomegranates are also seen as an aphrodisiac in Greek culture and the juices are thought to bring fertility.

Item:

• Eating pomegranates will make you more fertile. This is a magic superstition with the structure “If you do A, then B.” Therefore this superstition can be interpreted, if you eat pomegranates, you will be more fertile.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Depiction of Persephone eating a pomegranate.

Transcript of Associated File:

• None

Informant’s Comments:

• None

Collector’s Comments:

• Katie Spanos was interviewed in person by Jess Valvano.

Collector’s Name: Interview conducted by Jess Valvano. Webpage published by Ellen Pattinson.

Tags/Keywords:

• Pomegranates, Fertility, Greek Mythology, Greek Superstitions, Customary Folklore