Pomegranate History

Pomegranates have been cultivated since prehistoric times. These extraordinary fruits have also appeared throughout history as symbols of fertility, royalty, hope, and abundance. Celebrated in art, mythology, religious texts and literature for centuries, pomegranates appear in Greek mythology, Egyptian papyrus, and have been mentioned in the Old Testament several times under the name of rimmon. An ancient fruit, the pomegranate was brought to China a century and a half before the Christian era. The pomegranate is depicted on floor mosaics of Pompeii.

The ancients connected the pomegranate with procreation and abundance, and they believed the goddess Aphrodite, deity of love, had planted it on the isle of Cyprus. It was because of the tiny, red pomegranate seed that Demeter's daughter, Persephone, was carried off by Hades to live a life divided between the underworld and the upper world.