Poppies Across Time: From Ancient Myths to Today's Symbolism

Essay by Katarina Đošan M.A. (Art History)

Through the dancing poppies stole a breeze most softly lulling to my soul.

John Keats 1

One of the first indications that summer has arrived is the colorful fields of poppies, serving as an image that has inspired numerous myths, stories, poems, artworks, and movies. Poppies stand as a symbol of sleep, altered reality, dreaming, and death. It is always interesting to see how a single symbol derived from nature changes or persists through time. The poppy, especially the Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum), with its large red flowers and a long history of usage in various ways, is a symbol that has represented many things over time, and many meanings still endure today.

Many scientists agree that the opium poppy originated from Asia Minor, with the first signs of it connected to Sumerian culture. The Sumerians viewed the poppy as the 'joy plant', extracting opium from it for various purposes. 2 Similar practices have been observed in different ancient cultures, with both written and depicted evidence of such use in Egyptian, Persian, Roman, and Greek cultures. Opium was used for medical purposes as a pain reliever and narcotic, as well as in religious practices, especially those rooted in mysticism, like the Cretan cult or Eleusinian mysteries. Since ancient times, the poppy has been associated with sleep and, therefore, with death. It was often brought to funeral ceremonies in ancient Greek times, symbolizing eternal sleep.

Its usage continued in the Medieval period when the famous Arabic philosopher Avicenna even advised its use in children's food if they had trouble sleeping and excessive crying.3 However, in the Early Modern period, it became associated with witchcraft, abortion, and its hallucinogenic properties were seen as a representation of evil. 4

 1 Keats, J. Endymion, Book I, [A thing of beauty is a joy for ever], 1818. 

 2 Kapoor, L. Opium Poppy: Botany, Chemistry, and Pharmacology. New York, The Haworth Press, 1995: 2. 

 3 Ibid., 3. 

 4 Baldassarri, F. Plants in 16th and 17th century: Botany between medicine and science. De Gruyter, 2023: 82. 

Images from left to right:

1. ‘Exaltation de la Fleur,’ fragment from a grave stele, two women, maybe Demeter and Persephone, holding poppy and pomegranate flowers, 5th century AD. Public domain (Louvre Museum ARK ID: 010279013), photography by Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons.

2. ‘Beata Beatrix’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, c. 1864. Public domain (Tate Britain, N01279). Source: Wikimedia Commons.

3. Judy Garland in 'The Wizard of Oz', 1939. Screenshot taken on August 30, 2012, by John Irving, via Flickr.

In the Modern period, the opium poppy was heavily used to extract opium, becoming popular in 19th-century social circles, particularly in Western countries and Asia. It served as a symbol of pleasure and social interaction, especially during performances or art creation. Writers such as Thomas De Quincey wrote about their experiences with opium, contributing to a romanticized perception of the substance.5

From that period onwards, the usage of opium derived from the poppy in the form of a drug, an illicit substance that changes and alters our perception, providing a hallucinogenic experience, is one of the most common uses of this flower, alongside its usage in medical purposes. Morphine and Codeine are early Modern modifications of Opium used in medical purposes, but Heroin, the most addictive drug still used today, is also derived from Morphine and is an illegal and highly addictive. The poppy's usage in terms of religion, folklore, and primitive medicine is almost absent from the contemporary moment, but its symbolic influence is still strong today, almost as it was in ancient times.

Poppy, as a symbol, proving once again its multifaceted use, was commonly used in ancient times, especially during the ancient Greek and Roman periods. As it is a known fact that ancient Greek and later Roman religion and mythology were deeply rooted in everyday life and used as a way to describe nature and society, the symbolism of the poppy was also related to its everyday function—serving both as a medical tool and in religious practices. The knowledge that the poppy is a pain reliever and a substance used in problems related to sleep is transformed into a myth of Demeter, the ancient Greek goddess (Roman Ceres), who was in deep grief after Hades took her daughter to the Underworld. According to the myth, as she searched for her daughter day and night, leaving soil and plants behind her dead—she was the Goddess of agriculture, harvest, and fertility—Olympian gods decided to give her poppy to help her sleep, rest, and revive nature. 6 In this myth, the period in which the land is barren and dead corresponds to the fall and winter, and the period in which she is reunited with her daughter represents the spring and summer. When we put the poppy plant, given with the intention to heal the barren nature and make Demeter rest, in this context, it is clear that the poppy is seen as an important plant, albeit with restricted power.

5  Quincey De, T. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. London, 1822.

6  Folkard, R. Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore of Plant Kingdom. London, 1884.

This is not the only ancient myth connected to the poppy plant, as many ancient heroes and personifications are presented with the poppy as their symbol. The ancient Minoan poppy goddess wore a tiara decorated with three pods of the poppy flower 7 ; Persephone is also presented with either a pomegranate or a poppy flower, and Demeter’s wreath includes poppies, connected to the myth. Morpheus, the god of Dreams, the son of Hypnos, was also connected to the poppies, showing that the effect of the poppy was never seen just as a means for getting sleep but as a way to live a dream-like reality, altered consciousness, and vivid imagination. Thanatos (Death) was also connected to the poppy, as a son of Night (Nyx) and brother of Sleep (Hypnos). One and only ancient mosaic of Hypnos, found in Risan, Montenegro, depicted Hypnos in a reclining pose, surrounded by stylized poppy flowers, symbolizing sleep and leisure. 8 In Hesiod’s Theogony, the first encounter of people and gods was in the 'Poppy Fields', probably wanting to indicate that this encounter happened on the unconscious level. 9

In Medieval times, the poppy sometimes symbolized the blood of Christ because of its rich red color. But it also symbolized the fleeting of time, sleeping, death, and the afterlife. The rich mythology of ancient times was adjusted to Christian beliefs. As I already mentioned, the symbolism of the poppy in the Early Modern age was connected to witchcraft and alchemy because alchemists also sought spiritual and material transformations, and the poppy might have been well incorporated into their allegories. 

It was only in the period of Romanticism and Neoclassicism that poppy symbolism was again revived for real. Both cultural movements found their roots in ancient Greek times—Romanticism because of the current Greek-Turkish war, seeing Greek people as honest and humble, always fighting for freedom; Neoclassicism because they saw ancient Greek culture as beautiful, reasonable, honest, and clean. Because of that, the importance of the imaginary of the poppy arises at the end of the 18th and in the 19th century, becoming an often-used symbol in many forms of art. 

7 Silverthorne, E. Legends and Lore of Texas Wildflowers. Austin, 1996: 142.

8 Grgurević, J. Mozaici na području Kotora. Kotor 2019.

9  Austin, N. Meaning and being in Myth. Pen State University Press, 1990: 70.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, for example, who were actually fond of medieval art, seeing it as naïve, pure, and innocent, used the poppy flower a lot in its paintings, both as a symbol and as a decorative motif. The famous painting of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ‘Beata Beatrix,’ painted in c. 1870, represents his wife, to which the dove is giving a white poppy, seen as a symbol of death. It is important to mention that different colors of poppies carry different meanings: red poppies stand for sleep and death, white ones symbolize eternal peace, purple poppies symbolize the animal sacrifice in wars, while yellow poppies are associated with leisure and joy. Rossetti created this artwork as a homage to his deceased wife, Elizabeth Siddal, using white poppies as a symbol for 'rest in peace'. The dove delivering a poppy into her outstretched hands represents her tragic demise from an overdose of Laudanum, a derivative of Opium sourced from poppy seeds.

In the 20th century, poppy symbolism still dealt with either sleep or death. ‘In Flanders Fields’, a war poem written during World War I by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, reflects on the loss of lives during the war, especially in the Flanders region of Belgium, making a symbolist connection to poppy fields where many soldiers were buried. The verses clearly indicate that poppies represent sleep, an eternal one: 

“If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.”10

The reference to poppies in the fields has since become a powerful symbol of remembrance for soldiers who lost their lives in conflicts, and poppies are often used as a symbol of commemoration on Remembrance Day and Memorial Day.

Even though modern art forbade itself to use the language of symbolism, the new art medium started to use symbolism as a way of expression. In many modern and contemporary movies, poppies are employed as a symbol of changes, dreams, longing, remembrance, and even eternity. In the famous 1939 movie ‘The Wizard of Oz’, as Dorothy and her friends walk through the poppy field, the intoxicating fragrance begins to affect them. 

 10 McCrae, J. In Flanders Fields, 1915. https://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm 

One by one, they succumb to the drowsiness induced by the poppies. Poppies here, as often in modern culture, represent intoxication, dream, and hallucination. It symbolizes the paralyzed state, the deep sleep, death — but also creation, dreams, and the seductive power of illusion.

LITERATURE

Austin, N. Meaning and being in Myth. Pen State University Press, 1990.

Baldassarri, F. Plants in 16th and 17th century: Botany between medicine and science. De Gruyter, 2023.

Folkard, R. Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore of Plant Kingdom. London, 1884.

Grgurević, J. Mozaici na području Kotora. Kotor, 2019.

Kapoor, L. Opium Poppy: Botany, Chemistry, and Pharmacology. New York, The Haworth Press, 1995. 

Keats, J. Endymion, Book I, [A thing of beauty is a joy for ever], 1818.

McCrae, J. In Flanders Fields, 1915. https://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

Quincey De, T. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. London, 1822.

Silverthorne, E. Legends and Lore of Texas Wildflowers. Austin, 1996.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katarina Đošan received her Master's degree from the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia. Her thesis concerned the question of the history and methodology of art history, as she was intrigued by different approaches but similar forms of art historian writings. She works at the National Museum of Serbia as an archivist and a curator, handling and researching archival documents, artists' legacies, sketchbooks, and photo documentation. She also writes for the online magazine PLEZIR, based in Serbia, on art, sustainability, and culture.