Every fall while I was growing up, my mother would pull out a curved, cone-shaped wicker basket and stuff it with fake plastic fruit. There was no corn inside, just some squishy grapes that squeaked if you popped them in your mouth and chewed. They did not taste like grapes, they didn’t even taste purple, they tasted like dust and motor oil from being in the garage. (you’re laughing, really? I bet if I asked your mother, she’d tell me you ate dog food!)
I get the idea of plenty. Most American immigrants came here because there wasn’t enough to go around back in their homeland. Prairies filled with buffalo, woods filled with game and the skies filled with fowl must have seemed like a gastronomic paradise.
But is there a deeper meaning?
Because in my mind, that cornucopia actually was a talisman–a prayer that there would be enough food to feed the family through the winter and spring until fresh food could again be harvest from the Earth.
So I decided to do a little digging.
First the horn shape. Apparently Zeus had to be hidden from his father (so he wouldn’t eat the future king of the gods). He was suckled by a goat goddess and accidentally broke of one of her horns. A horn that provided unending nourishment, in a my horn runneth over kind of way. Of course, this isn’t the only mythology associated with the horn. There are plenty of others, but the horn is always a symbol of a bountiful harvest.
As for filling the horn with fruit, grains, etc, I can’t find out when that started. But I do know that corn was placed in the cornucopia after the settling of the New World by Europeans.
So, there’s as much corn in a cornucopia as you can stuff into it:-)
Author Linda Andrews
Linda Andrews Tweets
- Nearly there authorlindaandrews.com/2021/04/19/nea… 2 days ago
- I did some things authorlindaandrews.com/2021/04/14/i-d… 1 week ago
- Superstition authorlindaandrews.com/2021/04/12/sup… 1 week ago
- Friday Fun Fact authorlindaandrews.com/2021/04/09/fri… 1 week ago
- Sounds like rain authorlindaandrews.com/2021/04/07/sou… 2 weeks ago
Meta
-
Recent Posts
Archives
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
Categories
You always have such fascinating posts! Are you researching every day? I am so impressed. 🙂
How haunted is your house, BTW? That takes courage, living in a haunted house. Although I love watching Ghost Hunters and I agree that ghosts are just people without bodies. 🙂
Lovely blog.
I don’t spend a lot of time researching, actually, I have to limit it to two hours (three at most, occasionally four). I just love knowing things, especially silly things. I have a goal to use cornucopia at least four times this month, just to keep my coworkers alert.
My former house was much more haunted than our current one. Apparently it didn’t like the people who bought it, so it would turn on all their appliances in the middle of the night with everything at the highest volume. It also took all their pots, pans and dishes out of the cabinets and stacked them in the middle of the floor.
Our current house just takes things and hides them. When I ask for, say my keys back, they’ll be right where I left them the next time I look. But if you don’t ask nicely, you’re not getting the stuff back:-). I grew up around ghosts and such so it’s normal to have them around then not.