Kiri

A Potted History of Irises in Ancient Cultures

The Mysterious Minoans

Perhaps the most famous artistic representation of an iris in history belongs to the ancient Minoan Civilisation on Crete. At the Ammnisos “House of the Lillies” archaeologists discovered the “Iris fresco”. Dating to roughly 1550 BCE, it is thought to feature a stylized garden with iris flowers in a raised border, but there is historical uncertainty as it was heavily restored from small fragments.

At the Palace of Knossos itself, holes were drilled into rock to hold soil for bulbs, indicating the cultivation of irises took place directly inside palace architecture. However, these are thought to have been miniature Iris species.

Yellow Irises Introduction to ancient Egypt

The first solid historical evidence we have of ancient use of irises was around 70 years later in the Egyptian New Kingdom. The introduction of the plant to Egypt is historically tied to the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III (c. 1479–1425 BCE), celebrated warrior-king and avid botanist.

During his grand military campaigns into the Levant and across the Euphrates River into Upper Mesopotamia (modern-day Syria), Thutmose III encountered an environment very different from the arid landscape of his homeland. There, growing natively along the fertile, marshy riverbanks of the Euphrates, was the Yellow Flag Iris. Furthermore, through trade and conquest, the Egyptians also came into contact with a different species: the White Flag Iris, Iris albicans. Botanists trace the native homeland of this hardy, bearded iris back to the Arabian Peninsula (modern-day Saudi Arabia / Yemen).

Fascinated by these vibrant new flora, Thutmose III ordered his soldiers to harvest the rhizomes of both the yellow Syrian native Iris pseucacorus and the white Arabian native Iris albicans. The durable nature of iris rhizomes would have allowed them to survive the long, hot journey back across the desert to Egypt, where they were successfully planted in imperial palace and temple gardens. White iris rhizomes develop an attractive scent when dried and would have been valuable as an ingredient in fragrance making.

To immortalize his botanical achievements, the Pharaoh had master sculptors carve precise reliefs of his exotic finds onto the limestone walls of his famous “Botanical Garden” rooms at the Karnak Temple Complex. Among the 275 plant species that he had documented in stone is the distinct, recognizable profile of several wild irises blooming in Egypt, probably for the very first time.

Irises in Greek Mythology

In ancient Greek mythology, Iris was a goddess who was the special messenger of Hera, the Queen Goddess. When Iris carried messages from Heaven to Earth, she used rainbows as her pathway.

In the myth of the seasons, the goddess Persephone was said to be collecting crocuses, lillies, irises and other flowers when she was snatched by Hades and taken to the Underworld. The species isn’t specified, there is speculation that it might have been the dwarf Greek Iris Strafe, however Yellow Iris’s range does extend into Greece and both species are yellow.

East meets West

Popular myth frequently attempts to trace the earliest fleur-de-lis symbology back to Mesopotamian antiquity, specifically to Sumerian religious and imperial iconography from the Uruk period (c. 4000–3500 BCE).

These early civilisations did utilise stylized, three-part geometric shapes called “palmettes”. The early ancient icons decorated cylinder seals to be used as imprints. Later more elaborate designs formed ornate “Tree of Life” motifs on Assyrian and Babylonian palace walls, there is no historical evidence that these abstract symbols were ever derived from or meant to represent a literal iris flower of any species.

In fact, the earliest historically confirmed visual twin to the modern fleur-de-lis originates from Byzantine Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). It is preserved in a Christian mosaic within the Hagia Sophia, and dates to around 944 CE.

The famous South Vestibule mosaic depicts the Virgin Mary flanked by Emperors Justinian and Constantine the Great; an unmistakable triple-petaled emblem sits prominently on the rulers’ imperial robes. But not yet a symbol of French royalty, the Eastern Orthodox Church revered this icon as a “Wisdom Lily,” and used its three distinct petals to represent purity, divine wisdom, and the Holy Trinity.

Heraldic History of the Fleur-de-lis

Western European legend attributes the emblem’s shift from the church to the battlefield to the Frankish King Clovis I (c. 466–511 CE). Lore has it that he substituted three toads on his military banner for three Yellow Iris flowers after noticing the flowers growing shallowly in the River Leie (Lys). This biological marker told his army where the river was shallow enough to safely cross and enabled them to escape a battlefield.

Following Clovis’s conversion to Christianity, the stylized yellow iris gradually became a shorthand symbol for the Frankish kings, most notably Charlemagne (Karl der Große), who was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 CE.

By the mediaeval period, the symbol evolved from a loose royal sigil into an official brand. According to Wikipedia, its first modern historical usage as a sigil was as the emblem of the House of Capet founded by Hugh Capet (c. 941–996) and through that lignage it passed on to become the official emblem of the French court. After Louis VII (c.1137 to 1180 CE) formally adopted the golden logo on a blue shield as his specific royal coat of arms during the Second Crusade, the fleur-de-lis became permanently fused with the national identity of France.

Yellow Iris and Mediaeval Superstition

As the Frankish Empire transformed into Catholic France, the Yellow Flag Iris developed deep roots within medieval Christian folklore. Increasingly referred to as the “Virgin’s Flower,” its anatomy, featuring three upright petals, invited immediate parallels to the concept of the Holy Trinity.

Because of its association with divine protection, the yellow iris developed a powerful apotropaic reputation, it was believed to actively ward off evil. In various Catholic regions, particularly Ireland, rural communities believed the plant could shield the home from dark spirits. Every summer, fresh bunches of wild yellow irises would be harvested from ditches and riverbanks and hung up outside front doors during the Feast of Corpus Christi to bless the household and keep misfortune at bay.

The Seventeenth Century and Gerard’s Herball

The 17th century herballist John Gerard called Yellow Iris the “floure-de-Luce“, with “Luce” perhaps derived from the old German “Liesch”, stating it “prospereth well in moist meadowes” and describing the flowers as being “of a perfect yellow colour“.

Yellow Iris in Art and Literature

Steeped in history, myth and folklore as it is, references to the Yellow Iris span centuries of classical, medieval, and nineteenth-century literature. Because of the fact that the tall plant historically dominated European wetlands and riverbanks and that its flowers form a visual golden crown shape, it frequently acts as a symbol of royalty and heraldic power, as well as pure poetic beauty.

Shakespeare references Yellow Iris as the “fleur-de-Luce” in Henry V and Henry VI, possibly due to its French and heraldic connotations, but alludes to it with a clearer floral meaning in A Winter’s Tale:

“… lilies of all kinds,
The flower-de-luce being one! O, these I lack,
To make you garlands of, and my sweet friend,
To strew him o’er and o’er!”

William Shakespeare, A Winter’s Tale

And in 1579 Spenser compares other yellow flowers to the ” Flours Delice”. Kingcups are Marsh Marigolds, Pawnce are Pansy and Chevisaunce is thought to be a Wallflower:

Strow mee the grounde with Daffadown-Dillies,
And Cowslips, and Kingcups, and loved Lillies;
The Pretty Pawnce And the Chevisaunce
Shall match with the fayre Floure Delice.

Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender

Lastly, no discourse on Yellow Flag Iris would be complete without an image of one of impressionist painter Claude Monet’s many wonderful depictions of them (1914-1917).