flower. Why would they use a Lilium? The plant that Rapunzel’s mother ingested in the original fairy tale was a Rampion, that has a totally different flower... So I started researching.
The first time a Lilium appeared in history was in a painting in Crete, in the year 1580 BC. For the Greeks, this flower was very precious: a myth says that it was created with Hera’s breast milk. For many cultures, this Lily symbolizes purity, chastity and virtue, and in a few cases death. In some others, it even represents Heaven on earth, or reaching a paradise in the afterlife.
As for it’s pharmaceutical value, it was commonly believed to have magical qualities, using it to treat fever, wounds and arthritis in the Victorian Era. In Eastern Countries they boiled the flower and ate it with other ingredients.
And it all makes sense: the drop of sun that created the flower is nothing more than Hera’s breast milk; it’s ‘magical powers’ where the magical qualities that were believed that the flower had and the representation of Heaven; the golden color not only associated to the Sun, but of the symbolism of the color itself: Illumination... Is this a coincidence?
Photograph by @Nennieinszweidrei