By Jay Jean Jackson

Springtime in Miletus is a beautiful sight. The Asphodel is in full bloom and gives a wonderful array of colour in the foreground, where it grows among the fallen columns, creating a wonderful juxtaposition between ruins and nature.

The backdrop of ancient Miletus, 20 km from Didim, completes the picture: both nature and the ruins have their roots and foundations anchored to many myths and legends. 

Asphodel is a hardy herbaceous perennial with star-shaped white flowers on tall stalks and it is easy to imagine the Asphodel Meadows, one of the three divisions of the underworld, referred to in Homer’s Odyssey. It was a realm of the Ancient Greeks where the spirits of ordinary souls and mortals resided after their death.

Its location is close to the land of dreams by the streams of Oceanus: a land where reality ends and everything is wonderful and full of springtime flowers.

The second division The Elysian Fields is depicted as eternal paradise for immortals, heroes and the righteous to indulge in what they had enjoyed in life. The Greek poet Hesiod described it as the ‘fortunate isles’ with their location in the western ocean at the end of the earth.

The third division Tartarus is a dungeon where wicked souls are punished as far beneath Hades as heaven is above the earth.

It’s also easy to imagine Persephone, the Goddess of spring, nature, agriculture and harvest collecting her flowers in a beautiful meadow, the earth cracking beneath her and her abduction by Hades the god of the dead and King of the underworld forcing her into the bleak depths of hell to become his wife.

Miletus

The only witnesses were Hecate and Helios. The effect this had on the earths was devastating, as it became barren, crops failed to grow causing widespread famine.

As with all mythology there are many variations but I like the one that relates to Hecate being Persephone’s saviour. She is the goddess of crossroads and gateways and holds the key to other realms.

She can unlock the gate to the underworld each spring and autumn leading the way with her asphodel torches to and from earth so Persephone can once again bring nature, agriculture and harvest to earth before returning to Hades each autumn before the long dark winters.

The legend of Hecate and Persephone illustrates the cycle of life, the changing seasons symbolic of life, death and renewal.

Asphodel had many uses in ancient times and is still used today. It is still the symbol of eternal life and, therefore, used in ceremonies memorials and funerals.

I hope people visit Miletus in springtime and let their imagination run wild in this amazing ancient city.