ASPHODEL (Asphodelus)

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 769 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ARN-AUD

ASPHODEL (Asphodelus) , a genus of the lily order (Liliaceae), containing seven species in the Mediterranean region. The plants are

hardy

herbaceous perennials with narrow tufted radical leaves and an elongated stem bearing a handsome spike of white or yellow

flowers

FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

. Asphodelus albus and A. fastulosus have white

flowers

FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

and grow from 11 to 2 ft. high; A. ramosus is a larger plant, the large white flowers of which have a reddish-brown line in the middle of each segment. Bog-asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum), a member of the same family, is a small herb common in boggy places in Britain, with rigid narrow radical leaves and a stem bearing a raceme of small golden yellow flowers.
In Greek legend the asphodel is the most famous of the plants connected with the dead and the underworld.

Homer

HOMER, WINSLOW (1836-191o)

describes it as covering the

great

GREAT

meadow (& r4x5SeXos Xeiuw), the haunt of the dead (Od. xi. 539, 573; xxiv. 13). It was planted on

graves

GRAVES, ALFRED PERCEVAL (1846— )

, and is often connected with Persephone, who appears crowned with a garland of asphodels. Its general connexion with death is due no doubt to the greyish colour of its leaves and its yellowish flowers, which suggest the gloom of the underworld and the pallor of death. The roots were eaten by the poorer Greeks; hence such food was thought good enough for the shades (cf. Hesiod, Works and Days, 41; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxi. 17 [68); Lucian, De luctu, 19). The asphodel was also supposed to be a remedy for poisonous snake-bites and a specific against sorcery; it was fatal to mice, but preserved pigs from disease. The Libyan nomads made their huts of asphodel stalks (cf.

Herod

HEROD
HEROD (surnamed THE GREAT)

. iv. 190).
Specific gravity at 6o F. .

Bitumen

BITUMEN

soluble in carbon bisulphide

Mineral

MINERAL

matter (ash) Non-bituminous organic matter . Portion of total

bitumen

BITUMEN

soluble
in alcohol
Portion of total bitumen soluble in ether
Loss at 212 F.
400 F. in ten hours Loss at 400 on total bitumen Evolution of sulphuretted hydro-
gen at
Softening-point
Flowing-point .
Refined Trinidad.
1.373
61.507% 92.22 %
34'51 1.50
3'983 1.28
8.24 it66
8ooi 81.63
0.65 1.37
7.98 ,, 17.8o
12.811 18.308
410 F. none at 437 F.
16o F. 113 F.
192 F. 150 F.
The following is a comparison of Trinidad and

Venezuela

VENEZUELA

(Bermudez) asphalt:
Refined
Bermudez.
1.071
C.
H.
N.
6.3o
80.32
0.50
No satisfactory derivation of the word is suggested. The English word " daffodil " is a perversion of asphodel," formerly written " affodil." The d may come from the French fleur d'affadille. It is no part of the word philologically.
See Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopodie, s.v.; H. O. Lenz, Botanik der alten Griechen and Romer (1859); J. Murr, Die Pflanzenwelt in der griechischen Mythologie (1890).

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