Figs Essay

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HISTORY A. Old World The fig is mentioned frequently in the Bible and is included in the garden of Eden. It is a traditional food in the Jewish Passover celebration. The fig tree figures in the founding of great cultures and religions. Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were suckled by a she-wolf under a fig tree, which later, in the time of Pliny, was revered as a sacred tree. While sitting under a fig tree, Siddhartha Gautama had the revelation that formed the foundations of Buddhism. Figs have been prized for both medicinal and dietary value. Mithridates, the Greek king of Pontus (120-63 B.C.), heralded figs as an antidote for all ailments and instructed his physicians to consider its uses as a medicine. Pliny of Rome (62-113) said "Figs are restorative. The best food that can be eaten by those who are brought low by long sickness and are on the way to recovery. They increase the strength of young people, preserve the elderly in better health and make them look younger with fewer wrinkles". The early Greeks so highly prized figs that it was considered an honor to bestow the foliage and fruit. In the original Olympic games, winning athletes were crowned with fig wreaths and given figs to eat. The common fig probably originated in the fertile part of southern Arabia (Solms-Laubach 1885). Ancient records indicate both King Urukagina of the Sumarian era (2900 B.C.) and the Assyrians (2000 B.c.) were familiar with it. No records of its introduction to this area exist, but the caprifig, ancestor of the edible fig, is still found there growing wild. From southern Arabia the Bahra tribe brought the fig to ancient Idumaea and Coelsyria (Lagarde 1881). Over a period of several centuries, it slowly spread from there to Syria and the Mediterranean coast. Once figs reached the coast, they rapidly spread throughout the Mediterranean region aided by the maritime

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