Jump to content

Cornucopia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 209.77.243.21 (talk) at 21:30, 8 February 2011. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other uses, see Cornucopia (disambiguation).
Cornucopia held by the Roman goddess Aequitas on the reverse of this antoninianus struck under Roman Emperor Claudius II.

The cornucopia (Template:Lang-la) is a symbol of food and abundance dating back to the 5th century BC, also referred to as the food of worship and holiness, Horn of Amalthea, harvest cone, and horn of plenty.

In mythology

In Greek mythology, Amalthea was a goat who raised Zeus on her breast milk, in a cave, on Mount Ida of Crete. Her horn was accidentally broken off by Zeus while playing together. The god Zeus, in remorse, gave her back her horn with supernatural powers, which would give whoever possessed it whatever they wished for. The original depictions were of the goat's horn filled with fruits and flowers: deities, especially Fortuna, were depicted with the horn of plenty. The cornucopia was also a symbol for a woman's fertility. The story is said[by whom?] to be a predecessor of the Unicorn and the Holy Grail stories.

Modern depictions

Poster of cornucopia for California

In modern depictions, the cornucopia is typically a hollow, horn-shaped wicker basket filled with various kinds of festive fruit and vegetables. In North America, the cornucopia has come to be associated with Thanksgiving and the harvest. Cornucopia is also the name of the annual November Wine and Food celebration in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Two cornucopias are seen in the flag and state seal of Idaho. The coat of arms of Colombia, Panama, Peru and Venezuela, and the Coat of Arms of the State of Victoria, Australia, symbolising prosperity.

The horn of plenty is used on body art and at Halloween, as it is a symbol of fertility, fortune and abundance.[1] In the popular young adult novel The Hunger Games, the Cornucopia is a giant golden horn overflowing with weapons and supplies, which is the center of the bloodbath, the opening fight in the Games.

Cornucopia is also the name of a magazine about Turkish culture. It alludes to the traditional depiction of Anatolia as a land of plenty.

See also

Look up cornucopia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cornucopia.

References

  1. ^ Hastings, James (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics http://www.archive.org/details/encyclopaediaofr03hastuoft. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)[page needed]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Cornucopia&oldid=412789853"