TREES AND THE SACRED From the earliest times, trees have been the focus of religious life for many peoples around the world. As the largest plant on earth, the tree has been a major source of stimulation to the mythic imagination. Trees have been invested in all cultures with a dignity unique to their own nature, and tree cults, in which a single tree or a grove of trees is worshipped, have flourished at different times almost everywhere. Even today there are sacred woods in India and Japan, just as there were in pre-Christian Europe. An elaborate mythology of trees exists across a broad range of ancient cultures. There is little evidence in the archaeological record of tree worship in the prehistoric world, though the existence of totems carved from wood that may have held a sacred significance is suggested by the pole topped with a bird's body and head which appears next to the bird-headed, ithyphallic male figure in the so-called well scene at Lascaux. In the early historical period, however, there is considerable evidence that trees held a special significance in the cultures of the ancient world. In Ancient Egypt, several types of trees appear in Egyptian mythology and art, although the hieroglyph written to signify tree appears to represent the sycamore (nehet) in particular. The sycamore carried special mythical significance. According to the Book of Dead, twin sycamores stood at the eastern gate of heaven from which the sun god Re emerged each morning. The sycamore was also regarded as a manifestation of the goddesses Nut, Isis, and especially of Hathor, who was given the epithet Lady of the Sycamore. Sycamores were often planted near tombs, and burial in coffins made of sycamore wood returned the dead person to the womb of the mother tree goddess. The ished, which may be identified as the Persea, a fruit-bearing deciduous tree (and which, incidentally, Pausanias [ V, 14. 4 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY] describes as a tree that loves no water but the water of the Nile) had a solar significance. Another tree, the willow (tcheret) was sacred to Osiris; it was the willow which sheltered his body after he was killed. Many towns in Egypt with tombs in which a part of the dismembered Osiris was believed to be buried had groves of willows associated with them. The terraces of the Funerary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-bahari (c. 1480 BCE) were planted with myrrh trees [1. the Temple of Hatshepsut]. While the inner sanctuary is located inside the cliff [cf. The Sacred Cave], the temple's outer sanctuary of terraced gardens recreated the Paradise of Amon, an earthly palace for the Sun-god in imitation of the myrrh terraces of Punt, which was the legendary homeland of the gods. A special expedition to Punt -- probably at the southern end of the Red Sea -- was organized by Hatshepsut's architect and councillor, Senmut, to get the myrrh trees. Besides the terraced gardens of myrrh trees, two sacred Persea trees stood before the now vanished portal in the wall of the entrance forecourt, while palm trees were planted inside the first court [see Earl Baldwin Smith in the BIBLIOGRAPHY]. In perhaps a similar fashion, it is believed the ramped terraces of the Mesopotamian ziggurats [cf. The Sacred Mountain] were also planted with trees, and sacred trees were the principal feature of the so-called Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the wonders of the ancient world. In the desert environments of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia trees, and especially fruit trees, assumed a special importance. The head dress worn by one of the women buried in the tomb of Queen Pu'abi at the Sumerian site of Ur (c. 2500 BCE) includes in the elaborate decoration clusters of gold pomegranates, three fruits hanging together shielded by their leaves, together with the branches of some other tree with golden stems and fruit or pods of gold and carnelian. [see P. R. S. Moorey in the BIBLIOGRAPHY] In Egypt, the evergreen date palm was a sacred tree, and a palm branch was the symbol of the god Heh, the personification of eternity. For later cultures, the palm branch also served as an emblem of fecundity and victory. For Christians, the palm branch is a symbol of Christ's victory over death. It also signified immortality and divine blessings and is often seen as an attribute of Christian martyrs. It also denotes particular Christian saints such Paul the Hermit and Christopher, as well as the Archangel Michael. The palm tree is also a symbol of the garden of paradise. Trees also figure prominently in the culture and mythology of Ancient Greece. Pausanias [see BIBLIOGRAPHY] describes the sacred groves of Aesculapius at Epidaurus (II, 27. 1), of Argus in Laconia (III, 4. 1), and a sacred grove of plane-trees at Lerna (II, 38, 1, 2, 8). In the land of Colophon in Ionia was a grove of ash-trees sacred to Apollo (VII, 5. 10), and a sacred grove at Lycosura included an olive-tree and an evergreen oak growing from the same root (VIII, 37. 10). Perhaps the most famous grove, of plane-trees, was that sacred to Zeus, known as the Altis, at Olympia (V, 27. 1, 11). The oak tree was also sacred to Zeus, especially the tree at the sanctuary of Zeus in Dodona which also served as an oracle; it would seem the rustling of the leaves was regarded as the voice of Zeus and the sounds interpreted by priestesses. The oak was also sacred to Pan [see Pausanias BIBLIOGRAPHY], while the myrtle-tree was sacred to Aphrodite. In the Pandrosium near the temple known as the Erechtheum (421-405 BCE) on the Athenian Acropolis, besides many other signs and remains of Athens' mythical past -- a salt-water well [cf. Water and the Sacred] and a mark in the shape of Poseidon's trident in a rock -- could also be seen a living olive tree sacred to the goddess Athena. An olive tree growing today outside the Erechtheum In several Greek myths, women and men are frequently transformed into trees: Atys into a pine tree, Smilax into a yew, and Daphne into the laurel, which was sacred to Apollo. In numerous cases the spirit of trees is personified, usually in female form. In Ancient Greece, the Alseids were nymphs associated with groves (alsos, grove), while the Dryads were forest nymphs who guarded the trees. Sometimes armed with an axe, Dryads would punish anyone harming the trees. Crowned with oak-leaves, they would dance around the sacred oaks. The Hamadryads were even more closely associated with trees, forming an integral part of them. In India, tree nymphs appear in the form of the voluptuous Vrikshaka. In Ancient Rome, a fig-tree sacred to Romulus grew near the Forum, and a sacred cornel-tree grew of the slope of the Palatine Hill. Sacred groves were also found in the city of Rome. In Book 8 of The Aeneid,Virgil relates that: Next after this he shows the spacious grove Which fiery Romulus the Refuge named, And 'neath its cool cliff called the Lupercal By Arcad custom of Lycaean Pan, Points too to sacred Argiletum's grove [and on the Capitoline Hill...] The place with its dread sanctity was wont To awe the frightened rustics; even then They trembled at its wood and at its rock This grove, said he, this hill with leafy crest A god inhabits -- who that god may be, Is all in doubt; Arcadians believe That they themselves Jove oftentimes have seen... According to the Roman authors Lucan and Pomponius Mela, the Celts of Gaul worshipped in groves of trees, a practice which Tacitus and Dio Cassius say was also found among the Celts in Britain. The Romans used the Celtic word nemeton for these sacred groves. A sacred oak grove in Galatia (Asia Minor), for example, was called Drunemeton (Strabo, Geographica, XII, 5, 1). The word was also incorporated into many of the names of towns and forts, such as Vernemeton near Leicester in England. The names of certain Celtic tribes in Gaul reflect the veneration of trees, such as Euburones (the Yew tribe), and the Lemovices (the people of the elm). A tree trunk or a whole tree was frequently included among the votive offerings placed in ritual pits or shafts dug into the ground. Others shafts had a wooden pole placed at the bottom. The Celts believed trees to be sources of sacred wisdom, and the hazel in particular was associated with wisdom by the Druids. Perhaps not surprisingly, trees appear at the foundations of many of the world's religions. Because of their relative rarity in the Near East, trees are regarded in the Bible as something almost sacred and are used to symbolize longevity, strength, and pride. Elements of pagan tree cults and worship have survived into Judeo-Christian theology. In Genesis, two trees -- the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil -- grow at the centre of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). Scriptural and apocryphal traditions regarding the Tree of Life later merge in Christianity with the cult of the cross [cf. Sacred Shapes and Symbols] to produce the Tree of the Cross. The fantastic Story of the True Cross identifies the wood used for the cross in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as being ultimately from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. Other stories claim that Adam was buried at Jerusalem and three trees grew out of his mouth to mark the centre of the earth [see F.