The Wonderful Bay Leaf
Another very interesting plant found all around here (and what luck ๐!) is the bay leaf. I have been drawn to bay leaves for a long time because it is such a unique plant... and because of the "laurel wreath" ๐. I never understood why poets and emperors wore laurel wreaths on their heads. Why exactly bay leaves? Anyway, here is a brief look at bay leaves from the website:
Apollo's revenge turned Daphne into an evergreen laurel tree (in Turkish, the bay leaf is called 'defne'), yet the beautiful nymph continued to haunt the plants. From then on, Apollo and the laurel became inseparable. The tree borrowed all its traits from the god, and the laurel always appeared in the rituals of Apollo's priests. They wore laurel wreaths on their heads and tucked them under their pillows at night, as it helped the future appear in their dreams.
When delivering their prophecies, they held a laurel branch in their hands and chewed on its berries.
To offer a sacrifice pleasing to Apollo, they burned laurel wood. The burning laurel revealed their future destiny. A quiet fire was a bad omen, but its loud, crackling flames foretold happy times.
To truly know the laurel, we must know Apollo. Apollo was the god of the lyre and poetry; this is why laurel wreaths were placed on the heads of poets. Apollo was the god of forgiveness, making the laurel a symbol of absolution. The laurel wreath on a victorious general's head represented a plea for the appeasing mercy of the gods. Roman soldiers wiped their bloody swords with a laurel branch to placate their deities.
The Romans believed that lightning never strikes a laurel tree. Emperor Tiberius weathered storms with a laurel wreath on his head, seemingly with success, as heaven spared him from lightning strikes. Apollo's arrow banished plagues, so the laurel's strong scent could prevent rot and disease, keeping evil spirits away.
The connection between the visionary laurel and artists is not just Apollo's credit. The Greeks viewed writers and poets as special people with rare prophetic powers, which is why the laurel wreath became their symbol. No wonder this talent-enhancing—and sometimes talent-substituting—wreath remained a favorite accessory for artists over the centuries. Eating bay leaves enhanced people's prophetic abilities. The famous Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, wore a laurel wreath not only on her head but also in her mouth during prophecies. With so much laurel around, it was easy to interrogate the spirits.
In addition to all this, her three-legged chair was adorned with laurels, and the sacred laurel tree bloomed right beside it. The story of Apollo and the nymph lived vividly among the Greek people for a long time. If a laurel tree grew beautifully and luxuriantly anywhere, they whispered that the god had transformed Daphne into a laurel there. Following the Greek model, the Romans also revered it for its miraculous abilities for a time. Then it gradually faded into the background, reappearing much later in the Middle Ages."
So, besides being a great culinary herb with countless useful properties, bay leaves were used in certain eras to achieve altered or meditative states of consciousness. Similarly, in the same or earlier periods, other plants were believed to induce strange or altered states, though those substances could also cause poisoning. I certainly wouldn't experiment with that ๐.
These effects are not clearly proven by science; they live on through myths and legends, which gives them their alluring charm. In the past, people knew far more about the effects of plants than we do today. Most of us just use them in the kitchen for seasoning and don't give them much thought. However, some people observe plants differently and utilize their healing powers. Formerly, and still today in some rural areas, people became "healers" through tradition. They know plants deeply and understand how to use them as medicine. This is a unique and highly valuable knowledge, even today when we have so many pharmaceuticals available.
Furthermore, plants work naturally without chemicals. Chemicals might worsen health or cause unpleasant side effects. I am not against medicine at all. I am grateful to medical science because many once-serious or fatal diseases are easily curable today. Even so, it is good to know which medicinal herbs grow around us. In milder cases, herbs can truly replace conventional medicine—at least, that is my personal experience. I simply admire plants and their power ๐.
Local Bay Leaves in Istanbul
In this post I was mainly interested in bay leaves because they are incredibly common here in Istanbul. It is wonderful because if you need a little bay leaf for your soup, you just reach out the window or balcony (as I usually do ๐) and pluck a few leaves. You dry them for a few days, and they can go straight into a delicious beef stew or potato stew ๐ yummi ๐
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