For 90 years or more a book sat deep in the stacks of the Wilbour Library of Egyptology concealing a
For 90 years or more a book sat deep in the stacks of the Wilbour Library of Egyptology concealing a secret within its pages. The book was Gartenpflanzen im alten Ägypten: ägyptologische studien von Ludwig Keimer (1924) or “Garden Plants of Ancient Egypt”. Pressed between the pages was a delicate lotus plant with the purple color still visible on the tips of the blossom.What a beautiful surprise just as spring is breaking all over Brooklyn! I wondered how far this fragile flower had travelled—perhaps all the way from Egypt? It was a hopeful discovery at the end of a hard winter season. It was also fitting that the subject was ancient Egypt and the lotus. The lotus plant was a symbol in ancient Egyptian art of the sun, creation, and rebirth. The beauty of these blooms is captured in another one of the treasures of the Wilbour Library, Illustrations of the lotus of antiquity by R. Duppa (1813).I was reminded of Pablo Neruda who once said that “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.” Winter cannot stay—and whatever dark forces attempt to keep life under-wraps or underground—spring surges ahead, always. Posted by Roberta Munoz -- source link
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