Greek Gardens - "Garden of Alcinous"

"Garden of Alcinous"

In the eighth century BCE the works of Homer contain one reference to gardens, in the Neverland of Alcinous in the purely mythic Phaeacia, which stood as much apart from the known world of Homer's hearers as it did from the heroic world of Achaeans he was recreating, with much poetic license: "We live far off", said Nausicaa, "surrounded by the stormy sea, the outermost of men, and no other mortals have dealing with us."

"Now, you'll find a splendid grove along the road—
poplars, sacred to Pallas—
a bubbling spring's inside and meadows run around it.
There lies my father's estate,his blossoming orchard too,
as far from town as a man's strong shout can carry.
Take a seat there"

The gardens of the palace were of an unearthly lushness, in the fenced orchard outside the courtyard, fronting the high gates

"Here luxuriant trees are always in their prime
pomegranates and pears, and apples glowing red,
succulent figs and olives swelling sleek and dark.
And the yield of all these trees will never flag or die,
neither in winter nor in summer, a harvest all year round."

The description is beloved of writers on gardens, nevertheless. No such gardens were known to Homer's contemporaries, as far as archaeologists can discern, any more than palaces like Alcinous', whose very doors were of bronze. The gardens of Greek myth were untended gardens, maintained in orderly fashion simply because order, themis, was in the nature of things, as in the garden of the Hesperides, which was an orchard.