Platania – or is it Platanos?
Updated: Sep 29
My new pen name Platania comes from my husband's ancestors in the South of Italy (a small village called Motta Sant'Anastasia to be precise). But before it became popular in Sicily, it formed as a word in Greek – a word to describe a tree.
Plátanos (πλάτανος) comes from the Greek platýs (πλατύς) meaning “broad”, which captures the strength and the size of the Plane Tree (commonly known in Europe as Platanus orientalis).
This plant taxonomy slash etymology would not particularly interest me, had it not been for one feminist detail. According to Greek mythology, the first plane tree was actually a woman. A GIANT woman... A giantess.
According to the 12th-century chronicles of the Byzantine scholar Nikephoros Basilakes, Platanus (Ancient Greek: Πλάτανος, romanized: Platanos) was the breathtakingly beautiful daughter of the Thessalian King Aloeus and the sister of the Aloadae giants, who famously tried to wage war against Mount Olympus. When Zeus struck her brothers down with lightning bolts for their hubris, Platanus was so overcome with grief that she transformed into a tree. To mirror the immense height and striking beauty she possessed in her mortal life, she became the majestic, broad-canopied plane tree.
Beyond this specific metamorphosis myth, the plane tree – particularly the Oriental Plane (Platanus orientalis) – holds deep roots in broader mythological themes, folklore, and historical legends:
1. The Living Embodiment of Gaia
In ancient Greek cultures, the plane tree was considered sacred and was explicitly worshipped as the living manifestation of Gaia (Mother Earth). Because plane trees consistently grow near water sources, they were viewed as symbols of life, healing, and absolute truth. Their large, hand-shaped (palmate) leaves were poetically seen as "open, welcoming hands" reaching out to humanity, making them universal symbols of peace. [1]
2. The Sacred Evergreen of Zeus and Europa
A highly celebrated Cretan myth links the plane tree to the princess Europa. When Zeus transformed into a magnificent white bull to abduct Europa, he carried her to the island of Crete. The divine seduction took place under the shade of a plane tree at the archaeological site of Gortyna. To honour their union and ensure the spot remained eternally sacred, Zeus blessed that specific tree with the unique power never to lose its leaves. A variant of this tree (Platanus orientalis var. cretica) still grows as an evergreen on Crete today, and the imagery is even minted onto the Greek 2 Euro coin. [2]
3. Snakes, Shedding, and the Trojan Horse
The plane tree's distinctive bark flakes off in large chunks to allow the tree to grow and cleanse itself. Ancient mythologists directly compared this process to a snake shedding its skin. Because of this "recuperative" trait, it became a primary mythological symbol for regeneration, medical healing, and immortality. It is also intertwined with epic lore: some traditions claim that wood from the sacred plane tree was harvested to construct the Trojan Horse.
4. Historical Legends Treated as Myth
The immense presence of the plane tree caused historical figures to treat it with a level of reverence usually reserved for gods:
The Infatuation of Xerxes: According to the historian Herodotus, when the Persian King Xerxes I was marching his massive army to invade Greece, he came across an Oriental plane tree of such unbelievable beauty that he halted his entire army of thousands. Captivated by its "pulchritude," he draped it in golden jewellery and assigned an elite warrior from his personal "Immortal Band" to act as its permanent guardian. [3]
The Shade of Philosophy: The famous plane Tree of Hippocrates on the island of Kos is heavily mythologized as the birthplace of Western medicine. Legend states that Hippocrates taught his students and drafted the Hippocratic Oath beneath its boughs. Similarly, Plato and Aristotle hosted their legendary philosophical schools under the deep shade of the plane trees at the Athenian Academy.
The Dry Tree: In the travelogues of Marco Polo, a legendary, isolated "Dry Tree" (or Lone Tree) in Persia was believed to be an ancient plane tree that marked the exact cosmic boundary where Alexander the Great fought Darius III.
This last legend about Darius III meeting his fate under a Platanus orientalis ties in nicely with my first name, Daria. But more about the origins of Daria in my next post!
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