page_title: Celery
section_title: Cultural depictions
hierarchical_section_title: Celery / History / Cultural depictions
caption_attribution_description: English: "Apium," (family Umbelliferae), probably Apium graveolens, (Celery), bears odd-pinnate compound leaves with dentate leaflets on a central stem. Lombardy, ca. 1400. [Note] Rubricated text to the left of upper image: cxviii nomen herbe apium. A grecis dicitur selynon...prima cura eius ad epiforas. [Note] Rubricated text to the left of lower image: cxix nomen herbe crisocantis...prima eius cura ad ydropicos.
context_page_description: Celery is a marshland plant in the family Apiaceae that has been cultivated as a vegetable since antiquity. Celery has a long fibrous stalk tapering into leaves. Depending on location and cultivar, either its stalks, leaves or hypocotyl are eaten and used in cooking. Celery seed is also used as a spice and its extracts have been used in herbal medicine.
context_section_description: A chthonian symbol among the ancient Greeks, celery was said to have sprouted from the blood of Kadmilos, father of the Cabeiri, chthonian divinities celebrated in Samothrace, Lemnos, and Thebes. The spicy odor and dark leaf color encouraged this association with the cult of death. In classical Greece, celery leaves were used as garlands for the dead, and the wreaths of the winners at the Isthmian Games were first made of celery before being replaced by crowns made of pine. According to Pliny the Elder in Achaea, the garland worn by the winners of the sacred Nemean Games was also made of celery. The Ancient Greek colony of Selinous (Ancient Greek: Σελινοῦς, Selinous), on Sicily, was named after wild parsley that grew abundantly there; Selinountian coins depicted a parsley leaf as the symbol of the city.
caption: Apium illustration from Barbarus Apuleius' Herbarium, c. 1400.
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