HIST: Irises and Soldiers--Stray Thoughts

In a message dated 98-04-27 22:32:45 EDT, you write:

<< When my son returned from the Gulf War his group was shipped to Lawton
 Okl. where they had a huge welcome home ceremony. We went to his  barracks
the next day and the men were all dumping there gear out of  the buses onto a
clump of iris. Some of the clump was uprooted and  laying on the ground, so we
rescued them. The same iris was planted  all over the base. It was a light
lavender. >>

Here, once again, we see the association of irises and soldiers. We have
discussed before the legend--possibly true--of the Moslems carrying rhizomes
of I.albicans with them to plant on the graves of comrades fallen in battle.
We've all heard the legend--almost certainly false-- of the soldier king
Clovis who, by observing water flags which indicated where the river shallows
were, escaped military entrapment. But I have seen another very pure
manifestation of the persistence of this military association into modern
times. A friend of mine who is Latvian inherited a lamp made from a brass
shell casing from WWI. It was made by a French soldier, and given to her
father, and the sides of the shell are decorated with engraved bearded irises.

It seems to me that there are several possible aspects to this symbolism. Of
course, the leaves are swordlike. That is self-evident, and, indeed, the word
"iris" has been translated "sword-lily". There is, interestingly, a famous
antique iris called FLAMMENSCHWERT, "flaming sword". There is another called
ORIFLAMME, referring to a banner to inspire devotion or courage, often a
battle flag. I do not, however, think this symbolism simply evokes battle as
such. We recall that for Pythagoras 'three" was the number of completion, of
resolution. Now, the iris has a bloom in which all parts are threes, and this
trinitarian aspect of the flower has been remarked upon in iris literature.
Some potential religious interpretations are obvious and inevitable here, and
we note that both the Moslems and Clovis were involved in holy wars. I think
that the ultimate persistant significance of the iris --a symbolism quite
possibly long since lost to modern conscious awareness-- whether for military
soldiers or for the original Moslem soldiers, or for "christian soldiers"
resting in a protestant graveyard in Virginia, was as a symbol not of soley of
battle, nor of death, but of victory, and of the ultimate triumph of the
forces of right. 

Just stray thoughts and speculation, of course, but the observation that
irises end up here and there because you don't have to water them in dry
periods really doesn't satisfactorily account for that French ordnance lamp.

Anner Whitehead, Richmond,VA
Henry Hall   Henryanner@aol.com
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