What did the shamrock have to do with Hercules?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

March 18, 2002

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In the 1590s, when John Gerard was writing The Herbal or General History of Plants, he spoke of the three leafed grasses, "There be diverse sorts...and first...the meadow trefoiles, called in Irish Shamrocks." Gerard identified them as Trifolium pratense, a name which he dates to the 'Latine'. The name Trifolium pratense stands today, though Hortus III identifies the shamrock as

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Trifolium procumbens.

Modern legends say that St. Patrick converted the populace using the shamrock as a symbol of the Christian trinity. Herbal and 'magical' use of shamrocks, though, is believed to date to the Celts. Shamrock is derived from the Gaelic, seamrog. The shamrock is believed to be the clubs of the tarot cards—the clover a reminder of Hercules' club. Hercules by legend was the founder of the Celtic peoples.

Gerard was specific in its use, "The leaves boiled with a little barrowes grease, and used as a poultice, take away hot swellings and inflammations." A barrow is a male pig neutered while young.

Treating the eyes, Gerard states, "...Trefoile (especially that with the black halfe Moon upon the leafe) stamped with a little honie, takes away the pin and web in the eies (conjunctivitis?), ceaseth the paine and inflammation thereof...."

Culpeper's English Physitian (1652) says, "Mercury hath dominion over the common sort. Country people do also in many places drink the juice thereof against the biting of an adder; and having boiled the herb in water, they first wash the place with the decoction, and then lay some of the herb also to the hurt place."

Gerard added a weather wisdom which he credits to Pliny. "...the leaves hereof do tremble, and stand right up against the coming of a storme or tempest."

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, has great information on the shamrock. To read the information, click on the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamrock

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