Sing all a green willow
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow;
The fresh streams ran by her; and murmur'd her moans
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Her salt tears fell from her, and softened the stones,
Sing willow, willow, willow.
Shakespeare, Othello IV.ii.40
Man is a tree. He reaches toward the infinite, grasping at the things he cannot have. He is rooted in the past with secrets buried deep beneath his feet that he hopes that no one shall discover. Throughout literature, people bear comparison with trees bent under the strong winds, twisted by years of stormy weather, scarcely hanging off the cliffside of life with their toenails. Geneology is drawn in trees as well as computer diagrams. Trees symbolize life and the variety of life. In the opening of Genesis, God plants a garden on the upscale eastside of Paradise, potting a pair of particularly intriguing trees that offer the fruit of life and the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.
We speak in metaphor, referring to reward as the fruit of our labor, indirectly referring to trees and plants. A great scholar spreads his shadow over his descendents like a wondrous plane tree that gives relief in the high noon sun.
Two beautiful stories of love and commitment relate to trees. The first is the story of Baucus and Philemon. Jove, frustrated with the evil doings of men and the racket they make that disturbs his sleep, descends from Mt. Olympus to wander as an anonymous traveller in rags. He comes to a town, but all the well-to-do villagers, slam their shutters shut, send out their ravenous dogs and haul out their shotguns. He and Mercury wander out the lane to the edge of the town and finally find refuge in a battered shack where the rafters let in the starlight. The story appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses, but appears in numerous versions throughout literature including rabbinic literature in the guise of Elijah stories and ibn Elazar stories. It also forms the opening of Wagner's Walkure and appears in Bertoldt Brecht, Good Woman of Sezuan. In reward for their hospitality, Jove transforms the old couple into a pair of trees which can be discovered in Thrace.
Unlike Lycaon, they did the right thing by serving up September strawberries and giving their guests something other than human flesh. Even Ovid found human sacrifice and cannibalism revolting as did Zeus.
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