Thread by @VeraCausa9

The Laurel Wreath, Apollo's sacred floral attribute, was given to athletic victors in the Pythian Games held at Delphi. The laurel grew in the sacred grove of Delos.

John Singer Sargent-Man wearing a Laurel Wreath ca. 1874-80 @LACMA

Petrarch was made the 1st modern poet laureate, crowned w/ a laurel wreath on the Capitoline Hill on April 8, 1341.However, Petrarch was unaware victors of the ancient Capitoline poetry contest were crowned with oak leaves.

Portrait of Petrarch, Florentine School, 16th century.

The Laurel is still linked to enduring poetical fame, according to Hesiod's Theogony, the Muses gave Apollo a shoot of Laurel as a staff & breathed into him a divine voice, thus becoming the god of prophecy & poetry [1]

Ivy as an evergreen is symbolic of binding fidelity/love, perennial life & immortality. The ivy-crowned Bacchus symbolized life's regenerative energy overcoming death.

Mummy Portrait of a man wearing an Ivy Wreath ca. 150 AD Roman period, Fayum, Egypt. @artinstitutechi

The grass crown or corona obsidionalis was the highest Roman military honor, awarded by a besieged legion to the general who liberated them. It was made of grass, wildflowers gathered on the spot where the army was attacked.

Tiberius wearing grass crown, [detail] at Vatican.

According to Pliny in Naturalis Historia: "this [grass crown] alone was given by the soldiers to the general.This crown is known also as the "obsidional crown" [siege crown], from the circumstance of a beleaguered army being delivered, and so preserved from fearful disaster." [1]

Suetonius says, Julius Caesar was awarded the Corona Civica for bravery during the siege of Mytilene.

Corona Civica,a military award made of a garland of oak leaves.Reserved for Roman citizens who saved the lives of fellow citizens by slaying an enemy on a spot held by the enemy

According to Pliny's Naturalis Historia: "The receiver of the [civic] wreath may wear it for the rest of his life; when he appears at the games it is the custom for even the senate always to rise at his entrance, and he has the right to sit next to the senators" [1]

Detail of a marble statue of Julius Caesar made by Nicolas Coustou (1658-1733) at Louvre [2]

*Note: The Roman Siege of Mytilene occurred in 81 BC on the island of Lesbos, Aegean Sea. This Corona Civica was Caesar's 1st military award, after receving a pardon by Sulla during the proscriptions of 82 BC [3]

The "Corona Muralis" was awarded to the first man who scaled the wall of a besieged city presented by his commander with a mural crown (Aul. Gell. V.6.4; Liv. XXVI.4). It was made of gold, and decorated with turrets (muri pinnis, Aul. Gell. l.c.) [4]

Nero was the first emperor who assumed while living the Corona Radiata reserved to gods.

Orichalcum dupondius w/radiated head of emperor Nero NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER P M TR PIMP P, reverse Macellum Magnum (great market), two-story, domed section, minted 64 AD Lugdunum (Lyon)

In numismatics, the orichalcum is the name given to a brass-like alloy of copper & zinc used for the Roman sestertius & dupondius [valued at two asses or "two-pounder"] [1]

The "Corona Natalitia", a chaplet suspended over the door of the vestibule, both in the houses of Athens & Rome, in which a child was born.

At Athens, when the infant was male, the crown was made of olive; when female, of wool. At Rome, crown was of laurel, ivy, or parsley.

The Olive Wreath, aka kotinos (κότινος) was the prize for the winner at the ancient Greek Olympic Games. It was a branch of the wild olive tree that grew at Olympia [1]