In Russian fields and forests, you can often see a small yellow flower known as buttercup. It usually grows in places with high humidity, in swamps and on river banks. This is a very pretty flower, but its name associated with the word "fierce" alarms many.
The main versions of the origin of the name of the flower
There are two versions of the origin of the name of the flower. The first is held by biologists. According to her, the name comes from the Latin luteus, which means "yellow". The second version is much more interesting. The thing is that in Ancient Russia the word "fierce" had the meaning of "poisonous" or "burning".
Buttercup juice is really pungent and poisonous. In no case should he get into even small wounds, scratches and cuts. But, as often happens, the poison is also a medicine. In folk medicine, buttercup is used as a remedy for gout, rheumatism and headache.
In some areas, one of the varieties of the flower - "caustic buttercup" - is called "night blindness". It is believed that unwary chickens can go blind from it, and people, if the juice of a flower accidentally gets into their eyes, for some time also ceases to see. By the way, caustic buttercup has successfully passed clinical trials as a treatment for skin tuberculosis.
Legends and myths about buttercup
The seemingly inconspicuous flower is covered with numerous myths and legends. The ancient Greeks and Romans considered him a symbol of unkind jokes, and sometimes even madness. Interestingly, at the same time he served as the emblem of the god of war Ares or Mars. In Russia, the buttercup was a sacred flower of the main Slavic deity - the formidable ruler of thunder and lightning Perun. That is why he had a second name, which in modern Russian sounds like "thunderous flower".
A myth came from Ancient Greece, according to which the goddess Latona (the future mother of Artemis and Apollo), trying to escape from a huge serpent sent to her by a jealous Hero, was angry with the inhabitants of one of the villages, where she was not only not given shelter, but was not even allowed to drink water … The offended goddess turned them into frogs and drove them into the thicket of buttercups. Perhaps that is why the pharmacy name of the flower sounds like Ranunculus, which can be translated as "frog".
But according to Christian legend, among the buttercups Satan hid from the Archangel Michael, therefore the flower became evil, i.e. "Fierce".
The following story is also told. Allegedly, one rich and greedy merchant did not want to marry his daughter to a loved one, because he did not have money. The distressed beauty threw the gold coins hated by her to the ground, and they turned into buttercups. Since then, it is believed that whoever finds a buttercup can suddenly become rich. So this modest meadow flower is far from being as simple as it seems.
