Ethnobotany: Another Key for Understanding the Cultural, Religious, and Natural Landscape of Greek Pastoral Poetry

Abstract

This article examines Greek pastoral poetry from an ecocritical perspective. Through an ethnobotanical analysis, it highlights the role of the 73 plant species and 2 subspecies in the construction of cultural, religious, and natural landscapes. 27 poems by Theocritus, 4 by Moscus, and 1 by Bion are analyzed. Plants are identified both in cultural landscapes, where they are associated with a mythical worldview of nature, cultural expressions, and forms of production, and in religious landscapes, referring to temples, rites, and ceremonies. It is concluded that Greek pastoral poetry exhibits a coexistence between ornamental use and ethnobotanical consideration of plants, with a predominance of the ecocentric approach over the anthropocentric one. This ecocentric vision would respond to the influence of religious and philosophical systems that promoted the integration of human beings into the natural macrocosm during the Hellenistic period. Lyrical actors interact with flora in a dynamic of reciprocity, incorporating it into their worldview, rituals, and customs. Greek pastoral poetry conveys an environmentalist ideology based on sustainable coexistence with nature and ecological learning through rusticity. The application of ecocritical analysis to Greek pastoral poetry invites us to reconsider other possible interpretations of the relationship between humanity and nature.