An introduction to... the Platanus:

Nir Stern

It was claimed by Marco Polo that out in the vast desert of Persia there grew a single ‘dry tree’ right at spot of the battle between Alexander the Great and Darius. This ‘dry tree’ was large with leaves that were green on the one side and white on the other. It is thus usually taken as the plane tree, platanus. This martial connection found parallels in modern times when German military used the pattern of the leaves for its uniform design, the Platanenmuster.

In the Iliad (2.307-13) the Achaeans were gathered underneath a kalē platanistos (a fair platanus), whence flowed shining water, when a serpent came from underneath the altar, slithered up the tree and killed a sparrow with its eight chicks, which were cowering underneath a bough. This, prophesized Calchas, was the portent declaring that victory would come in the tenth year of the war.

But the characteristics of this fair platanus – a large, long-lived tree, usually found near water, that grows up to 30 meters in height, with broad, shade-providing leaves, from which it derives its name – made it suitable for far more leisurely recreation than warfare and camouflaged combat.

At Gortyn in Crete was a platanus that is said to have never lost its leaves because it marked the spot of Zeus’ sexual escapade with Europa, and in Lycia there was a platanus so large that the governor Licinius Mucianus made use of it as a venue for a banquet! According to Pliny this specific platanus stood 15 meters high and had a hollow cavity 24 meters wide. The nearby spring and the tree’s foliage, used as couches, allowed Mucianus to entertain eighteen guests at this dinner (Plin. HN 12.9).

But perhaps the most famous platanus is the one which appeared in Plato’s Phaedrus. Walking barefoot with their feet in the stream, Socrates and Phaedrus head towards a tall platanus they see up ahead: ‘By Hera, it is a charming resting place. For this plane tree is very spreading and lofty, and the tall and shady willow is very beautiful, and it is in full bloom, so as to make the place most fragrant; then, too, the spring is very pretty as it flows under the plane tree, and its water is very cool, to judge by my foot. And it seems to be a sacred place of some nymphs and of Achelous, judging by the figurines and statues. Then again, if you please, how lovely and perfectly charming the breeziness of the place is! and it resounds with the shrill summer music of the chorus of cicadas. But the most delightful thing of all is the grass, as it grows on the gentle slope, thick enough to be just right when you lay your head on it’ (Phdr. 230b-c).

This image of the platanus as a locus amoenus (a pleasant place) thus became, through the work of Plato, an ideal place for philosophizing and was adopted by Cicero and others.

What else then is left other than finding your local platanus and enjoying your ‘book of verses under a bough’?