In Egypt, the pomegranate represented the afterlife and in Greece, the pomegranate came to represent the change of the seasons.

1600 BC: The pomegranate was brought to Egypt from Syria during the rule of the Hyksos. Pomegranates were valued in Egypt as a food source and were part of the supply of fruits required in a pharaoh’s residence. Ancient Egyptians used the pomegranate in a variety of ways. The juice (called Schedou) was believed to fight intestinal worms, while the pomegranate blossom was crushed to make a red dye and the peel was used for dyeing leather. The pomegranate became so revered that representations of pomegranates were found on Egyptian wall paintings in tombs, symbolizing life after death. In fact, King Tut took a pomegranate vase into the afterlife with him.

800–701 BC: Greece entered the Orientalizing Period, a time in which Greek culture and art were influenced by Syria and Phoenicia due to an increased cultural exchange in the Aegean world. Pomegranates, a staple of Middle Eastern cultures, were prominently featured in Greek art during this period.

700 BC: Rome was first introduced to pomegranates via Carthage, its southern neighbor. Romans named the fruit Punicum malum, which translates as “Phoenician apple.” In Ancient Rome, pomegranates grew in shady areas of residential courtyards and were enjoyed as a summer fruit. Pomegranates were depicted in Roman mosaics, most notably in the House of the Fruit Orchard, located in Pompeii. Married women in Rome wore headdresses made of pomegranate twigs to signify their marital status.

500 BC: Pomegranates figured prominently in Greek myths; the most famous involved Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter, who was abducted by Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Once there, Hades tempted her with a juicy pomegranate. By eating the arils, Persephone was thus joined to him – the pomegranate being a symbol of the indissolubility of marriage. Inconsolable at the loss of her daughter, Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, prevented the earth from bearing fruit unless she saw her daughter again. Zeus arranged a compromise: Persephone would live with Hades for one third of the year and the other two thirds with Demeter. Persephone’s return from the Underworld each year is marked by the arrival of spring.