All the nations of antiquity—Indians, Chinese, Medes, Persians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans—were accustomed to deck themselves, their altars, and their dwellings with flowers, and to weave chaplets and garlands of leaves and blossoms. In the Vedic Vishnupurâna, the sage Durvâsas (one of the names of Siva, the destroyer), receives of the goddess Srî (the Indian Venus) a garland of flowers gathered from the trees of heaven. Proceeding on his way, he meets the god Indra, seated on an elephant, and to pay him homage he places on his brow the garland, to which the bees fly in order to suck the ambrosia. The Persians were fond of wearing on their heads crowns made of Myrrh and a sweet-smelling plant called Labyzus. Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian king, once held some games at Daphne, to which thousands of guests were invited, who, after being richly feasted, were sent away with crowns of Myrrh and Frankincense. Josephus, in his history of the Jews, has recorded the use of crowns in the time of Moses, and on certain occasions the mitre of the High Priest was adorned with a chaplet of Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger). Wreaths and chaplets were in common use among the Egyptians at a very early period; and although the Lotus was principally preferred in their formation, many other flowers and leaves were employed—as of the Chrysanthemum, Acinos, Acacia, Strychnos, Persoluta, Anemone, Convolvulus, Olive, Myrtle, Amaracus, Xeranthemum, Bay-tree, and others. Plutarch says that when Agesilaus visited Egypt, he was so delighted with the chaplets of Papyrus sent him by the King, that he took some home when he returned to Sparta. In India, Greece, and Rome, the sacrificial priests were crowned, and their victims were decorated with garlands of flowers.
In ancient Greece and Rome the manufacture of garlands and chaplets became quite an art, so great was the estimation in which these adornments were held by these highly-civilised nations. With them the composition of a garland possessed a deep significance, and warriors, statesmen, and poets alike coveted these simple insignia at the hands of their countrymen. Pliny tells us that the Sicyonians were considered to surpass all other people in the art of arranging the colours of garlands and imparting to them the most agreeable mixture of perfumes. They derived this taste from Glycera, a woman so skilled in the art of arranging chaplets and garlands that she won the affection of Pausias, a celebrated painter, who delighted in copying the wreaths of flowers so deftly arranged by his mistress. Some of these pictures were still in existence when Pliny wrote, four hundred and fifty years after they were painted. Cato, in his treatise on gardens, directs specially that they should be planted with such flowers as are adapted for chaplets and wreaths. Pliny states that Mnestheus and Callimachus, two renowned Greek physicians, compiled several books on the virtues of chaplets, pointing out those hurtful to the brain, as well as those which had a beneficial influence on the wearer; for both Greeks and Romans had found, by experience, that certain plants and flowers facilitated the functions of the brain, and assisted materially to neutralise the inebriating qualities of wine. Thus, as Horace tells us, the floral chaplets worn by guests at feasts were tied with the bark of the Linden to prevent intoxication.
“I tell thee, boy, that I detest
The grandeur of a Persian feast;
Nor for me the binder’s rind
Shall no flow’ry chaplet bind.
Then search not where the curious Rose,
Beyond his season loitering grows;
But beneath the mantling Vine,
While I quaff the flowing wine,