Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Lotus flowers (Nelumbo nucifera) are aquatic plants that commonly are confused with water lilies. Unlike lilies, which feature large, leafy pads that float on the water's surface, lotus flowers ...
Lotus flower. The sacred lotus flower is an aquatic perennial plant that typically blooms vibrant petals of pink and white shades. It is one of the most beautiful plants to look at, but the lotus ...
Nefertem represented both the first sunlight and the delightful smell of the Egyptian blue lotus flower, having arisen from the primal waters within an Egyptian blue water-lily, Nymphaea caerulea. Some of the titles of Nefertem were "He Who is Beautiful" and "Water-Lily of the Sun", and a version of the Book of the Dead says:
The Ancient Egyptians used the water lilies of the Nile as cultural symbols. [67] Since 1580 it has become popular in the English language to apply the Latin word lotus, originally used to designate a tree, to the water lilies growing in Egypt, and much later the word was used to translate words in Indian texts. [68]
The lotus is often confused with the true water lilies of the genus Nymphaea, in particular N. caerulea, the "blue lotus." In fact, several older systems, such as the Bentham & Hooker system (which is widely used in the Indian subcontinent), refer to the lotus by its old synonym, Nymphaea nelumbo. [citation needed]
In Book 6 of the Fasti Ovid tells much the same story, but with the goddess Vesta rather than Lotis as the intended victim. According to some sources, Lotis was the daughter of Nereus. [citation needed] Ovid suggests that Priapus later kills the donkey. What the 'lotus' (if not the tree) that Lotis turned into is has stirred much debate.
The boy Buddha appearing within a lotus. Crimson and gilded wood, Trần-Hồ dynasty, Vietnam, 14th–15th century. In the Aṅguttara Nikāya, the Buddha compares himself to a lotus (padma in Sanskrit, in Pali, paduma), [3] saying that the lotus flower rises from the muddy water unstained, as he rises from this world, free from the defilements taught in the specific sutta.
Various folk cultures and traditions assign symbolic meanings to plants. Although these are no longer commonly understood by populations that are increasingly divorced from their rural traditions, some meanings survive. In addition, these meanings are alluded to in older pictures, songs and writings.