In ancient Greece and Rome every god and goddess had a plant, fruit, or tree sacred to them. The oak was sacred to Zeus, the pomegranate to Hera, the olive tree to Athena, and so on. In Greece, anyone who dared to cut down an olive tree was liable to the death penalty.
Even Hades, the god of the underworld, had a tree sacred to him: the cypress.
What about blackberries? They too had their god to whom they were sacred. He was Saturn, the Latin equivalent of Cronus, the god of time in Greek mythology.
Lake Pergusa, the only natural lake in Sicily, is full of brambles. They surround the lake like a ring. The wild rabbits that live by the lake hide among the thorny brambles to escape their predators.
Blackberries are rich in therapeutic properties. They are anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory. Today, running around Lake Pergusa, I tasted some blackberries. I found them delicious!
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
– Travels of the Mind
Ettore Grillo's Blog 
This is lovely. Could you point me to any resources that show that Saturn was associated with blackberries? I’ve been trying to find some myself and stumbled upon your page.
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This is lovely. Do you have any resources that show that Saturn was associated with blackberries? I was looking for this very thing and stumbled upon this post.
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It is a legend.
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Yes, I was wondering if it is something you grew up hearing and/or if you read it somewhere as well. I’m really interested in associations between plants and the gods, and so was curious.
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https://books.google.it/books?id=PSsBEAAAQBAJ&pg=SL2-PA19&lpg=SL2-PA19&dq=blackberries+sacred+to+Saturn&source=bl&ots=l2uNF6sHqp&sig=ACfU3U2uBOC1u-l7NkxoCEei2k3gD5tutA&hl=it&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiyoeOs3rrzAhWOMewKHXKFDyIQ6AF6BAgaEAM#v=onepage&q=blackberries%20sacred%20to%20Saturn&f=false
I found this link in English. There other links in Italian, but I don’t know whether you can understand Italian or not. Please, keep me posted.
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Thank you so much. My Italian is very basic so I appreciate this. I keep seeing blackberries connected to Venus but I have thought they are more Saturnian, personally! So it was exciting to find your blog.
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