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Garlands, wreaths and flowers that are worn

The laurel and olive wreath

The leafy crowns of ancient Greece and Rome, given to victors and poets, and still worn by Italian graduates.

The oldest prize in European sport was a ring of leaves. Winners at Olympia were crowned with wild olive. At Delphi the crown was laurel, the tree of Apollo. Rome took the laurel wreath as the mark of a victorious general, and later of emperors. The image has never gone away. It lives on in coins, in badges and in the word laureate.

Photo: Unknown author, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

What it is

The laurel wreath is made from branches of bay laurel, an evergreen tree of the Mediterranean with dark, scented leaves. Two branches are tied at the back and meet, or nearly meet, over the forehead. The olive wreath, called kotinos, was made from the wild olive. Other Greek games gave other plants: pine at Isthmia and wild celery at Nemea. A wreath had no value as an object. Its worth was the honour it stood for.

Where it comes from

Greek myth explains the laurel through the story of Daphne, a nymph who was turned into a laurel tree as she fled from Apollo. The god then took the tree as his own. Winners at the Pythian Games, held at his sanctuary at Delphi, received laurel. At Olympia the olive branches were said to be cut from a sacred tree near the temple of Zeus. In Rome, a general celebrating a triumph wore a laurel crown. Myrtle wreaths were given for lesser victories.

Where you still see it

At the Athens Olympics of 2004 every medallist was crowned with an olive wreath. In Italy a university degree is called a laurea, and new graduates wear a laurel wreath, often tied with a red ribbon, on the day they defend their thesis. The custom is especially lively in Padua and Bologna. Poets laureate, Nobel laureates and the laurel on many national emblems all take their name or image from the same tree.

How to take part

  1. Cut two bendy branches of bay laurel about as long as your forearm.
  2. Overlap the cut ends at the back of the head and bind them with thread or thin wire.
  3. Let the leafy tips point forward and meet above the forehead.

The flowers

Laurel wreathA head or neck wreath made from laurel leaves, symbolizing victoryOlive wreathA crown of wild olive branches given to Olympic victors in ancient GreeceBay laurelEvergreen tree with aromatic leaves used as bay leaf in cookingOliveEvergreen tree grown for its fruit and oil across the Mediterranean and beyond

Also part of it, and being written: Myrtus communis.

Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text by the Phool desk, written with AI assistance. Customs vary from place to place. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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