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The palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace and eternal life originating in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The palm ''(Phoenix)'' was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt represented immortality. In Judaism, a closed frond of the date palm is part of the festival of Sukkot. A palm branch was awarded to victorious athletes in ancient Greece, and a palm frond or the tree itself is one of the most common attributes of Victory personified in ancient Rome. In Christianity, the palm branch is associated particularly with Palm Sunday, when according to Christian tradition palm branches were waved at the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It was adopted into Christian iconography to represent the victory of martyrs, or the victory of the spirit over the flesh. Since a victory signals an end to a conflict or competition, the palm developed into a symbol of peace, a meaning it can have in Islam,〔Solomon A. Nigosian, ''Islam: Its History, Teaching, and Practices'' (Indiana University Press, 2004), p. 124.〕 where it is often associated with Paradise. The palm appears on several flags or seals representing countries or other places, with the coconut palm associated with the tropics. ==Antiquity== In Assyrian religion, the palm is one of the trees identified as the Sacred Tree〔Mariana Giovino, ''The Assyrian Sacred Tree: A History of Interpretations'' (Academic Press Fribourg Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht Göttingen, 2007), ''passim''.〕 connecting heaven, represented by the crown of the tree, and earth, the base of the trunk. Reliefs from the 9th century BC show winged ''genii'' holding palm fronds in the presence of the Sacred Tree.〔Holly Chase, "The Date Palm: Pillar of Society," in ''Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1989: Staples'' (Prospect Books, 1990), p. 65.〕 It is associated with the goddess Ishtar and is found on the Ishtar Gate. In ancient Mesopotamia, the date palm may have represented fertility in humans. The Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, who had a part in the sacred marriage ritual, was believed to make the dates abundant.〔(Sex Life of the Date ) University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology〕 Palm stems represented long life to the Ancient Egyptians, and the god Huh was often shown holding a palm stem in one or both hands. The palm was carried in Egyptian funeral processions to represent eternal life.〔Fernando Lanzi and Gioia Lanzi, ''Saints and Their Symbols: Recognizing Saints in Art and in Popular Images'' (Liturgical Press, 2004), p. 25.〕 The Kingdom of Nri (Igbo) used the ''omu'', a tender palm frond, to sacralize and restrain.〔Sulayman Nyang and Jacob K. Olupona, ''Religious Plurality in Africa: Essays in Honour of John S. Mbiti'' (Mouton de Gruyter, 1995), p. 130.〕 The palm was a symbol of Phoenicia and appeared on Punic coins. In ancient Greek, the word for palm, ''phoinix,'' was thought to be related to the ethnonym. In Archaic Greece, the palm tree was a sacred sign of Apollo, who had been born under a palm on the island of Delos.〔Apollo's birth is described in the ''Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo''.〕 The palm thus became an icon of the Delian League. In recognition of the alliance, Cimon of Athens erected a bronze statue of a palm tree at Delphi as part of a victory monument commemorating the Battle of the Eurymedon (469/466 BC).〔Evelyn B. Harrison, "Pheidias," in ''Personal Styles in Greek Sculpture'' (Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 27.〕 In addition to representing the victorious League, the bronze palm ''(phoinix)'' was a visual pun on the defeated Phoenician fleet.〔Kathleen Kuiper, ''Ancient Greece: From the Archaic Period to the Death of Alexander the Great'' (Britannica Educational Publishing, 2011), p. 89.〕 From 400 BC onward, a palm branch was awarded to the victor in athletic contests, and the practice was brought to Rome around 293 BC.〔Livy 10.47.3; Guillermo Galán Vioque, ''Martial, Book VII: A Commentary'', translated by J.J. Zoltowski (Brill 2002), p. 411.〕 The palm became so closely associated with victory in ancient Roman culture that the Latin word ''palma'' could be used as a metonym for "victory", and was a sign of any kind of victory.〔Vioque, ''Martial, Book VII: A Commentary'', pp. 61, 206, 411.〕 A lawyer who won his case in the forum would decorate his front door with palm leaves.〔Vioque, ''Martial, Book VII: A Commentary'', pp. 205–206.〕 The palm branch or tree became a regular attribute of the goddess Victory, and when Julius Caesar secured his rise to sole power with a victory at Pharsalus, a palm tree was supposed to have sprung up miraculously at the Temple of Nike, the Greek counterpart of Victory, in Tralles, later known as Caesarea, in Asia Minor.〔Caesar, ''Bellum Civile'' 3.105; Veit Rosenberger, "Republican ''Nobiles'': Controlling the ''Res Publica''," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 302; Anna Clark, ''Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in Republican Rome'' (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 162.〕 The ''toga palmata'' was a toga ornamented with a palm motif; it was worn to celebrate a military triumph only by those who had a previous triumph. The toga itself was the garment of the civilian at peace, and was worn by the ''triumphator'' to mark his laying down of arms and the cessation of war. The use of the palm in this setting indicates how the original meaning of "victory" shaded into "peace" as the aftermath of victory.〔Vioque, ''Martial, Book VII: A Commentary'', p. 61.〕 Coins issued under Constantine I, the first Christian emperor, and his successors continue to display the traditional iconography of Victory, but often combined with Christian symbolism such as christograms. The Roman senator Symmachus, who tried to preserve Rome's religious traditions under Christian domination, is pictured on an ivory diptych bearing a palm branch in an allegorical triumph over death. File:Egyptian - Large Amuletic Bead - Walters 42382 - Top View C.jpg|Monkey next to a palm, symbolizing the sun god's daily rising, on an Egyptian amuletic bead (ca. 1300 BC) File:Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin 125.jpg|Stylized palms on the Ishtar Gate, Babylon (ca. 575 BC) File:Tetradrachm Antimakhos Theos reverse CdM Paris.jpg|Poseidon holding a palm branch on the reverse of a tetradrachm of Antimachus I Theos, king of Bactria (2nd century BC) File:Winner of a Roman chariot race.jpg|Victorious charioteer holding a palm branch on a Roman mosaic File:Symmacho detalio in basso, British Museum.jpg|Symmachus bearing the palm of triumph over death (4th century) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Palm branch (symbol)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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