Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not recognize the Christian holiday of Christmas. At a German school in Istanbul, they learned about this during the Christmas holidays in 2016. By the decree of the Ministry of Education in Ankara, it was prescribed that customs, songs and, in general, Christmas itself should not be mentioned in the lessons. All holidays were immediately canceled. At the same time, a piquant detail is the fact that Turkey is closely related to one of the most important attributes of the Christmas holiday - the Christmas tree.
We are talking about the Norman spruce or, more precisely, about one variety of this coniferous tree, which in Germany accounts for about 75% of all Christmas trees sold. Abies nordmanniana subsp. equi-trojani, as botanists call this Asia Minor or Trojan spruce, has long taken root on plantations in Denmark, from where the German market gets most of its Christmas trees. Whether this also applies to German Christmas tree growers, even the Federal Union of Christmas Tree Producers cannot answer this question. They do not see the difference between Abies nordmanniana, whose homeland is the Caucasus and the Black Sea region, and Subspezies equi-trojani. In view of the close relationship - and for people far from botany, and almost imperceptible signs of difference - this can be understood.
However, the Trojan spruce, as the name suggests, is not only one of the main symbols of the Christmas holiday, but literally goes back to the foundations of Western culture. Already in the most ancient myths and manuscripts, the tree and the mountains on which it grew play an important role, as was proved by the expert on ancient history Johannes Nollé in his scientific work in the journal Gephyra. In it, an assistant of the Commission for Ancient History and Epigraphy of the German Archaeological Institute in Munich studies the coins of the ancient city of Antandros in the north-west of Asia Minor. In the 1840s, this city was rediscovered by the German geographer Heinrich Kiepert. Since 2000, Turkish scientists have been regularly excavating there.
Antandros was founded, presumably by Greek colonists, in the ancient area of Troas, as the country was called, which was once ruled by the powerful Troy. The nearly 200-meter spur of the ridge was a safe place for settlement.
However, safety was not the only reason for the founding of the city in this particular place. Antandros was located at the foot of the Ida Mountains, famous for their forests and myths. On one of these mountains, the Trojan prince Paris staged a fatal beauty contest between three goddesses - the Hero, Athena and Aphrodite. His choice is known to have caused the Trojan War.
For the inhabitants of Antandros, these forests were more important as the basis of their well-being. The Greek geographer Strabo wrote about the famous wood market in the city. Even 400 years earlier, during the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta, soldiers built warships in Antandros from trees from the Ida mountains, "triremes (with three rows of oars)", as the historian Xenophon writes, who, as a contemporary and an emigrant, received in Sparta first-hand information.
In order to withstand the war against the naval power of Athens, Sparta was forced to move on to laying down its own fleet. It was for the construction of fast, maneuverable military galleys, whose most important weapon was a fortified ram, that the Trojan spruce suited so well that they even preferred not to think that the tree was short-lived. Lightweight and non-slip spruce wood was also readily taken for oars of ships.
Other authors confirm that Antandros was famous for other strategic forest products. For example, the resin extracted from charcoal became famous, which was necessary in order to caulk the hulls of ships.
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Because of the important role that forestry played in the life of the city, Antandros decorated his coins with the image of a tree, which, however, scholars mistook for a palm tree. Johannes Nolle has now proven that the coins feature a coniferous tree. Moreover, “that in this case we are talking about the most specific type of tree for this region” Abies nordmanniana subsp. equi-trojani. "These splendid trees, which averaged 20 to 30 meters in height and had a trunk diameter of 40 to 65 centimeters at chest level, were probably the most distinctive and majestic tree in the Ida Mountains."
From there, she found herself not only in the houses decorated for Christmas in Europe, but also in its most famous circle of legends and tales. In the Iliad, Homer tells the gallant story of the goddess Hera, who sought a means to distract her husband Zeus from the war for Troy. She hoped that the Greeks she supported would finally win.
She prepared a love trap for her husband, and she herself became a seductive bait. The plan was this: when her husband got tired of love games, then the god of sleep was to put him to sleep. For this, the god of sleep hid in a tree, “before the eyes of Zeus could see him,” the epic says. "He climbed to an incredible height, the highest spruce in the Ida Mountains." Nolle sees the specific description of this tree as a sign that the poet "knew the Trojan spruce from his own observations."
However, for Homer, not only the height of the spruce was important, but also the density of its coniferous crown, in which the god of sleep was able to hide from the watchful eyes of the father of the gods. It is for this quality, as well as for the height of the Trojan spruce, that the Forestry Institute of the University of Vienna, after a study, recommended the use of this particular Abies nordmanniana subspecies for the cultivation of Christmas trees.
However, let's go back to the war of gods and people for Troy. Hera's trick was quite successful, Zeus still allowed the Greeks to win. For this, they again turned to the firs from the Ida mountains in order to make their own Trojan horse from them. The Greeks seemed to have forgotten this huge statue when they abandoned the siege of the city. The Trojans saw this as a sign of victory and dragged the horse into the city. They did not suspect that the best warriors were hiding in the belly of this horse. This was the end of Troy.
And this was the beginning of one science, which, in ancient times, studied how this fatal horse was made. Nolle quotes from fragments Quintus of Smyrna, who in the 3rd-4th centuries AD composed an epic that was supposed to continue the works of Homer. It describes in detail the work of the Greeks in the Ida mountains, how they "fell down tall trees", dried them and "hastily dragged them to the shores of the Hellespont" in order to build a horse there.
Other authors enjoy the evil irony that the horse was made of the same tree as the ship on which the Trojan Paris, who handed over an apple in the aforementioned beauty contest as a prize for the victory to the goddess of love Aphrodite, went to Sparta. There he kidnapped the king's wife, the beautiful Helen, which turned out to be a very suitable pretext for the Greeks for war. The horse and ship, made from the oils from the Ida mountains, became "the cause of misfortune."
Nolle does not stop at Troy and the Ida Mountains, but continues to track the path of Abies nordmanniana subsp. equi-trojani in world history. Obviously, this spruce also played a decisive role in the founding of Rome. The scientist proves this with the example of a medallion - 3.8 centimeters in size - from Antandros. The medallion depicts a man in armor walking towards the ship. With his right hand he leads the child, a man sits on his left shoulder.
This warrior is the Trojan hero Aeneas with father and son. He managed to escape from the dying city. He gathered the survivors and, after long wanderings, went ashore in Italy. His son later founded the city of Alba Longa, the mother of Rome. This story is described by the Roman poet Virgil in the Aeneid. It even mentions the name of the city “where we built the fleet,” Antandrus, as it sounds in Latin.
The Aeneid was the national epic of Rome, which arose during the reign of Augustus. The fact that in the myth of the founding of Rome their city was named after their name should have filled the hearts of the inhabitants of Antandros with pride, Nolle explains using the example of an unusual medallion from the early 3rd century AD.
By the way, the Trojan spruce is also involved in this glory of Antandros. Because she grew up in the sacred grove of the goddess Beretsintia. The goddess allowed the Aeneans to cut down trees so that the ships made of them would become incredibly fast and reliable. At the end of the journey, the Aeneans were even able to turn into nymphs. Beretsintia was not just some kind of mountain goddess, but a regional manifestation of the "Big Mother", which, even before the arrival of the Greeks, occupied an outstanding place in the pantheon of Asia Minor.
Thus, the circle is closed. The family of Norman firs, which decorate the Christian holiday of Christmas, has been closely associated with higher powers since ancient times. Now it is about to take root in Europe. It is therefore very sad that in her home region, Abies nordmanniana subsp. equi-trojani is now on the list of endangered plant species.
Berthold Seewald
