syringa

Search and select colors that have been given the name "lilac."

SYRINGA (Lilac): The genus name Syringa is derived from Greek syrinx, meaning a hollow tube or pipe, and refers to shoots that are easily hollowed out to make reed pipes and flutes. It is also the Greek word for the instrument called the shepherd's or Pan pipe.

SYMBOLISM:
1. DEATH AND MOURNING
Lilacs -- especially of the purple variety -- are associated with death and mourning. This is especially true in the United States where the death of Abraham Lincoln was memorialized by Walt Whitman's famous poem "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd."
2. LOVE: Because of their heart-shaped leaves they are associated with love, especially the white flowers. Traditionally, purple lilacs symbolize death and white lilacs first love but sometimes both colors are associated with love: the white flowers symbolize youth/innocence and the purple flowers are associated with the first emotions of love.
3. SEASON/SPIRITUALITY: Lilacs are seen as harbingers of spring and they are associated with Easter. Thus although they are symbols for death and mourning they are also connected to the idea of renewal and regeneration.

MYTHOLOGY: In Greek mythology the name comes from a beautiful (water/river) nymph named Syringa/Syrinx. Captivated by her beauty, the god Pan chased Syringa through the forest. He catches her near Ladon river and to escape being raped she turns herself into the water reeds*. In some versions Syringa asks for the assistance of other nymphs present, who perform the transformation. When Pan realizes he is holding nothing but reeds his sighs make melodious sounds from the reeds. Pan then bound seven reeds of different lengths together to make the first pan-pipes, which he called "syrinx." *Note: The association between the reeds and the lilac was a later addition from Northern European versions of the tale.

POETRY (just the first few lines):

WALT WHITMAN (1819–1892)  
LEAVES OF GRASS.  1900.

WHEN lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
 
O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.


T. S. ELIOT (1888–1965)
THE WASTE LAND (1922)

I. The Burial of the Dead
APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding 
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
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