Gold, of course. There was bound to be gold. There was always going to be gold? If you were bringing gifts, you’d bring gold. In Biblical times,
gold was so scarce that only kings could afford it. Gold is almost
indestructible, it is often found in its pure form and it represents both
financial and spiritual wealth. So the Magi were bound to bring gold to the
Christ Child, who was thought to be the king of heaven and earth. It symbolised
his majesty and kingship, his purity and incorruptibility.
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| Gold |
They also brought frankincense. Frankincense is a
resin that comes from the Boswellia species of shrub, an extraordinarily
hardy bush that grows mainly in Yemen. From ancient times, frankincense has
been used in the best incense, its name comes from franc encens –
meaning ‘finest incense’ – and is obtained by striping the bark of the
shrub with a blade and collecting the ‘tears’ of gummy resin that exude from
the cuts and dries in contact with the air. Even within the same species of Boswellia,
the quality of the resin varies from individual shrubs, depending on the
circumstances in which it grows, but it is all very valuable. The Egyptians,
Greeks, Romans and the Jews used frankincense in their religious ceremonies,
and the smoke from burning the resin symbolises the prayers of the faithful
rising up to heaven.
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| Frankincense |
In addition, it was used in medicines as an aid to
digestion and in the treatment of arthritis and it may be that burning the
incense in the home helps in the treatment of depression. Frankincense
symbolised Christ’s divinity. The Roman Catholic Church continues to use
frankincense in its rites but the Protestants, and the Puritans in particular,
regarded its use as just another Popish superstition to be suppressed and by the end
of the eighteenth century, the use of incense in English churches was almost
unknown.
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| Frankincense |
In Greek mythology, Apollo desired Leucothoë, the daughter of King
Orchamus, and disguised himself as her mother to gain access to her chambers.
Her sister, Clytia, had been Apollo’s lover and was jealous of her sister, so
she told their father about the affair. Orchamus was enraged that Leucothoë had
been defiled and ordered her to be burned alive; Apollo, unable to save her,
poured nectar and ambrosia (the drink and food of the Gods) over her grave and
she was transformed into the frankincense shrub. Clytia, hoping to regain
Apollo’s love, sat naked on the rocks and neither ate nor drank as she watched
him ride his fiery chariot across the sky, and after nine days she turned into
the heliotrope flower, which still follows the progress of the sun throughout the
day.
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| Myrrh |
The third gift of the Magi was myrrh. Myrrh comes from the same areas of
the world where frankincense grows and similarly it is a hardy shrub that is
striped by the harvesters and the exuded oleoresin is collected when it has
dried. It is a mixture of a gum-like resin and an essential oil, and is waxy in
texture. Myrrh comes from an Aramaic word meaning ‘bitter’ and through Greek μύρον
and the Hebrew mor, bringing a meaning of ‘perfume’.
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| Matthais L'Obel - Myrrh - from Plantarum 1576 |
It is another plant
used as a perfume, an incense and a medicine; it has long been used in
liniments, salves and ointments for cuts, bruises and aches and pains, and can
be chewed to sweeten the breath. In Greek legend, Myrrha falls in love with
Cinyras, her own father, and the result of the incestuous union was the god
Adonis. When Cinyras discovered that Myrrha had tricked him, he pursued her
into Arabia, where the gods took pity on her and turned her into a myrrh tree,
and in this form, she gave birth to Adonis. The tears of Myrrha are myrrh. This
disturbing myth can be said to show that, in some circumstances, love can be a
worse crime than hate, and has some parallels with the story of Lot and his
daughters.
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| Myrrh trees |
Myrrh was another valuable incense in ancient religions and is still
widely used in the Roman and Eastern Church services, and is also an ingredient
of chrism, the holy oil used for anointing in the sacraments (particularly in
Baptism and Extreme Unction). The Egyptians used myrrh when mummifying the
dead, and it was used to anoint the body of the dead in other cultures – one
Christian tradition was that Christ’s body was anointed in the sepulchre with
the myrrh presented to him by the Magi. Myrrh was also put into the vinegar
that was offered to Christ on a sponge as he was being crucified, in order to
ease his pain. Myrrh symbolised the humanity of Christ, his inevitable death
but also his attribute as healer of body and spirit.
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| The Journey of the Magi |
At some periods, it was
worth more than its own weight in gold. From early mediaeval times until 1762,
(when King George III was too unstable to perform the ceremony), it was the custom
for the reigning monarch to present gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh at
the Royal Chapel on the feast of Epiphany (the custom continues by proxy).
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