Laurel

Use in the book

B127 juxtaposes lions among beasts with laurels among fair-leaved trees. The subject that becomes these forms is not named in the quoted couplet. Within an account of progressive release from mortal lives, the laurel is naturally understood as a privileged plant embodiment. The introduction indeed reads it as the highest plant form. Yet that rank is an interpretation of the passage's setting, not an explicit superlative in the verse.

B140 enjoins complete abstention from laurel leaves. The translation expands the expression as keeping hands from them; the Greek gives the object from which one is to hold back. The fragment itself does not explain the prohibition. Reading it together with B127 yields a plausible connection between privileged life and restraint, but it remains a connection the reader supplies. It does not prove a ban on every use of laurel wood or establish a ritual procedure involving garlands.

Places to read

1. B 127.1–2Laurels are singled out among fair-leaved trees beside lions among beasts.
2. B 140The quoted prohibition concerns laurel leaves.
3. Introduction V (editorial discussion)The introduction interprets the laurel as highest in plant life and uses that to explain the taboo.

Translation in this edition

“Because it stands at the head of plant life” belongs to the introduction's explanation. The article retains the distinction between that rationale and the unelaborated command of B140.