Pomona

Pomona was a Roman nymph of orchards and fruit trees, a wood nymph of Latium whose name comes from the Latin poma, “fruit”. She is known from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where she shuts herself in her garden to avoid suitors, until the god Vertumnus wins her by coming to her disguised as an old woman.

Pomona in Ovid

A Nymph of the Orchard

Ovid places Pomona in the reign of Proca, one of the early kings of the Latins. Among the Latin hamadryads (nymphs who live in trees), none tended gardens with more skill, and none was more devoted to the fruit of trees; Ovid says she has her name from this. She did not love woods or rivers but the countryside and the branches heavy with fruit. In place of a javelin, she held a curved pruning-knife, with which she cut back growth, grafted shoots into split bark and watered the roots (Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.623–636).

She felt no desire for love. She shut her orchard in and kept men away. Satyrs, horned Pans, Silenus, and the god who frightens thieves with his sickle all tried to win her, but Vertumnus loved her more than any of them, and was no more successful (Metamorphoses 14.634–642).

The Disguises of Vertumnus

To see her, Vertumnus came in many forms: a harvester carrying a basket of ears of corn, a man with a hay-wreath who seemed to have just mown, a ploughman with an ox-goad, a vine-pruner, a fruit-picker with a ladder, a soldier and a fisherman. Finally he came as an old woman with a coloured headband, leaning on a staff with grey hair at the temples, and entered the garden (Metamorphoses 14.643–656).

The Old Woman’s Speech

Vertumnus, as the old woman, praised the fruit, kissed Pomona, and sat down beneath the loaded branches. He pointed to an elm entwined with a vine: the elm would have nothing to attract anyone if it stood alone, and the vine would lie on the ground if it were not married to the tree. He urged her not to shun marriage, saying that a thousand men, demigods and gods wanted her, and advised her to choose Vertumnus, who loved her above all. He then told her the story of Iphis and Anaxarete, who scorned a lover until she was turned to stone as she watched his funeral, a statue Ovid says still stood at Salamis (Metamorphoses 14.656–764).

Vertumnus Reveals Himself

When the old woman's appeal had no effect, the god dropped his disguise and appeared as a young man, shining like the sun when it breaks through clouds. He prepared to use force, but force was not needed: the nymph was captured by the sight of the god and felt the same wound (Metamorphoses 14.765–771).

Pomona Sources

Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.623–771.

See Also: Vertumnus, Silenus, Pan