The Garden of Alcinous was one of the archetypes of

Greek gardens A distinction is made between Greek gardens, made in ancient Greece, and Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 3 ...

that influenced the design of Mediterranean gardens through the end of Classical era. Pastoral poets, and later,

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

and

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

, portrayed the garden as an ideal of rustic aesthetics and abundant

fertility Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertili ...

. Scholars have compared

Alcinous In Greek mythology, Alcinous (; Ancient Greek: Ἀλκίνους or Ἀλκίνοος ''Alkínoös'' means "mighty mind") was a son of Nausithous and brother of Rhexenor. After the latter's death, he married his brother's daughter Arete who bore ...

' garden and the island of Calypso; both are a ''

locus amoenus ''Locus amoenus'' (Latin for "pleasant place") is a literary topos involving an idealized place of safety or comfort. A ''locus amoenus'' is usually a beautiful, shady lawn or open woodland, or a group of idyllic islands, sometimes with conno ...

'' with fresh springs and fruit trees. Some differences are noted; Calypso's garden is lush and endowed with a supernatural aesthetic beauty, while Alcinous' garden is simple and productive. Both have vineyards, but where Calypso's vines are heavy with unharvested grape clusters, Alcinous' vines are harvested by his men. Calypso's trees do not bear fruit while Alcinous' are domesticated. Calypso grows wild violets and herbs, Alcinous kitchen vegetables or useful culinary herbs. Alcinous' fountains provide water to the townspeople, while Calypso's flow freely along their natural course. Her garden gives pleasure only to the gods, and Alcinous tends to mortals. Based on

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

's description of the Garden, known from ''

The Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', the ...

'',

Rose Standish Nichols Rose Standish Nichols (1872–1960) was an American landscape architect from Boston, Massachusetts. Nichols worked for some 70 clients in the United States and abroad. Collaborators included David Adler, Mac Griswold, Howard Van Doren Shaw, and ...

compared the gardens of the Homeric Age to

kitchen garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

s, "characterized by an extreme simplicity":

And without the courtyard, hard by the door, is a great garden of four ploughgates, and hedge runs round on either side. And there grow tall trees blossoming, pear trees and pomegranates, and apple trees with bright fruit, and sweet figs, and olives in their bloom. The fruit of these trees never perisheth, neither faileth, winter or summer, enduring through all the year. Evermore the west wind blowing brings some fruits to birth and ripens others. Pear upon pear waves old, and apple on apple, yea and cluster ripens upon cluster of the grape, and fig upon fig. There too hath he a fruitful vineyard planted...These were the splendid gifts of the gods in the palace of Alicnous.

And

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

wrote in ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

'':

Nearer he drew, and many a walk travers'd Of stateliest cover, cedar, pine, or palm, Then voluble and bold, now hid, nod seen Among thick-woven arborets and flowers Imborder'd on each bank, the hand of Eve; Spot more delicious than those garden feign'd Or of reviv'd Adonis, or renown'd Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son"

References

Homer Odysseus Gardens in Greece {{Garden-stub