Faithful marriages and wild unions: Palladius’ On grafting

Totelin, Laurence ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9576-1643 2025. Faithful marriages and wild unions: Palladius’ On grafting. Totelin, Laurence ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9576-1643 and Perkins, Emma, eds. Tools, Techniques, and Technologies Essays on Ancient Science and its Reception in Honour of Liba Taub, Trends in Classics – Pathways of Reception, De Gruyter, pp. 153-168. (10.1515/9783111010632-011)

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Abstract

Inspired by Liba Taub’s work on genres of scientific inquiry this chapter examines Palladius’ poem On Grafting, which describes numerous grafts that are considered impossible from the point of view of modern botany. I examine the sexual and family metaphors prevalent in the poem, and argue that Palladius, like other ancient authors writing on grafting, commented on human social mores through his description of grafts. I note that, in his poem, Palladius chose to stress more unusual, wilder, forms of grafting than in his prose text. I suggest that this was because the poet wanted to stress the benefits of exogamy and adoption, unions that go beyond the bounds of close kinship.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DE The Mediterranean Region. The Greco-Roman World
Publisher:	De Gruyter
ISBN:	978-3111009940
Last Modified:	14 Jan 2026 13:51
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/179875

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