סוף מצוי "But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her maidens walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid, and she brought it to her." Exodus 2:3-5 "Of tzité the flesh of man was made, but when woman was fashioned by the Creator and the Maker, her flesh was made of rushes. These were the materials the Creator and the Maker wanted to use in making them". The Book of the People: Popol Vuh, Part I, Chapter 3 (ancient Mayan document; written between 1554 and 1558) |
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Location: Netanya, the Dora rain pool; Date Picture Taken: July 18, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location: Netanya, the Dora rain pool; Date Picture Taken: July 18, 2009 Derivation of the botanical name: Typha, typhos (Greek), "marshes", a name that has been written for these plants since Theophrastus (372-287 BCE) called them tiphe (τὐφη) and Dioscorides (40-80 CE) wrote tiphes (τυφης). ”Typha is linguistically related to Typhon, typhoon, and typhus. These words link four concepts - monsters, storms, diseases, and plants. Typhon, as the father of the Winds, causes dangerous storms. This deity’s name is cognate with “typhoon,” borrowed from the Arabic, Persian, and Urdu وافن tufân (to turn around), and still in use to describe violent cyclonic storms of the Indian Ocean. domingensis, meaning from Dominica, refer to the plants's native habitat. In Egypt it was called tupai. Two species of Typha dominate in Egypt: Thypa elephantina and Thypa domingensis. Typha is used by people around the world as a source of food and household items. The Red Sea is called Yam suf, sea of weeds, where suf must be taken as a general name for all marine vegetation, as in the passage from Jonah 2:5: The great deep engulfed me, Weeds (suf) were wrapped around my head". Typha has been involved in not only secular life, but played prominent roles in people’s sacred lives. The Hebrew name suf may have been used as a collective name for water plants. Cat-tail is mentioned several times in the Bible, probably the most famous occurrence in the Old Testament (Exodus 12:15) is to Moses being found in the bulrushes. Suf סוף is the Hebrew word used for Typha in that sentence. Zohary (1982) argued that the Hebrew suf is cognate with Typha, and that the edible Ethiopian grass seed tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) is cognate with both. Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymus, 347-419),used harundine in the Hebrew to Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate. Harundo, the basis of harundine, can mean reed, cane, fishing rod, limed twigs for catching birds, arrow shaft, or pipe. Because of the Hebrew or Vulgate reference, the Christians of the Middle Ages began using cat-tails in artwork. Typha appears as part of the scenery in the tapestries of unicorns; both plant and animal were allusions to Christ. Paintings by Flemish artist Sir Anthony Van Dyck of Jesus’ mock trial have him with a cat-tail in his hand as a scepter. Even Leonardo da Vinci included Typha. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||