Goddess Aphrodite

The long cultural history of the rose has led to it being used often as a symbol. In ancient Greece, the rose was closely associated with the goddess Aphrodite.[23][24] In the Iliad, Aphrodite protects the body of Hector using the “immortal oil of the rose”[25][23] and the archaic Greek lyric poet Ibycus praises a beautiful youth saying that Aphrodite nursed him “among

rose blossoms”.[26][23] The second-century AD Greek travel writer Pausanias associates the rose with the story of Adonis and states that the rose is red because Aphrodite wounded herself on one of its thorns and stained the flower red with her blood.[27][23] Book Eleven of the ancient Roman novel The Golden Ass by Apuleius contains a scene in which the goddess Isis, who is identified with Venus, instructs the main character, Lucius, who has been transformed into a donkey, to eat rose petals from a crown of roses worn by a priest as part of a religious procession in order to regain his humanity.[24]

Following the Christianization of the Roman Empire, the rose became identified with the Virgin Mary. The colour of the rose and the number of roses received has symbolic representation.[28][29][24] The rose symbol eventually led to the creation of the rosary and other devotional prayers in Christianity.[30][24]