The Green Man, the foliate head, a composite of foliage and face, can often be found in West European churches and cathedrals, sometimes entirely made of leaves, often a face surrounded by leaves and/or vines. Sometimes hidden in dark corners, or high up in the ceiling, hardly visible from ground level. In pre-Christian mythology, he represents the vegetation, returning year after year, like the ebb and flow of nature, the spirit of the eternal cycle of nature and irrepressible life. The name ‘Green Man’ was first used by Lady Raglan, UK, in an article on folklore in 1939. There are at least four of them at Avioth.
The first ‘recorded’ Green Man in a church dates from the sixth century: in Trier, Germany, the capitals of some columns from a Roman temple representing a Green Man were reused in the church replacing the temple. Why did the church ‘adopt’ this Gallo-Roman symbol? All images found in churches have some function, they are related to the bible, to the life of a saint or the teachings of the church. The Green Man doesn’t fit into any of these categories. But it was common practice for the early church to adopt Pagan symbols, so that converting became easier and less ‘shocking’.
Green Men are found throughout the Roman Empire but none of them seems to date from earlier than the first century. They were also found in Turkey and India, among others. They are often perceived as a Celtic symbol. Some authors think they are a representation of Bacchus or Dionysos, symbolizing the wild aspect of the growing power of nature. Silvanus (meaning "of the woods") a Roman deity of woods and fields, is also a candidate. The Green Man is also associated with Osiris, who was depicted as a green-skinned man, the underworld deity granting all life, including sprouting vegetation.
Above all, it’s an archetypal figure, since many different cultures know some form of Green Man. In a way he shows the intertwinement of man and nature, which may be the reason for his success in Neo-Pagan circles. The color green traditionally symbolizes the returning cycles of nature and their embodied attributes, namely those of life, fertility, and rebirth. Green was symbolic of resurrection and immortality in Ancient Egypt, and by deduction the color of hope. It’s often associated with witchcraft, faeries and nature spirits in European pre-Christian beliefs. Green is also the color of Islam.
The Green Man is a plastic image of the color green, an emblem. Like all symbols, it’s difficult to rationalize. The old gods weren’t ‘persons’. They were the representations of forces beyond human understanding.
Avioth, another Green Man
Green Man, painting by Anne Brown
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