lesbianlinkle replied to your post “What flowers that are available in Norway around October could a woman...”
Yeah violets are heavily associated with sapphos poems with several fragments referencing them w things like "the girl with the violets in her hair" etc It became a tradition to exchange violets to show your sapphic love after a play used it as a symbol iirc? In like the victorian era
quillion47 replied to your post “What flowers that are available in Norway around October could a woman...”
In the Victorian era/modern day, at least, I think African Violets/Violets in general was/is a sapphic symbol (I don't have exactly sources to cite, however, so this may or not be true?).
We appreciate your input and the concern to get this right, however, violets have no corresponding meaning within the Victorian flower language. Which in no way disputes their sapphic meaning on a personal or community level, it just means it was never established within the Victorian flower language.
Also, African violets are only violets in name and not by genus, which is Saintpaulia, while Violets are categorised under Viola. African violets weren’t even commercially grown until the 1930′s and named in the early 1900′s. Meanwhile, true violets have been around as early as 400-600 BCE, cultivated by the ancient Greeks, so the violets referenced by Sappho were without a doubt Violas.
Mod Den has answered an ask about violets and their meaning a while back, that I recommend for further reading.
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