Oregano

Catullus, Latin poet (1st century BC), in his wedding song; the neoteric poetic school of Rome · Rome, 1st century BC; the etymology refers to the Greek world.

In his wedding song (Carmen 61), the Latin poet Catullus invites the god Hymen to gird his temples with flowers of fragrant marjoram (amaracus): the verse attests the use of Origanum in wedding crowns in Greco-Roman antiquity. The name 'oregano' goes back to the Greek origanon, which tradition often glosses as oros (mountain) and ganos (brightness, joy), 'the joy of the mountain', echoing its hillsides of origin. This etymology remains, however, an uncertain reconstruction, the word also being held by some to be of pre-Greek origin.

Catulle, Carmen 61, v. 6-7 (« cinge tempora floribus suave olentis amaraci »), Ier siècle av. J.-C. ; texte et traduction d'après Perseus/Loeb ; glose étymologique traditionnelle de origanon.

The amaracus of Catullus designates precisely marjoram (Origanum majorana), a species distinct from oregano (Origanum vulgare) but of the same genus Origanum; the ancient authors did not clearly distinguish them. The etymology oros + ganos is a traditional gloss and not a linguistic certainty, hence the conditional kept. The myth of an oregano created by Aphrodite circulates in modern herbals without a traceable ancient source: it is not presented here as ancient. No medicinal use is asserted here.