Editing Elm (section)

=== In mythology and literature ===
[[File:Max Slevogt Achill.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.86|Achilles and Scamander]]
[[File:Dryad (PSF).png|thumb|left|upright=0.72|Dryad]]
In Greek mythology, the nymph Ptelea (Πτελέα, Elm) was one of the eight [[hamadryad]]s, nymphs of the forest and daughters of Oxylos and Hamadryas.<ref>[[Athenaeus]], ''Δειπνοσοφισταί'', III</ref> In his ''Hymn to Artemis'', poet [[Callimachus]] (third century BC) tells how, at the age of three, the infant goddess [[Artemis]] practised her newly acquired silver bow and arrows, made for her by [[Hephaestus]] and the [[Cyclopes]], by shooting first at an elm, then at an oak, before turning her aim on a wild animal:

:πρῶτον ἐπὶ πτελέην, τὸ δὲ δεύτερον ἧκας ἐπὶ δρῦν, τὸ τρίτον αὖτ᾽ ἐπὶ θῆρα.<ref>Callimachus, ''Hymn to Artemis'', 120-121 [:First at an elm, and second at an oak didst thou shoot, and third again at a wild beast]. theoi.com/Text/CallimachusHymns1.html</ref>

The first reference in literature to elms occurs in the ''[[Iliad]]''. When [[Eetion]], father of [[Andromache]], is killed by [[Achilles]] during the [[Trojan War]], the [[Oreads|mountain nymphs]] plant elms on his tomb ("περί δὲ πτελέας ἐφύτευσαν νύμφαι ὀρεστιάδες, κoῦραι Διὸς αἰγιόχoιo").<ref>'and all about were elm trees planted by nymphs of the mountain, daughters of Zeus that beareth the aegis.' http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134:book=6:card=414&highlight=elm ''Iliad'', Ζ, 419–420, www.perseus.tufts.edu] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526174941/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134:book=6:card=414&highlight=elm |date=26 May 2013 }}</ref>
Also in the ''Iliad'', when the River [[Scamander]], indignant at the sight of so many corpses in his water, overflows and threatens to drown Achilles, the latter grasps a branch of a great elm in an attempt to save himself ("ὁ δὲ πτελέην ἕλε χερσὶν εὐφυέα μεγάλην".<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0217:book=21:card=114&highlight=elm ''Iliad'', Φ, 242–243, www.perseus.tufts.edu] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526132429/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0217:book=21:card=114&highlight=elm |date=26 May 2013 }}</ref>

The nymphs also planted elms on the tomb in the [[Thracian Chersonese]] of "great-hearted [[Protesilaus]]" ("μεγάθυμου Πρωτεσιλάου"), the first Greek to fall in the Trojan War. These elms grew to be the tallest in the known world, but when their topmost branches saw far off the ruins of Troy, they immediately withered, so great still was the bitterness of the hero buried below, who had been loved by [[Laodamia]] and slain by [[Hector]].<ref>[[Philostratus of Lemnos|Philostratus]], '' ̔Ηρωικός'', 3,1 perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0597%3Aolpage%3D672</ref><ref>[[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], ''Τα μεθ' `Ομηρον'', 7.458–462</ref><ref>[[Pliny the Elder]], ''Naturalis Historia'', 16.88</ref>  The story is the subject of a poem by [[Antiphilus of Byzantium]] (first century AD) in the [[Palatine Anthology]]:

:Θεσσαλὲ Πρωτεσίλαε, σὲ μὲν πολὺς ᾄσεται αἰών,
:Tρoίᾳ ὀφειλoμένoυ πτώματος ἀρξάμενoν•
:σᾶμα δὲ τοι πτελέῃσι συνηρεφὲς ἀμφικoμεῦση
:Nύμφαι, ἀπεχθoμένης Ἰλίoυ ἀντιπέρας.
:Δένδρα δὲ δυσμήνιτα, καὶ ἤν ποτε τεῖχoς ἴδωσι
:Tρώϊον, αὐαλέην φυλλοχoεῦντι κόμην.
:ὅσσoς ἐν ἡρώεσσι τότ᾽ ἦν χόλoς, oὗ μέρoς ἀκμὴν
:ἐχθρὸν ἐν ἀψύχoις σώζεται ἀκρέμoσιν.<ref>''Anth. Pal.'', 7.141</ref>

:[:Thessalian Protesilaos, a long age shall sing your praises,
:Of the destined dead at Troy the first;
:Your tomb with thick-foliaged elms they covered,
:The nymphs, across the water from hated Ilion.
:Trees full of anger; and whenever that wall they see,
:Of Troy, the leaves in their upper crown wither and fall.
:So great in the heroes was the bitterness then, some of which still
:Remembers, hostile, in the soulless upper branches.]

Protesilaus had been king of [[Pteleos]] ({{lang|grc|Πτελεός}}) in Thessaly, which took its name from the abundant elms ({{lang|grc|πτελέoι}}) in the region.<ref>Lucas, F. L., ''From Olympus to the Styx'' (London, 1934)</ref>

Elms occur often in [[Pastoral|pastoral poetry]], where they symbolise the idyllic life, their shade being mentioned as a place of special coolness and peace. In the first Idyll of [[Theocritus]] (third century BC), for example, the goatherd invites the shepherd to sit "here beneath the elm" ("δεῦρ' ὑπὸ τὰν πτελέαν") and sing. Beside elms, Theocritus places "the [[Sacred waters|sacred water]]" ("{{lang|grc|το ἱερὸν ὕδωρ}}") of the Springs of the Nymphs and the shrines to the nymphs.<ref>Theocritus, ''Eιδύλλιo'' I, 19–23; VII, 135–40</ref>
[[File:The Sibyl of Cumae Leading Aeneas to the Underworld.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.81|The Sibyl and Aeneas]]
Aside from references literal and metaphorical to the [[The Elm and the Vine|elm and vine]] theme, the tree occurs in Latin literature in the Elm of Dreams in the [[Aeneid]].<ref>Vergil, ''Aeneid'', VI. 282–5</ref> When the [[Cumaean Sibyl|Sibyl of Cumae]] leads [[Aeneas]] down to the [[Underworld]], one of the sights is the Stygian Elm:

:In medio ramos annosaque bracchia pandit
:ulmus opaca, ingens, quam sedem somnia vulgo
:uana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus haerent.

:[:Spreads in the midst her boughs and agéd arms
:an elm, huge, shadowy, where vain dreams, 'tis said,
:are wont to roost them, under every leaf close-clinging.]

[[Virgil]] refers to a Roman superstition (''vulgo'') that elms were trees of ill-omen because their fruit seemed to be of no value.<ref>Richens, R. H., ''Elm'' (Cambridge 1983) p.155</ref> It has been noted<ref>Richens, R. H., ''Elm'', Ch.10 (Cambridge, 1983)</ref> that two elm-motifs have arisen from classical literature: (1) the 'Paradisal Elm' motif, arising from pastoral idylls and the elm-and-vine theme, and (2) the 'Elm and Death' motif, perhaps arising from Homer's commemorative elms and Virgil's Stygian Elm. Many references to elm in European literature from the Renaissance onwards fit into one or other of these categories.

There are two examples of ''pteleogenesis'' (:birth from elms) in world myths. In Germanic and Scandinavian mythology the first woman, [[Ask and Embla|Embla]], was fashioned from an elm,<ref>Heybroek, H. M., 'Resistant Elms for Europe' (1982) in ''Research on Dutch Elm Disease in Europe'', HMSO, London 1983</ref>
while in Japanese mythology [[Kamuy Fuchi]], the chief goddess of the [[Ainu people]], "was born from an elm impregnated by the Possessor of the Heavens".<ref name=Wilkinson>Wilkinson, Gerald, ''Epitaph for the Elm'' (London, 1978), p.87</ref>
[[File:English Elm Preston Park Brighton.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.81|Under the elm, [[Brighton]], 2006]]
The elm occurs frequently in English literature, one of the best known instances being in Shakespeare's ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', where Titania, Queen of the Fairies, addresses her beloved Nick Bottom using an elm-simile. Here, as often in the elm-and-vine motif, the elm is a masculine symbol:

:Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
:... the female Ivy so
:Enrings the barky fingers of the Elm.
:O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!<ref>Shakespeare, ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', Act 4, Scene 1</ref>

Another of the most famous kisses in English literature, that of Paul and Helen at the start of Forster's ''[[Howards End]]'', is stolen beneath a great wych elm.
 
The elm tree is also referenced in children's literature.  ''An Elm Tree and Three Sisters'' by [[Norma Sommerdorf]] is a children's book about three young sisters who plant a small elm tree in their backyard.<ref>{{cite web|last=Janssen|first=Carolyn|title=An elm tree and three sisters (Book Review)|url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/4076749|publisher=ebscohost|access-date=21 September 2012}}</ref>