Thucydides relates how, in the ninth year of the Peloponnesian War, the temple of Juno at Argos was burnt down owing to the priestess Chrysis having set a lighted torch too near the garlands and then fallen asleep.

The garlands caught fire, and the damage was irremediable before she was conscious of the mischief.

The gigantic scale on which these floral ceremonies were conducted may be gathered from the fact that in the procession of Europa at Corinth a huge crown of myrtle, thirty feet in circumference, was borne.

At Athens the myrtle was regarded as the symbol of authority, a wreath of its leaves having been worn by magistrates.

On certain occasions the mitre of the Jewish high priest was adorned with a chaplet of the blossoms of the henbane.