Garlic in Folklore and Religion

As one of the oldest and most widely used
herbs, it is unsurprising that garlic features in
everything from religious texts to creation myths
to age-old superstitions. Garlic’s distinctive taste,
strong smell and almost magical healing properties
gave the bulb an aura of mystery that was most
easily explained through story and myth.
In Islam, it is said that when Satan left the
Garden of Eden, garlic sprouted from where he
planted his left foot. This accounts for its
unpleasant odour, an attribute that prompted the
prophet Muhammad to ban believers from
entering a mosque after having eaten garlic.
Similarly, in Hindu myth when the god Vishnu
slices the head off Rahu, the demon that causes

eclipses, foul-smelling garlic sprouts from the
putrid blood seeping from Rahu’s neck.
Common names: garlic, allium, stinking rose,
rustic treacle, nectar of the gods, camphor of
the poor, poor man’s treacle, stinkweed, ajo,
Russian penicillin
In Roman times garlic’s fiery taste and ability to
furnish the consumer with fighting strength and
spirit meant that it was associated with Mars, the
Roman god of war. The ancient Greeks,
however, linked garlic with Hecate, the triple
goddess who represented maiden, mother and
crone. Hecate inhabited the Underworld and had

power over birth, life and death, powers
reflected in the almost miraculous healing abilities
of garlic.
Always take a bite of onion before speeding forth
to battle, just as your patrons of the cock-pit
give their birds a feed of garlic before they put
them for the fight.
– Xenophon, The Symposium
Perhaps one of the best known myths relating to
garlic, however, is the belief in its power to ward
off vampires. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the
connection that Stoker makes between Dracula,
the forces of evil and the Evil Eye, and the ability

of garlic to protect against all three, was merely a
case of him tapping into popularly held European
beliefs. It evidently took a powerfully scented
plant to ward off such a powerfully evil creature
as a vampire, for amongst the arsenal of antivampire
measures such as the Christian crucifixes
and holy water, more natural, traditional charms
such as sunlight, running water, and, of course,
garlic were included.
On the eves of the feasts of St George and
St Andrew, it was felt necessary not only to
stay inside with a light burning throughout the
night, but also to rub excessive amounts of garlic
round doorways and windows to bar the

entrance of vampires. Livestock that were forced
to take a chance and stay outside were not
forgotten – they too were smeared with garlic.
In Eastern Europe the presence of vampires was
believed to account for the plague in a village,
leading those born out of wedlock or unbaptised
to leave instructions for ‘necessary precautions’
in their will to prevent them from rising again,
undead. These included driving a stake through
their heart, cutting off their head, and, naturally,
stuffing their mouth with garlic.
We went into the room, taking the flowers
with us. The Professor’s actions were certainly
odd and not to be found in any pharmacopeia

that I ever heard of. First he fastened up the
windows and latched them securely. Next,
taking a handful of the flowers, he rubbed
them all over the sashes, as though to ensure
that every whiff of air that might get in would
be laden with the garlic smell. Then with the
wisp he rubbed all over the jamb of the door,
above, below, and at each side, and round
the fireplace in the same way. It all seemed
grotesque to me, and presently I said, ‘Well,
Professor, I know you always have a reason
for what you do, but this certainly puzzles
me. It is well we have no sceptic here, or he
would say that you were working some spell
to keep out an evil spirit.’

‘Perhaps I am!’ He answered quietly as he
began to make the wreath which Lucy was to
wear round her neck.
– Bram Stoker, Dracula
In Greece, garlic is believed to keep away evil
spirits and devils, as these beings fear the bulb.
Traditionally Greeks carried it in their garments
or hung it in their homes to keep away these
malevolent forces and also to protect from the
Evil Eye, while in Spain bullfighters carry garlic to
protect themselves from the bull’s charge.
If ever any man with impious hand strangle an
aged parent, may he eat garlic, deadlier than
the hemlock!
– Horace, Epodes III