The pure white lily in Victorian flower language translated as youthful innocence.
The lily is deeply identified with the ancient goddesses of the Western world. In Rome, it was said that the first lily sprang from the breast milk of the Great Goddess Juno, empress of nature. In the Middle East, the lily was sacred to Astarte, the primal goddess of fertility. Christianity too associated the lily with the feminine deity, ascribing it to the Virgin Mary.
The English word chalice is derived from calyx, the cup of the lily flower.
