Style Coin 663 Fleur de Lis

Material: nickelfree rhodium plated alloy, crystals

In the Mediterranean cultures due to their geographically wide-ranging dissemination especially the gleaming white Easter Lily was at the center of symbolic use. Pictures probably the Easter Lily can already be found in Minoan Crete. The oldest known representation of a lily but probably shows a Lilium chalcedonicum. It involves some 3,500-year-old frescoes in the Bronze Age city of Akrotiri on the Greek island of Santorini. By contrast, the so called Lily of Madonna was in ancient Greece the flower of Hera, Cassian Bassus reports in his Geoponica, they arose from spilled drops of milk of her breasts, as Hercules drank from them. Should be over the purity bloom again Aphrodite have so much annoyed that they additionally implanted her a donkey phallus as a stamp.
In Christianity, the lily appeared frequently as a symbol. Susanna and the Elders (of Hebrew "Shushan" = "the lily") was represented by the symbol of the lily as a symbol of their purity before Maria. The symbol was transferred to the Marian devotion and received its present meaning as "Lily of Madonna" and a symbol of purity in the Christian idiom. Even the archangel Gabriel wears - especially on representations of the Annunciation - since the 14th century a lily as an attribute; in his hand symbolizes the perpetual virginity of Mary and superseded the previous symbol of the scepter as a former main symbol of that Archangel.
Lilium rubellum is a sign of health and is part of Shinto rites. Since 702 is held annually on 17 June, the Lily Festival "Saikusa matsuri" in Nara instead, in which the faithful try to catch a lily stems from the ritual, since it ascribes to him the power to help against disease.
Incidentally, the lily has a heraldic and genealogical tradition: think of the lily of the Florentine coat of arms and in the Bourbon royal family that reigns till today as head of state in a parliamentary monarchy Spain.