Salt is more than a condiment, it is a symbol.
Used in Japan since the mists of time as well as in Ancient Greece and Rome, in these different civilizations it has, only sometimes though, similar properties.
In Japan, the story of Salt is linked to Shintō religion (Shintō means ‘the way of Gods’).
The Kojiki, an old book of History and Mythology, was purposely written to establish the authority of the Japanese emperors, who were supposedly descended from the Gods. Therefore, it tells how Gods created the World, especially the Japanese islands.
A recent translation (2011) from Japanese into English, by Tsuneyasu Takeda, tells the story of the Creation.
‘At this time, the Earth was still young, and, floating like oil or a jelly-fish on water, had not yet firmly comme together … The Heavenly Gods pointed to the ocean of the lower world, and commanded Izanami and Izanaki (two ‘kamis’ or deities), the last of the Seven Generations of the Age of Gods that ‘came into being’ (meaning that ‘what was not complete was made complete’): ‘Bring together and soundly finish this floating realm.’ And, with this charge, they presented the two with Ameno nuboko, the Heavenly Spear adorned with beautiful jewels … The two kamis lowered the spear into the ocean, stirred the waters, then pulled it back. With that, the drops of seawater that fell dripping from the spear, the salt massed together and formed an island. This was the island of Onogoro-shima. This means an island that amassed naturally and it is unclear which island is indicated factually. After that, the two gods made a base of this island and gave birth to other islands.’
This cosmogony is embodied in Ise Peninsula, where it is possible to see two ‘married rocks’ (Meoto Iwa), linked by a sacred rope. These rocks are called ‘Izanaki’ and ‘Izanami’ and represent the Makers of the Japanese archipelago, born from salt.
Later, Izanami gave birth to the God of Fire (Hinokagutsuchi), but was burnt while giving birth and eventually died. Izanaki buried her; then ‘wishing to meet his dear wife again‘, he visited the Realm of Afterlife (Yominokuni), but could not take her back. ‘Having returned from the Realm of the Afterlife, Izanaki said to himself: ‘I have been in a polluted and hateful realm, disgusting even to look at. I must clean my body with a ceremony of purification (misogi).’ He entered the stream of the sea and washed his body with salted water. Hence, salt purified his body. At the same time, fourteen new Gods ran away of his body and clothes!
After Takeda’s translation, these Kojiki‘s legends emphasize salt’s properties, as being protective and purifying. According to a French Dictionary of Symbols, salt is a symbol of stability and immortality, as it is never spoiled.
It is thought that people in Japan began to produce salt approximately 3,000 years ago. These ancient people dissolved salt from seaweed into seawater to create brine, that they boiled. This practice, called ‘moshioyaki‘, is still alive in Ise Peninsula. The sacred salt of Ise Grand Shrine is baked into hard triangular masses by Shintō priests.
Therefore, Japanese people put sometimes small heaps of salt in front of stores or houses, to prevent them from evil.
For the same reason Sumo wrestlers throw salt into the ring to purify it and to guarantee the loyalty of fights.
Hence, salt has an important place in Japanese mythology, a place perpetuated in today’s rites. In Ancient Greece and Rome, salt was also important, but is not part of the mythology representing the creation of the world.
Ancient Greeks and Roman people used to find religious and social values to it.
In the Odyssey, Homer’s epic poem, it is the symbol of hospitality.
When Odysseus, as a beggar, comes back to his palace in Ithaca, Antinous, one of the wooers of Penelope (wife of Odysseus and Ithaca’s Queen) is vehemently angry to see this poor man. ‘Then Odysseus of many wiles drew back and said to him: ‘Lo, now, it seems that thou at least hast not wits to match thy beauty. Thou wouldest not out of thine own substance give even a grain of salt to thy suppliant, thou who now, when sitting at another’s table, hadst not the heart to take of the bread and give me aught‘ (Odyssey, book 17, translated by A.T. Murray, 1919).
Refusing to share salt and bread is a sacrilege in a country like ancient Greece, where hospitality given to any guest was sacred.
As for the Romans, they gave to salt a conservative value as well as a destructive one.
For example, after his victory against Carthage in 146 B.C., Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Minor made spread salt all over the city, which was entirely then destroyed by corrosion. No more fields with crops, no more resources, hence no more Carthaginians threatening Rome!
On the contrary, Pliny the Elder sings the praises of salt.
In the Natural History, writing about ‘The various properties of salt: one hundred and twenty historical remarks relative thereto‘, he says: ‘indeed, among the innumerable condiments which we use, the flavor of salt is always distinctly perceptible … We may conclude then, by Hercules!, that the higher enjoyments of life could not exist without the use of salt: indeed, so highly necessary is this substance to mankind, that the pleasure of the mind, even, can be expressed by no better term than the word ‘salt’, such being the name given to all effusions of wit. All the amenities, in fact, of life, supreme hilarity, and relaxation from toil, can find no word in our language to characterize them better than this. Even in the very honors, too, that are bestowed upon successful warfare, salt plays its part, and from it, our word ‘salarium’ is derived … But it is in our sacred rites more particularly, that its high importance is to be recognized, no offering ever being made unaccompanied by the salted cake‘ (Natural History, Book XXXI, chapter 41, translated by J. Bostock).
To bring a conclusion and take advantage of Pliny’s remarks, we could say that many English words have the Latin noun sal, salis (meaning ‘salt’) as an etymological root. ‘Salarium’ originally denoted a Roman’s soldier allowance to buy salt, according to the Oxford Dictionary of English. Hence, from this word come ‘salary’, ‘salaryman’ (especially used in Japan), ‘salariat’. Also, a few other words like ‘salad’, ‘saline’, ‘salami’, ‘sauce’, ‘sausage’ etc.
And if you wish to know more about ‘Gods, Salt and Earth’, please read the Kojiki and/or visit this museum in Tokyo!
