Baskets or panniers of this form were traditionally used in western Asia and Europe to hold and carry newly harvested food products. The horn-shaped basket would be worn on the back or slung around the torso, leaving the harvester's hands free for picking.
Mythology offers multiple explanations of the origin of the cornucopia. One of the best-known involves the birth and nurturance of the infant Zeus, who had to be hidden from his devouring father Cronus. In a cave on Mount Ida on the island of Crete, baby Zeus was cared for and protected by a number of divine attendants, including the goat Amaltheia ("Nourishing Goddess"), who fed him with her milk. The suckling future king of the gods had unusual abilities and strength, and in playing with his nursemaid accidentally broke off one of her horns, which then had the divine power to provide unending nourishment, as the foster mother had to the god.[1]
The cornucopia became the attribute of several Greek and Roman deities, particularly those associated with the harvest, prosperity, or spiritual abundance, such as personifications of Earth (Gaia or Terra); the child Plutus, god of riches and son of the grain goddess Demeter; the nymphMaia; and Fortuna, the goddess of luck, who had the power to grant prosperity. In Roman Imperial cult, abstract Roman deities who fostered peace (pax Romana) and prosperity were also depicted with a cornucopia, including Abundantia, "Abundance" personified, and Annona, goddess of the grain supply to the city of Rome. Hades, the classical ruler of the underworld in the mystery religions, was a giver of agricultural, mineral and spiritual wealth, and in art often holds a cornucopia.[3]
In modern depictions, the cornucopia is typically a hollow, horn-shaped wicker basket filled with various kinds of festive fruit and vegetables. In most of North America, the cornucopia has come to be associated with Thanksgiving and the harvest. Cornucopia is also the name of the annual November Food and Wine celebration in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Two cornucopias are seen in the flag and state seal of Idaho. The Great Seal of North Carolina depicts Liberty standing and Plenty holding a cornucopia. The coats of arms of Colombia, Panama, Peru and Venezuela, and the coat of arms of the state of Victoria, Australia, also feature the cornucopia, symbolizing prosperity.
Louis XVI style cornucopia on an ewer, by François Antoine Pfeiffer, Gilbert Drouet and the Sèvres Porcelain Factory, 1795, hard-paste porcelain, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Neoclassical cornucopias on the pedestal of a clock, by Antoine André Ravrio, early 19th century, marble and gilt bronze, Petit Palais
Neoclassical cornucopias on a table, by the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, 1811-1814, modified in 1814-1817, hard-paste porcelain and gilded bronze, in a temporary exhibition called Art and Court Life in the Imperial Palace at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada
Neoclassical cornucopia on a vase, by the Sèvres Porcelain Factory, 1814, hard-paste porcelain with platinum background and gilt bronze mounts, Louvre[10]
Neoclassical cornucopias on the Choir Carpet of Notre-Dame de Paris, by the Gobelins Manufactory, 1825-1833[11]
Beaux-Arts stuccos with pairs of cornucopias in the Generala Building (Bulevardul Regina Elisabeta no. 5), Bucharest, Romania, by Oscar Maugsch, 1906-1908[13]
Stalinist cornucopias on the administration building of the "Kryvbasshahtoprohidka" and "Pivdenruda" associations, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, unknown architect, 1950s
Modernist relief of Europe, forcing the wild bull on its knees and pouring out the cornucopia with the blessings of prosperity, in the Saarlouis Town Hall, Germany, by Nikolaus Simon, 1953-1955
David Leeming, The Oxford Companion to World Mythology (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 13; Robert Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 422.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.87–88, as cited by J. Rufus Fears, "The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.17.2 (1981), p. 821.
Clinton, Kevin (1992). Myth and Cult: The Iconography of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Stockholm. pp.105–107.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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