Abundance Fantasies: Cornucopia

In Abundance Fantasies we explore the origin and contemporary meaning of symbols, stories and tropes of abundance.  If we’re smaller we’ll have more of everything. In this post we explore the cornucopia.

The cornucopia, otherwise known as the Horn of Plenty, and literally meaning Horn of Abundance, is commonly depicted as a large horn-shaped woven container overflowing with fruits, vegetables, flowers, nuts, and other foods and symbols of abundance. It’s mythological origins are connected to the birth and nurturance of the infant Zeus, who was hidden from his devouring father. In a cave on the island of Crete, baby Zeus was cared for and protected by a number of divine attendants, including the goat Amalthea, who fed him with her reinforced milk. Baby Zeus was unusually strong and while playing with his nursemaid he accidentally broke off one of her horns. The horn turned out to have the divine power to provide unending nourishment, and foods started to flow from it, as is still symbolised in most contemporary images of it. The word cornucopia inspired the nickname given to a group of futurists, called cornucopians, who believe that like the Horn of plenty, Earth will also provide practically limitless abundance, most of it because of advances in technology. According to the cornucopians we’re already living in the Horn of plenty, we just have to figure out how to use it properly. Another approach, and one that is strongly preferred by The Incredible Shrinking Man, is to shrink towards abundance, rather than continuously grow to meet our always increasing needs.