MELON

MELON, two plant species belonging to different botanical genera: the watermelon and the muskmelon. (1) The watermelon (Heb. אֲבַטִּיחַ, avati'aḥ) is the Citrullus vulgaris. The Bible mentions it among the vegetables eaten by the Israelites in Egypt, for which they hankered in the wilderness (Num. 11:5). The Hebrew name may possibly be connected with the verb בטט (btt) meaning to swell or grow. Watermelons were a familiar plant in Egypt, and a papyrus from the 21st dynasty preserves a pictorial representation of one. The avati'aḥ is frequently mentioned in rabbinical literature. It was comparatively cheap (Ma'as. 2:6) and was usually eaten when ripe, though some ate it as a vegetable while still unripe (Ma'as. 1:5). (2) The muskmelon, Cucumis melo, is called in the Mishnah melafefon (מְלָפְפוֹן), a name of Greek origin. It is not known if it was grown in biblical times and no Hebrew name exists for it. The Palestinian Targum identifies the biblical avati'aḥ with melafefonya, i.e., the muskmelon, but this does not appear likely, since in a number of places in the Tosefta and Talmud they are mentioned together (Tosef., Kil. 1:1). Some held that these two species do not constitute a mixed species (kilayim ; ibid.) for "a man takes a seed from the upper part of the avati'ah and plants it – and it becomes a melafefon" (TJ, Kil. 1:2, 27a), i.e., these species may be interchangeable. This view was taken over from Greek and Roman agricultural folklore which assumed that the characteristics of species were subject to change. An echo of this view is found in the Palestinian Targum in the philological explanation of the name melafefon given by R. Judah: "A man takes one seed from the upper part of an avati'aḥ and one seed from the upper part of an apple and puts them into the same hole, they grow together and become a hybrid species, that is why in Greek it is called melafefon." The Greek μηλοπέπον and the Latin melopepo both mean "apple-watermelon" probably because the taste of the muskmelon is reminiscent of both the apple and the watermelon. According to Pliny the melopepo originated in Campania from a species of cucumber which looked like a quince (Natural History 19:67). There is certainly no substance for these views, which are based on the polymorphism of the family Cucurbitaceae. The plant Cucumis melo var. Chate, identified with the kishut, kishu'im (see cucumber ), that belongs to the same botanical genus (and apparently even to the same species) as the muskmelon, is especially polymorphic. It could be that pollination between these two species gives rise to hybrids and is the reason for the halakhah that the kishut (Chate melon or cucumber) and the melafefon do not constitute kilayim (Kil. 1:2). Despite the ruling of the Academy for the Hebrew Language, modern Hebrew has adopted the name melafefon for cucumber. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Loew, Flora, 1 (1928), 528–54; B. Chizik, Ẓimḥei ha-Delu'im be-Ereẓ Yisrael, 1 (1937); H.N. and A.L. Moldenke, Plants of the Bible (1952), 315 (index), S.V.; J. Feliks, Kilei Zera'im ve-Harkavah (1967), 44–53; idem, Olam ha-Ẓome'aḥ ha-Mikra'i (19682), 164f. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Feliks, Ha-Ẓome'aḥ, 101, 144. (Jehuda Feliks)