According to a Scottish legend, a thousand years ago on a dark and misty night, a group of Viking raiders stole into a Scottish town. The night watch had dozed off and was undisturbed by the invaders until one of them stepped barefoot on a thistle. The thistle broke, and, unable to stifle his cries of pain, the invader‘s clamor alerted the townsfolk, who then drove all the invaders away. From that day onward, the thistle became the symbol of Scottish regiments, rugby teams, and, finally, the Scottish Unionist Party.
The phrase “No one harms me unpunished” is part of the motto of the Order of the Thistle, the motto of three of the Scottish regiments in the British Army. It translates to “Wha dour meddle wi‘me” in Scots or, rendered in Gaelic, “Cha togar m’fheag gun dirdlah.” It is said that the sentence originates from Caesar‘s last words as he was being assassinated by the Roman Senate: “Nemo me impane lacessit,” which translates in English to “No one can harm me unpunished.” The thistle has thus become a symbol of resistance. This symbolism makes it a promising instrument that allows the transposition of heroic narratives and national myth within the context of sexual relationships.
While adopting the thistle as a metaphor for passive resistance and applying it to the battered frame of a mattress, it documents a state of oppression and abuse that is still quite common but disregarded in modern societies.
