Marjoram, Origanum majorana, is a small sweet-scented herb of the mint family, close kin to oregano, native to the Mediterranean and cultivated since antiquity for the kitchen and the still-room. Its very name in Greek myth is explained by a story: Amarakos, a youth of the court of Cyprus, spilled a precious perfume and in his shame was transformed by the gods into the fragrant herb. In the classical world sweet marjoram was sacred to Aphrodite and to Venus, and it was woven into the wreaths of bridal couples as a token of love and happiness.
The plant's scientific genus name, Origanum, is traditionally explained as a compound of the Greek oros, mountain, and ganos, joy or brightness, so that origanum reads as joy of the mountain, a folk etymology repeated in herbal after herbal even though modern linguists regard the derivation as uncertain. Sweet marjoram is distinguished in modern taxonomy from its closer, sharper-tasting relative oregano, Origanum vulgare, the two plants often confused in both cookery and folklore despite belonging to the same genus and sharing much of the same classical reputation for warmth and comfort.
It remains, alongside thyme and rosemary, one of the standard components of the herbes de Provence blend still sold and used across French cooking today, a modern culinary packaging of several once separately storied Mediterranean herbs into a single convenient jar.