There are many theories about the original source of saffron, but actual evidence points to the Zagros Mountain area in the south-western part of Iran as the place where it was first cultivated.

Saffron Stories

There are many theories about the original source of saffron, but actual evidence points to the Zagros Mountain area in the south-western part of Iran as the place where it was first cultivated.
Kurkuma is an early Persian word found in the Zend texts.

In antiquity, crocus was said to be the name of a beautiful youth. Two different myths connected his fate with the aromatic plant from which we obtain saffron.

According to one, the god Hermes loved him, but killed him by mistake and where the body's blood ran into the earth, the first crocus flower sprang up.

The other story related that Crocus and a nymph, Smilax, were so in love that they never separated. Yet the gods, tired of watching their courtship, ended it by changing Smilax into a yew-bush, and Crocus into a saffron crocus.