In the earlier periods of the history of the Greeks, their love, if we
may call it so, was only the animal appetite, impetuous and unrestrained
either by cultivation of manners, or precepts of morality; and almost
every opportunity which fell in their way, prompted them to satisfy that
appetite by force, and to revenge the obstruction of it by murder. When
they became a more civilized people, they shone much more illustriously
in arts and in arms, than in delicacy of sentiment and elegance of
manners: hence we shall find, that their method of making love was more
directed to compel the fair sex to a compliance with their wishes by
charms and philtres, than to win them by the nameless assiduities and
good offices of a lover.
As the two sexes in Greece had but little communication with each other,
and a lover was seldom favored with an opportunity of telling his
passion to his mistress, he used to discover it by inscribing her name
on the walls of his house, on the bark of the trees of a public walk, or
leaves of his books; it was customary for him also to deck the door of
the house where his fair one lived, with garlands and flowers, to make
libations of wine before it, and to sprinkle the entrance with the same
liquor, in the manner that was practised at the temple of Cupid.
Garlands were of great use among the Greeks in love affairs; when a man
untied his garland, it was a declaration of his having been subdued by
that passion; and when a woman composed a garland, it was a tacit
confession of the same thing: and though we are not informed of it, we
may presume that both sexes had methods of discovering by these
garlands, not only that they were in love, but the object also upon whom
it was directed.
Such were the common methods of discovering the passion of love; the
methods of prosecuting it were still more extraordinary, and less
reconcilable to civilization and to good principles; when a love affair
did not prosper in the hands of a Grecian, he did not endeavor to become
more engaging in his manners and person, he did not lavish his fortune
in presents, or become more obliging and assiduous in his addresses, but
immediately had recourse to incantations and philtres; in composing and
dispensing of which, the women of Thessaly were reckoned the most
famous, and drove a traffic in them of no considerable advantage. These
potions were given by the women to the men, as well as by the men to the
women, and were generally so violent in their operations as for some
time to deprive the person who took them, of sense, and not uncommonly
of life: their composition was a variety of herbs of the most strong and
virulent nature, which we shall not mention; but herbs were not the only
things they relied on for their purpose; they called in the productions
of the animal and mineral kingdoms to their assistance; when these
failed, they roasted an image of wax before the fire, representing the
object of their love, and as this became warm, they flattered themselves
that the person represented by it would be proportionally warmed with
love. When a lover could obtain any thing belonging to his mistress, he
imagined it of singular advantage, and deposited in the earth beneath
the threshold of her door. Besides these, they had a variety of other
methods equally ridiculous and unavailing, and of which it would be
trifling to give a minute detail; we shall, therefore, just take notice
as we go along, that such of either sex as believed themselves forced
into love by the power of philtres and charms, commonly had recourse to
the same methods to disengage themselves, and break the power of these
enchantments, which they supposed operated involuntarily on their
inclinations; and thus the old women of Greece, like the lawyers of
modern times, were employed to defeat the schemes and operations of each
other, and like them too, it is presumable, laughed in their sleeves,
while they hugged the gains that arose from vulgar credulity.