INGREDIENTS OF POTIONS. RECIPES. ANECDOTES.
_Ingredients_
What were the elements that, in combination, constituted the potion? Was
there a formal, hieratic prescription for its composition, faithfully
followed, scrupulously administered, uniformly conclusive? Or was it a
more or less haphazard matter of collecting various essences and
grasses, roots and drugs and far-sought items, and then hopefully
thrusting them upon the tremulous suppliant, the desperate lover, the
urgent princeling or vagrant poet? The ancients, both in the
Mediterranean area and in the far-flung Asian territories, used
virtually the same species of ingredients, the same or analogous roots
and extracts, enwrapped, to strengthen the efficacy, in goetic chants,
in awesome invocations, supplications, persistent pleas, and even
menaces.
Sometimes the ingredients were abominable and repulsive in character,
for all growing and living things were grist to the occultist’s mill.
Animal and human excreta and genitalia were frequently brought under
contribution. Not rarely, exotic spices were garnered: or leaves from
trees that grew in distant regions: or objects otherwise difficult to
obtain? such as the hair, or nail parings, or even more intimate and
less mentionable items from the human body. The traditions associated
with the ingredients were manifestly read and studied and pondered over
and memorized through the ages, and subsequently transmitted to later
centuries. So that by the Middle Ages there had been accumulated an
immense reservoir of available constituents: human and animal matter,
herbs, genitalia, liquefied elements, excrement of ox and pig, of wolf,
goat, dog, and goose, of sheep, hen, mice, pigeon, and cow. To ensure
the validity of the potion, there would be a bewitchment of the entire
compound, accompanied by certain formal rituals. Formulas would be
inscribed on certain phials and objects. Frog’s bones were popular in
this regard. The mandrake, that mystic root that was associated with
sinister human origins and characteristics, the plant that was reputedly
endowed with male and female properties, was a popular ingredient in the
love potion. Bryony was long used for the purpose, and, in later days,
tobacco as well. Entrails of animals were no rarity. The more repellent
the object, the more salacious and lewd and priapic would be the effect.
For the gasping, excited recipient, nothing was too foul, nothing too
obnoxious, nothing too horrendous. What did matter was its aphrodisiac
value. Hence the powdered heart of a roasted humming bird had its
potency. Or the liver of a sparrow. The kidney of a hare was a frequent
addition to the sum total of decayed and decaying tissue. Or the womb of
a swallow, that itself required minute preparation, was a prompt aid.
Human blood came into the picture, and the human heart and the fingers,
as well as viscera, excrement, and urine, brain and skin and marrow.
Even the Roman poets give a literary shudder at the mention, and in the
medieval chroniclers and encyclopedists there is equally a sense of
repulsion yet attraction. For love and passion generated from death and
offal, and desire sprang from decay. Sappho, that ancient Greek poetess
of Lesbos, knew the supremacy of this passion. She called Aphrodite
deathless, because love and life are co-eval and co-existent. The
sweetest thing of all, she declares in one of her pieces, is to find
one’s lover. Ages later, Titus Lucretius Carus, the Roman Epicurean poet
who, in the first century B.C., produced that remarkable, profound epic,
_De Rerum Natura_, The Nature of Things, begins his poem with an
invocation to fostering Venus, the delight of men and of gods.
The Orient, permeated by the same passions, had its own range of
contributory aphrodisiac elements. Betel-nut, chewed and blood-red, was
commonly a base for the philtre. Ambergris, touched with something
mystic and elusive, played its creative, kinetic part. Some concoctions
had more earthy associations: for instance, the brains of a hoopee,
pounded into a cake, and devoured with hopeful zest. Or the wicks of
lamps were inscribed with thaumaturgic invocations and then burned to
ensure their amatory efficacy.
* * * * *
Despite the motivating force of love, it was, in some instances, an
object of dread. For it was a widely disruptive agent, involving
elements and features dangerous to the succumbing man and also to man’s
supremacy in his masculine context, his virile world. Hence in
Euripides’ tragedy _Medea_ the chorus, speaking for the heroine, chants:
When in excess and past all limits Love doth come, he brings not
glory or repute to man; but if the Cyprian queen in moderate
might approach, no goddess is so full of charm as she. Never, O
never, lady mine, discharge at me from thy golden bow a shaft
invincible, in passion’s venom dipped.
Again, in confirmation of this view of passion, in Sophocles’ _Antigone_
the tragic and cataclysmic impact of love is bewailed by the murmurous
chorus:
Love unconquered in the fight, Love, who makest havoc of wealth,
who keepest thy vigil on the soft cheek of a maiden; thou
roamest over the sea, and among the homes of dwellers in the
wilds; no immortal can escape thee, nor any among men whose life
is for a day; and he to whom thou hast come is mad.
* * * * *
Thessaly, a region in northern Greece, was anciently known for sorcery
and magic potencies. It was associated with witches and mystic
practices, and its reputation for goety was so widespread, so deeply
embedded in the region, that it continued far down into the Roman
Imperial age.
At night, the dead had to be guarded with great care, as these witches
were in the habit of tearing off pieces and shreds of flesh from the
corpse, and using them in concocting their potions.
Necromancy, the multiple phases of the black arts, were normally
believed to have come from Thessaly or to have found their sources
there. Thessaly, in fact, is, throughout ancient Greek literature, the
fountain-head of magic. The Greek tragic poet Sophocles, for instance,
and, later, the comic writer Menander allude to Thessalian magicians.
The Thessalian witch became almost a stock character, in bucolic poetry,
in the drama, in legend. She is the supreme adept, and is so
acknowledged. Among the later Romans, in particular, her stature is
established. The elegiac poets Tibullus and Propertius, as well as Ovid,
Vergil, Horace, and Lucan cite her for her ubiquity, her constant
participation in furtive manoeuvres, her intimacy with the foul and
obscene and malevolent forces of the cosmos.
The Thessalian witch had notable skill in the selection and preparation
of love potions. One of the most effective elements in such philtres was
catancy, a plant often mentioned in this connection. It should here be
observed that many factors in the composition of the potion are no
longer completely identifiable. Organic matter of course has universal
denotations: but obscure herbs, roots, spices, drugs belonged to a
secretive traditional pharmacopoeia that is no longer available in its
original intact form.
* * * * *
In the obscure depths and the furtive sinuosities of folk traditions and
transmitted superstitions and rites and formulas that succeeding
generations accepted and cherished, the sex motif was always pervasive,
unalterably dominant. The quest for amatory power, for refreshment and
recovery of the physiological apparatus, was uniformly directed to the
tenebrous forces, the prescriptions and suggestions that would arouse
the erotic faculties and effect consummation of the passions of love or
affection or desire.
In the slow progression of time this oral corpus of knowledge and these
secretive means of amorous enchantment and invigorating processes were
coordinated. They became imprinted in the written word. They were now
established, durable. These compilations, that were in essence erotic
handbooks, were primarily intended for all the love-sick, the yearning
youth, the disappointed and effete libertine, the persistent aged
debauchee, the warped, distorted, and maleficent pursuers of Eros in his
most naked identity, of Priapus exultant and self-perpetuating. Nor was
this search for the remedial elixir delimited by time or circumstances.
It has, on the contrary, been continuous, and has flowed down from
shadowy ancientness through the complexities of the Middle Ages, the
tumultuous era of the Renaissance, which made life and letters
complementary concomitants, down into these very present days, when the
search is no less unending, in the laboratories, in mystic and
pseudo-mystic cults, in fantastic devices in the Chinese hinterland, in
the steaming Congo, in Haiti and in scattered and sundered islands in
the Pacific wastes.
In the misty ages, the formula for recovering or stimulating sexual
vigor was comparatively simple. In Accadian and Chaldean, in Hittite and
Sumerian rituals there was the spell, the enchantment involving mystic
terms, a sacred logos, a philtre of recognized potency, a particular
herb or food enwrapped in entreaty and threats and injunctions to the
impalpable controlling forces and agencies.
Under the impact and influence of the esoteric science of the lands of
Asia Minor and of Egypt, the prescriptions were extended, and assumed a
variety of forms and ultimately were collected and embodied in corpora
of relevant matter, destined for consultation, for succeeding ages.
Most of this matter, inscribed on papyrus, dates in the fourth century
A.D., and is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, in Paris.
A characteristic prescription gives directions for winning and ensuring
a girl’s love. Hecate is the motivating force: Hecate, the triple
goddess, the sorceress, equated with the moon-goddess Selene, with
Artemis, and with Persephone, the goddess of the Underworld. The goddess
Hecate then is invoked with a plea: to ensnare the girl’s love by means
of torture, so that she will ultimately succumb to the urgencies of the
panting lover.
Once the ingredients are accumulated, the next step is for the pleading
lover to extol the effectiveness of the recipe. In the ancient Greek
magic papyri, and in papyri containing particulars of love-charms, the
offering itself is described in detail and its virtues are enumerated.
Scrupulous adherence to the method of administering or treating the
charm is enjoined. There is now the supplicative prayer to be intoned,
while incense is sprinkled upon the sacrificial flames. Warnings are
uttered, precautions are postulated, to prevent anything untoward from
affecting the suppliant himself and bringing down upon his head any
malefic consequences. Directions are given for preparations of the
potion. Prayers and chants to the goddess Actiophis follow. In her
semi-oriental designation the goddess is again invoked: Actiophis
Ereschigal Nebutosualethi Phorphorbasa Tragiammon. Emphasis is placed on
wresting the girl into a state of unconditional passion.
In mythological contexts, certain divinities, such as Hecate, certain
seers and warlocks, sorceresses and thaumaturgic adepts, are associated
with rejuvenative powers. The ancient witch Medea belongs in this
category. She is foremost in her capacity for restoring masculine
virility and potency by means of her goetic techniques, her magical
charms, potions, and incantations.
Medea, the cunning one, as her Greek designation indicates
etymologically, is the universal witch par excellence. She can renew the
youthful vigor of Aeson by boiling him in herbs endowed with special
virtues. Thus she is described by the Roman poet Ovid in Book 7 of the
_Metamorphoses_. She can re-create Aegeus, the aged king of Athens, and
bestow virility on him by virtue of her secret philtres. In _Medea_, the
tragic drama of the Greek poet Euripides, she makes such an assertion
and a promise:
Medea: I am undone, and more than that, am banished from the
land.
Aegeus: By whom? fresh woe this word of mine unfolds.
Medea: Creon drives me forth in exile from Corinth.
Aegeus: Doth Jason allow it? This too I blame him for.
Medea: Not in words, but he will not stand out against it. O, I
implore thee by this beard and by thy knees, in suppliant
posture, pity, O pity my sorrows; do not see me cast forth
forlorn, but receive me in thy country, to a seat within thy
halls. So may thy wish by heaven’s grace be crowned with a full
harvest of offspring, and may thy life close in happiness! Thou
knowest not the rare good luck thou findest here, for I will
make thy childlessness to cease and cause thee to beget fair
issue; so potent are the spells I know.
* * * * *
Hedylus was a Greek epigrammatist of the third century B.C. In one of
his pieces a girl makes her confession that she was overcome and
succumbed to wine and words of love. The wine, in fact, was the
operative potion.
Another Greek epigrammatist, chanting of love and women, warns that
man’s origin is lust itself.
The lyric poet Anacreon, who was born c. 570 B.C., suggests the
attendant circumstances favorable to amatory exercise:
Sculptor, wouldst thou glad my soul,
Grave for me an ample bowl,
Worthy to shine in hall or bower,
When springtime brings the reveler’s hour.
Grave it with themes of chaste design,
Fit for a simple board like mine.
Display not there the barbarous rites
In which religious zeal delights;
Nor any tale of tragic fate
Which History shudders to relate.
No—cull thy fancies from above,
Themes of heaven and themes of love.
Let Bacchus, Jove’s ambrosial boy,
Distill the grape in drops of joy,
And while he smiles at every tear,
Let warm-eyed Venus, dancing near,
With spirits of the genial bed,
The dewy herbage deftly tread.
Let Love be there, without his arms,
In timid nakedness of charms;
And all the Graces, linked with Love,
Stray, laughing, through the shadowy grove;
While rosy boys, disporting round,
In circlets trip the velvet ground.
But ah! if there Apollo toys,
I tremble for the rosy boys.
* * * * *
Among the vast productions of the ancients, that included poetry and
memoirs, biographies and chronicles, essays and dialogues, there are
anecdotes, references of various kinds, subtle hints and mere verbal
references to domestic or social life, from which we may glean items
that are relevant to our present purpose.
This is the case with Plutarch, the Greek philosopher and biographer. He
had a long, productive span of life, extending from c. 46 A.D. to 120
A.D. Primarily he is a biographer, and he is commonly so known. But he
also produced a series of literary, political, religious, and ethical
studies that are comprehensively included under the heading of
_Moralia_.
One of these pieces consists of marriage precepts, Advice to Bride and
Bridegroom: Polianus and Eurydice. It is, as Plutarch himself states, a
compendium of marital conduct, and is packed with high ethical counsel,
sober injunctions, sprinkled and reinforced with pertinent comments,
apothegms, and anecdotes. Yet the matter of amorous stimuli is
confronted straightforwardly and adroitly. The bride, Plutarch enjoins,
should, according to the wise old statesman Solon, nibble a quince
before getting into bed. It was an old tradition that quince, and
particularly quince jelly, exercised erotic effects. Plutarch continues:
Fishing with poison is a quick way to catch fish and an easy
method of taking them, but it makes the fish inedible and bad.
In the same way women who artfully employ love-potions and magic
spells upon their husbands, and gain the mastery over them
through pleasure, find themselves consorts of dull-willed,
degenerate fools. The men bewitched by Circe were of no service
to her, nor did she make the least use of them after they had
been changed into swine and asses.
Evidently the normal procedure in Plutarch’s day was to employ the
love-potion without hesitation. It must have been highly popular, a
regular instrument of amorous stimulation. Further, in addition to
sexual excitation, the potion manifestly induced other and less
acceptable results, and it also intruded on normal physiological and
emotional conditions. It was, in short, a malefic instrument. The most
wholesome advice, then, that Plutarch could now offer was to shun such
adventitious amatory aids, to rely primarily on the inherent amorousness
of the two marrying partners.
* * * * *
In medieval Spain, in the thirteenth century, a certain Juan Ruiz,
Archpriest of Hita, published a book entitled _Book of Good Love_. Good
love, that is, _buen amor_, is spiritual love, divine love. _Loco amor_
is the frenzied, carnal love of women that St. Thomas Aquinas terms
_amor naturalis_.
Ruiz, familiar with the concept and practices of both types of love,
refers to the large body of erotic stimulants, that the Arabs introduced
into Europe. Among such potions and aphrodisiacs were: citrus fruits,
ginger, cloves, cummin seeds, and carrots.
* * * * *
The actual composition of love-potions and analogous amatory fortifiers
is not known in each case in specific detail. Erotologists, historians
of ethnic mores, chroniclers, authors of amatory manuals, and writers on
similar topics make frequent casual references to the fact of the potion
itself, with the implication that the individual ingredients, their
relationship to each other, the sources of supply, and the method of
compounding them into one medicament are either so well established in
public knowledge as to dispense with the enumeration of the component
elements, or are merely in the nature of traditional information,
transmitted to the reader without further comment, without the personal
or necessary intrusion of the writer.
Despite such strictures, however, there remains a sufficiently
substantial corpus of knowledge relative both to the potion as such and
to the elements of such a compound elixir.
An immediate, rational, and fundamental explanation of the dearth of
details about the potion is that the draught had a high economic value.
The possessor of the mysterious ingredients collected and compounded and
distilled for monetary gain. The selling of potions was a lucrative
business: in the Middle Ages it was a flourishing industry, an
indispensable production. And thus it was to the extreme advantage of
the dispenser of the amatory cup to guard and retain the secret recipes
with the most scrupulous care.
* * * * *
Perfumes and spices and aromatic roots were often included in the
composition of philtres, to give a particular fragrance to the unguent
or medicament. This was usually the case among the Romans, who often, in
large and luxurious families, had special laboratories where the
essences were distilled. These essences contained, among other
ingredients, myrrh, cinnamon, marjoram, or spikenard.
* * * * *
Some philtres consisted of testicular and related matter, as: the sperm
of deer and other animals, and even menstrual blood. The belief was that
an intimate causal relationship existed between the elements of the
philtre and the anticipated sexual implications.
* * * * *
One of the basic ingredients for a compound conducive to amatory vigor
is mastic, recurrently recommended in the Arab manuals. Mastic is a gum
or resin used nowadays in the manufacture of varnish. In some countries
bordering the Mediterranean, particularly in Greece and Turkey, mastic
is used to flavor a liquor.
The mastic shrub is an evergreen, multiple-branched, and indigenous to
the Greek island of Chios. In the Orient mastic has been used as a kind
of chewing gum. The fruit itself is a red berry. This fruit, crushed and
pounded and mixed with honey, produces a drink that is reputed to be of
great amatory potency.
* * * * *
Garlic, too, is an amatory stimulant, and has been so used in
composition. It is repeatedly included in the enumeration of aphrodisiac
elements, in both Western and Oriental erotic manuals. Among the
aboriginal Ainu of Northern Japan, garlic has the same gastronomic
status as nectar and ambrosia, the food of the gods, among the ancient
Greeks.
Similarly with syrup of vinegar, and nutmeg, with cardamom, which, in a
compound of onions, ginger, cinnamon and peas, is reputed to be
particularly efficacious in Arab countries. Peppers, both white and red
varieties, are credited with arousing intense sexual inclinations.
In the Arab manuals laurel-seeds are frequently mentioned: Indian
cachou, cloves, gilly-flower. Instructions are given for pounding
various items together into some consistency, then liquefying the
compound with a broth, or honey, or goat’s milk.
* * * * *
In all ages, alcohol has appealed to men for its aphrodisiac
possibilities. In moderate amounts, it has been at various times and in
varied circumstances commended as a stimulant. In excessive doses,
however, it appears to act as a decided anaphrodisiac.
The French King Louis XIV, whose reign was marked by the utmost sexual
liberties, was accustomed to encourage his amatory inclinations with a
drink of alcohol sweetened with sugar.
Throughout the European countries, there was a folk tradition that
required a bride and a bridegroom to consume cakes steeped in alcohol
and sugar, to ensure nuptial consummation.
According to some authorities, small doses of spirits depress the higher
centres of the brain and thus release emotional inhibitions.
Biblical literature is full of allusions to alcoholic drinks and
spirits, and to their frequent use, but uniformly with the proviso of
due moderation.
A relevant allusion occurs in Romans 14.21:
Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto
those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his
poverty, and remember his misery no more.
* * * * *
Since fish contain phosphorus and other elements highly productive in
amatory inducements, brews and soups and chowders compounded of fish
will equally contribute to aid energizing vigor.
Curries and sauces may act as excitants and hence be provocative, though
by indirect means, of amatory urgencies.
* * * * *
The consumption of garlic, in any considerable quantity, may readily and
normally repel intimate contacts. But in antiquity, and through the
middle centuries, it was widely in use as a pronounced aphrodisiac. This
was and still is especially so in the countries of the Mediterranean
littoral. In a fluid form, as distilled oil of garlic, it appears that
it has its use also, but with less invigorating effect.
* * * * *
Anise, which flourishes in the Eastern Mediterranean region, is used at
the present time for gastronomic purposes. But it was also reputed to
increase amatory excitation.
In the cyclic search for erotic reinforcements, the most horrific
ingredients and means have been utilized. Even the human body. One
medieval compound, for instance, consisted of the flesh of a human
corpse, in a putrefied condition, along with ovaries and testes, both
human and animal, soaked in alcohol.
The Marquis de Sade, author of Justine, Les 120 Journées de Sodome, and
other novels dealing with sexual orgies and perversions, presents a
character called Minski, a giant, who is himself anthropophagous and who
eulogizes the consumption of human flesh, dwelling with inhuman relish
on the texture, the taste, the continuous appeal of the human body in a
sexual sense:
Minski’s potency is such that, at the age of forty-five, his faculty for
lubricity is able to induce in one evening ten manifestations. He admits
that this physiological energy is largely due to the quantity of human
flesh that he consumes. He advises this same regimen to those who would
like to triple their capacity, apart from the strength and health and
vigor that he will acquire through this diet. Once human flesh is
tasted, one will disdain all other foods. No animal meat, no fish can
compare with human flesh. Once the initial repugnance is overcome, one
can never have enough of it.
* * * * *
That is the substance of Minski’s argumentation. In this century,
William Seabrook, the American writer who adventured in West Africa, the
Caribbean Islands, and Arabia, himself describes the eating of human
flesh in one of his personal narratives.
* * * * *
In the opinion of the medieval Italian physician Johannes Benedict
Sinibaldus, author of the Geneanthropoeia, a compound of dried black
ants was a frequent means of creating amatory desire. The ants were
soaked in oil and stored for use in a glass jar.
Incense, particularly in the Orient, has immemorially been considered a
priapic stimulant. In Biblical literature, in Exodus, the Lord gives
directions for the preparation of a sacred, divine incense. It is to be
composed of onycha and galbanum, stacte, pure frankincense, and spices:
the whole to be reduced to a fine powder.
The most potent philtre or potion is the instinctive, natural,
physiological desire. This maxim has been postulated by many
erotologists and sexologists. It is forcefully so asserted by Robert
Burton, the seventeenth century encyclopedist who, while searching for a
clue to the cure of melancholy, in his Anatomy of Melancholy,
simultaneously searched through all the chronicles, histories, and
treatises of his predecessors.
Philtres, he asserts, and charms, amulets and figurines, periapts and
unguents are basically unlawful means: they are, actually, the last
resort in the amatory quest. Panders and bawds and the attendants on
erotic provocations give some meagre aid in this respect. Beyond that,
there is nothing but magic enchantments, Satanic assistance. ‘I know,’
confesses Burton, ‘that there be those that denye the devil can do any
such things, and that there is no other fascination than that which
comes by the eyes.’ He then quotes from Pietro Aretino, the Italian
erotic poet, in relation to Lucretia’s amatory power:
One accent from thy lips the blood more warmes,
Than all their philtres, exorcisms, and charms.
Lucretia’s erotic faculty was such that she could accomplish, merely by
kissing and embracing, her sole philtre, as she admitted, more than all
the philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, necromancers, and witches.
Lucretia used neither potions nor herbs. With all my science, she said,
I could never stir the hearts of men: only by my embraces, the warmth of
my lips. I forced men to rave like wild beasts, and countless among them
I drove into bestial stupefaction, with the result that they adored me
and my love like an idol.
* * * * *
In the weird and confused history of human mores, there are noteworthy
episodes and anecdotes, some apocryphal and traditional, others
warranted by authenticity and verifiable historicity, relating to
amatory experiences and their effects. Many of such anecdotes, prevalent
in Oriental and classical literature, describe the amazing consequences
of the consumption of love-potions and similar concoctions.
There is the story of the wayward and untrustworthy but brilliant
Alcibiades, the fifth century B.C. political leader in Greece. His
amorous bouts, his erotic intrigues, were so frequent, so forceful, and
so indiscriminate that, as personal insignia, he bore the design of
Eros, the god of love and son of Aphrodite. Eros was, in this instance,
depicted as hurling lightning bolts. Of this same Alcibiades the tale
ran, according to a later chronicler, that as a young man Alcibiades had
the faculty of diverting wives from their husbands.
* * * * *
Alcohol, like wine, in moderation, has regularly been used as an amatory
complement. King Louis XIV of France, for instance, was accustomed to
take alcohol, with the addition of sugar, to arouse his jaded
sensuality.
Brides and bridegrooms, too, in medieval Europe, followed a folk custom
of eating a cake dipped in alcohol and sugar.
* * * * *
The embattled women known anciently as Amazons, on taking prisoners in
battle, broke the captives’ arms or legs. The belief was that, by the
deprivation of a limb, the erotic functions of the captive would
correspondingly be strengthened. One of the Amazon queens, Antiara by
name, was the author of a kind of apothegm, that the lame best performed
the amatory act.
* * * * *
Certain foods have urgent amatory reactions. Brillat-Savarin, the arch
gourmet who is the author of The Physiology of Taste, a standard
gastronomic classic, relates that as a result of a repast that included
truffles and game, erotic manifestations among the guests were immediate
and evident.
* * * * *
Although the mandrake root involved amatory performances, it was often
used for analgesic effects. Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, who ruled
in the fifth century A.D., used to order mandrake to be inserted in
wine, and the drink to be administered to victims doomed to crucifixion.
* * * * *
In order to stimulate him doubly, both visually and fluidly, Anaxarchus
devised a suitable diversion. He was a fourth century B.C. Greek
philosopher, who was a friend of Alexander the Great, accompanying him
on his Eastern expeditions. At the usual Greek symposium, which included
drinking, entertainment, and discussion on various themes, Anaxarchus
had his wine poured out for him by a young and beautiful female
attendant, in puris naturalibus.
* * * * *
In classical antiquity, apples were associated with amatory
connotations. Apples were regularly exchanged as gifts among lovers.
This custom is mentioned by the Roman elegiac poet Catullus, and by
Vergil in the Eclogues: Galatea is after me with an apple. Again:
I sent ten golden apples.
Propertius, the elegiac poet, similarly writes:
I gave her apples stealthily in the palms of my hands.
* * * * *
In the story of Ala-al Din abu-al, in the corpus of The Arabian Nights,
there is an incident that relates how a druggist prepared a love-potion.
He bought from a vendor of hashish two ounces of concentrated Roumi
opium, and equal parts of cinnamon, Chinese cubebs, cardamoms, cloves,
ginger, and mountain shiek—which is a lizard with aphrodisiac
properties, and white pepper. After pounding these varied ingredients
together, he boiled them in sweet olive oil, adding three ounces of male
frankincense and a cup of coriander seed. The mixture was then
macerated, and made into an electuary with bee-honey. The directions
given by the druggist were as follows: After a dinner of house pigeon
and mutton, well spiced, take a spoonful of this electuary, wash it down
with sherbet of rose conserve, and await results.
* * * * *
King Henry IV of France, like other Gallic rulers, had pronounced erotic
tendencies, resulting in the possession of many mistresses. On every
occasion, before confronting one of them, he fortified his system with a
glass of armagnac, a brandy distilled from wine.
* * * * *
An ancient Classical warning relating to the powerful dominance of love
is contained in the tragic story of Arsinoe. Daughter of the King of
Cyprus, she rejected her lover Arceophon. In a fit of dejection, he
committed suicide. But Arsinoe was punished for her disdain. She was
turned into stone by Aphrodite herself.
* * * * *
Certain animals, in classical and Oriental mythology, were associated
with erotic symbolism. This was the case with the stag, the ass, the
bull, the camel, the deer, the mare. During a festival in honor of
Dionysus, god of wine and in general of fertility, Priapus, the god who
represented the active male principle, was on the point of exercising
his potency with the nymph Lotis. At the crucial moment, however, an ass
brayed, and saved Lotis. As a consequence, the ass was doomed to become
a sacrificial victim to Priapus.
* * * * *
Women were more rarely involved in experimenting with invigorating
agents. One woman, however, has gained historical notoriety and infamy
in this respect. She was the Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a seventeenth
century Hungarian. In her passion for recovering her youthful energy,
she was said to have strangled some eighty peasant girls and to have
bathed in their blood. Retribution overtook her in the act, and she was
sentenced to imprisonment for life.
* * * * *
Flagellation, as an erotic symbol, was known to the ancients and was
frequently practiced in the Middle Ages. Galen of Pergamum, the Greek
gladiator-physician who flourished in the second century A.D. under the
Roman Emperors, asserts that slave merchants used this practice in order
to make their slaves more appealing to prospective buyers.
* * * * *
Many historical personalities have been addicted to flagellation for
their own purposes. Cornelius Gallus, administrator of the Roman
province of Egypt and a friend of the Roman epic poet Vergil, resorted
to scourging for the purpose of amatory excitation.
One Italian, a noted libertine of the times, had the scourge soaked in
vinegar, to give the lashes greater pungency.
There is a strong probability that Abelard also used flagellation. For
he declares, addressing Héloise:
Verbera quandoque dabat amor non furor, gratia non ira, quae
omnium unguentorum suavitatem transcenderent. Again, he reminds
her of his own lascivious and libidinous ways: With threats and
scourges I often compelled thee who wast, by nature, a weaker
vessel, to comply, notwithstanding thy unwillingness and
remonstrances.
Tamerlane, the Asiatic master of the universe, the subject too of one of
Christopher Marlowe’s tremendous dramas, was both a flagellant and a
monorchis.
Finally, Jean Jacques Rousseau, in his Confessions, acknowledges his
condition:
I had discovered in pain, even in shame, a mixture of sensuality
that left me with a greater desire, rather than a fear, of
experiencing it again.
* * * * *
Sexual license, although restrained among the Semites, among the Greeks
and Romans under certain conditions, and among other ancient nations,
often broke all bounds under particular circumstances, with resultant
orgies involving almost incredible erotic experiences. The Biblical
episode of the Golden Calf illustrates this situation, for it was an
absorption of pagan eroticism and then of pagan idolatry.
* * * * *
The wife of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, Faustina, became enamoured
of a gladiator. The Emperor consulted the court magicians, who
suggested, to diminish or eliminate her passion, that she be required to
drink the gladiator’s blood. They promised that, as a consequence,
Faustina would conceive a lasting hatred for her erstwhile lover. She
drank the blood, and the magicians were justified in their prediction.
* * * * *
As an erotic performance, and, notably, as a means of curing sterility
in women, certain practices associated with the phallic symbol were in
force in many countries, in all ages. The women of Brittany practiced
phallic rites for centuries, in order to end their sterility. In one
town a public phallic figure was often the scene of a peculiar act. The
women gathered some of the dust at the base of the image and swallowed
it, anticipating, through this form of sympathetic symbolism, the
favorable outcome of the priapic implications.
* * * * *
There was an old legend that King Philip of Macedon had been bewitched
by a Thessalian maiden who had used philtres to effect her passionate
purpose. When Olympias, the Queen, observed the girl’s beauty and
breeding and deportment, she declared that these qualities alone were
the philtres that had ensnared King Philip.
* * * * *
Antiquity consistently associated sexual performances with sacred and
divine rituals. So with the ancient Canaanites. The Hebraic tribes that
lived in contiguous regions adopted this practice. They cohabited with
the women of Shittim, and associated with the daughters of Moab. They
went even further, and did obeisance to the gods of their neighbors,
particularly to the god Baal-peor. The full text of this episode appears
in Numbers 25, verses 1–3.
* * * * *
There was so much rivalry among the mistresses of King Louis XV of
France that each one resorted to the most extreme means to hold his
affection, or to regain his love. Madame de Pompadour, for example, used
a tincture of cantharides. Cantharides is the beetle Mylabris or Lytta
Vesicatoria. The active principle of this insect is a white powder
called cantharidine: used as an amatory stimulant, but dangerous, and,
when taken internally, fatal to the victim.
For Madame de Pompadour, however, and for many personalities notorious
in history for their ruthless determination, there was the old but still
meaningful adage about fairness in war and in love.
It is a popular belief that castration eliminates all amatory
inclination as well as capacity. The Greek author of the encyclopedic
Banquet of the Philosophers, however, Athenaeus, states that the Medes
practiced this operation with their neighbors, for the purpose of
arousing lustful excitations.
* * * * *
Pearls, and other precious stones, were anciently credited with amatory
properties. In this connection, there was a legend that Cleopatra used
to dissolve pearls in vinegar. She drank this mixture to excite her
erotic sensualities.
* * * * *
Visual aphrodisiacs are virtually amatory philtres. The girls of ancient
Sparta wore a short knee-length garment that was slit high at the side.
The appellation given to these girls, thigh-showers, confirmed their
amorous allurement.
* * * * *
There was an ancient Greek named Ctesippus, who had a notorious
reputation for amorous exercises. He was so libidinous that, frantic in
his lustful urgencies, he sold the stones from his father’s grave to
purchase the wherewithal for his pleasures.
* * * * *
Apuleius, the Roman philosopher and novelist, author of the romantic
tale entitled The Metamorphoses, who flourished in the second century
A.D., was involved in a public trial. Accused of practicing witchcraft
to win a widow’s love, he was also credited with preparing love-potions
for this purpose. The love-potions, it was charged, contained as
ingredients highly erotic elements: spiced oysters, sea hedge-hogs,
cuttlefish, and lobsters. Apuleius, however, in a speech that is still
extant, defended the innocuous nature of his offerings.
* * * * *
Dancing among the Romans had erotic implications. According to the Roman
historian Sallust, a certain Sempronia danced with more zest than a
respectable matron should.
* * * * *
Democritus, the Greek philosopher who belongs in the fifth century B.C.,
was credited with the preparation of love philtres.
* * * * *
The tyrant of Syracuse, in Sicily, Dionysius, who belongs in the fourth
century B.C., was reputed to be an extreme libertine. He once filled a
house with the fragrant herb thyme, which is an erotic stimulant, and
with roses in profusion. Then he invited the young women of the city to
participate in an orgiastic sequence of libidinous performances.
Madame du Barry, eager to retain the royal favor at the court of France,
often prepared dishes that had amatory possibilities. These dishes
involved: stewed capon, terrapin soup, crawfish, ginger omelettes,
shrimp soup, and sweetbreads: all of which are reputed to be salacious
provocatives.
* * * * *
The goddess of the dawn, who in Greek mythology was Eos, rhododactylos,
rosy-fingered, was a divinity endowed with such amorous intensity that,
whomever she observed favorably, she carried off for her amatory
purposes. The youth Tithonus, who became her husband, was so treated. So
with Clitus, Orion, and Cephalus.
* * * * *
There were, in antiquity, lascivious dances that were sexually
provocative. One such dance was the Sicinnis, during which, in addition
to lewd gestures, the clothes of the dancer were stripped off. Another
dance was called the Dance of the Caleabides: also the Cordax, which
involved amatory exhibitionism, denudation, and erotic motions.
Herodotus, the first major Greek historian, relates an episode connected
with terpsichorean performances. Cleisthenes, ruler of Sicyon, had a
daughter named Agariste. Her beauty brought her numerous suitors, all
unsuccessful, in turn. Finally a wealthy young Athenian, a certain
Hippoclides, appeared, as a guest at a banquet given by Cleisthenes.
Having imbibed too generously, Hippoclides mounted on a table, and
performed several lascivious dances. Cleisthenes was so shocked by the
obscene movements that he declared to Hippoclides: You have danced away
your bride.
* * * * *
Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, was widely worshipped throughout
the Hellenic territories, both on the mainland of Greece, in Asia Minor,
and in the Aegean Islands. At Paphos, in Cyprus, an annual festival,
attended by both men and women, was held in her honor. The ceremonials
conducted during the festival included frenzied sexual performances. In
token of the goddess’ favor, each member left for Aphrodite a coin, in
return for which they received a phallus and some salt.
* * * * *
Phallic figures were a common feature in ancient religious cults. But
even as late as the eighteenth century the phallus appeared in public
demonstrations. At the annual three-day fair held in Isernia, in the
Kingdom of Naples, reproductions of a phallus were on sale. The
customers were usually barren women, who, through this phallic
symbolism, anticipated a favorable outcome for their sterility.
* * * * *
In classical mythology, erotic inducements were used even by the
divinities themselves. In the Greek epic poem the Iliad, Hera, wife of
the supreme deity Zeus, employs such excitants, to arouse her husband.
From Aphrodite, the goddess of love, Hera secures Aphrodite’s magic
girdle of love and longing ‘which subdues the hearts of all the gods and
of mortal dwellers upon earth.’
Aphrodite ‘loosed from her bosom a broidered girdle, wherein are
fashioned all manner of allurements; therein is love, therein is longing
and dalliance—beguilement that steals the wits of the wise.’
And, however wise he might be, Zeus’ wits were thus stolen.
* * * * *
Although the search for amatory potency is one of the most dominant
factors in human history, there are cases where the opposite effect was
desired. A Roman matron, to cite one instance, named Numantina, wife of
Plautius Sylvanus, was charged with having effected incapacity in her
husband by magic means.
Magic played a part in medieval history too. Gregory of Tours, the sixth
century A.D. churchman and historian, tells of a certain woman who was
spell-bound by a number of concubines. She had become the wife of
Eulatius, and had thus inspired the concubines of this Eulatius into
jealous retaliation.
Again, according to the chronicles, the medieval king Theodoric was
incapacitated by a magic spell.
* * * * *
Among the most lascivious women in all history was Catherine II of
Russia. Married to the grandson of Peter the Great, and still childless,
she was informed by her advisers that an heir was urgent in order to
preserve the Empire.
Catherine consequently made a realistic decision. She ordered a
sturgeon, and caviar, to be prepared for a banquet. Then she invited one
of the officers of the Guard, named Sattikoff. The outcome of the
invitation, and of the piscatory repast, was an heir to the Russian
Empire.
* * * * *
The Emperor Saladin is concerned in a story that is pointed in
confirmation of the amatory value of a fish diet. To verify the degree
of continence of some holy dervishes, the Emperor invited two of them to
an entertainment in his palace, at which rich food was served.
Odalisques too took part in the banquet: but the dervishes succeeded in
resisting the female blandishments. Saladin, however, dissatisfied with
this reaction of the dervishes, and rather astonished, ordered another
repast to be prepared. This consisted entirely of fish dishes. The
dervishes were again invited, and the odalisques were present as
entertainers. This time, Saladin was completely satisfied with his
piscatory experiment, for the dervishes reacted to the odalisques as the
Emperor had expected.
* * * * *
Francis I, King of France during the sixteenth century, was, apart from
his cultural interests, noted for his erotic experiences, that he
extended by provocative foods, drinks, and concoctions of various kinds
designed to prolong his capacity. His mistresses were innumerable, and
he died exhausted by his amatory excesses.
* * * * *
George IV, King of England, was a gourmet who appreciated the priapic
properties of truffles. His Ministers at the Courts of Naples, Florence,
and Turin were given special and unusual directions. They were to
forward to the Royal Kitchen in London any truffles that they discovered
to be of superior quality in delicacy or flavor or size.
* * * * *
King Edward VI of England was the victim, according to old historical
chronicles, of bewitchment. The accused was the scholarly but tragic
Lady Jane Grey, who was charged with concocting magic potions and
employing amatory charms to the King’s detriment.
* * * * *
An ancient view on incapacity derives from Hippocrates. This famous
Greek physician, who died in the same year as Socrates, in 399 B.C.,
attributed the prevalence of genesiac incapacity among the Scythians to
the fact of their wearing breeches. He considered this sartorial custom
as at least a predisposing cause: and modern views largely confirm his
postulate.
* * * * *
Glorification of the sexual motif manifested itself on the island of
Cyprus, where the birth of Aphrodite was celebrated riotously. The
divine image was bathed in the sea by the women of the island: then
decked with garlands. There was a session of bathing in the river by
both sexes: but this performance was a mere preliminary to subsequent
orgiastic licentiousness.
* * * * *
Brasica eruca has long been considered a provocative agent. In a
medieval monastery it was grown in the garden, and used by the monks in
a daily infusion. The intention was to be roused from sluggish
inactivity by this stimulating beverage. The concoction, however, had
such physiological effects in an amatory sense that the monks climbed
the walls of the monastery and pursued their urgencies at the expense of
their devotions. They transgressed both ‘their monastery walls and their
vows,’ comments the medieval chronicle.
* * * * *
Passion knows no bounds, no formalities, no conventions. An anecdote
related by the Greek philosopher and biographer Plutarch illustrates
this point. King Ptolemy II, who reigned in the third century B.C., was
so enamoured of his mistress Belestiche that he built a temple in her
honor. Then he dedicated it and named his mistress Aphrodite Belestiche,
implicitly attributing to her divine characteristics.
* * * * *
Mixoscopy is an erotic perversion that involves secret observation of
amatory performances.
In Homer’s Greek epic, the Odyssey, there is an instance of this
aberration, in the form of invited voyeurism. Hephaestus, the husband of
Aphrodite, goddess of love, surprised his wife in intimacy with Ares,
the war god. In revenge, he summoned all the deities to observe the
sight of his wife in the amatory embrace of the god.
Another case of mixoscopy is related by Herodotus, the first major Greek
historian. King Candaules, proud of his wife’s beauty, persuaded his
friend Gyges to hide in the sleeping chamber and observe the Queen while
she was preparing for bed. The Queen caught Gyges in the act of
observation and offered him this ultimatum: Either to kill the King and
become her husband and the ruler of the Kingdom of Lydia: or to die on
the spot. Gyges accepted the first alternative, slew the King, married
the Queen, and became King of Lydia.
* * * * *
The sacred nature of the phallus as a symbol was transmitted from
antiquity into modern times. In the Kingdom of Naples, for instance, at
Trani, a Carnival was held in which there was carried processionally a
huge figure of Priapus, ithyphallically posed, and termed by the
participants in the celebration Il Santo Membro, The Holy Member. An
ecclesiastical ordinance banished this pagan ceremony at the beginning
of the eighteenth century.
* * * * *
In Greek mythology Orion, represented as a hunter or a monstrous giant,
was so lascivious that when Oenopion, King of Chios, was his guest, he
ravished the King’s daughter. Orion’s passion drove him to attack the
goddess Artemis, who punished him by sending a scorpion, that stung
Orion to death. There are other versions of this myth, but basically
they represent the forcefulness and pervasiveness of the erotic motif in
ancient Greek life.
* * * * *
The Duc de Richelieu, apart from his statesmanship, had other, more
unique interests. One of these concerned amatory matters. He often
entertained his guests and their mistresses at repasts called petits
soupers. These little suppers provided dishes so prepared as to be
conducive to amatory intimacies. In addition, the guests all appeared at
the meals in puris naturalibus.
* * * * *
Osphresiological conditions often have amatory reactions. Henry III of
Navarre, for example, inspired Maria of Cleves with intense erotic
inclinations on account of a perspiration-soaked handkerchief. Such was
the case also with Henry IV of France and Gabrielle.
* * * * *
In the seventeenth century Katherine Craigie, a Scottish witch, prepared
love-potions for her clients. One such petitioner was a widow who had
conceived a passion for a particular person. The witch promised her an
herb that would make the man exclude all other interests, all other
forms of affection, except love for the widow.
* * * * *
Titus Lucretius Carus, the first century B.C. Roman epic poet, author of
the remarkable De Rerum Natura, was, according to legend and to the
statement of St. Jerome, poisoned by a love philtre administered by
Lucretius’ own wife.
* * * * *
The Roman Emperor Caligula, according to ancient chronicles, was given a
potion by his wife Caesonia. Her object was to induce in the Emperor
amatory stimulation, but the drink threw him into a fit.
* * * * *
Even animals may be affected by amatory potions. There is an incident of
a drake that belonged to a chemist. In the chemist’s house there was
some water in a copper vessel that had contained phosphorus. Phosphorus
has aphrodisiac properties. When the drake drank the water, it was
affected with amatory tendencies that manifested themselves until its
death.
* * * * *
When Louis XIV of France approached old age and the disintegrating
physiological effects associated therewith, he still retained his
libidinous inclinations. As an invigorating drink, he was advised to
take a mixture of distilled spirits, orange water, and sugar.
* * * * *
The lewd and perverted Roman Emperor Tiberius was so eager to experience
all varieties of erotic possibilities that, when he became familiar with
the plant known as Sandix ceropolium, he exacted from his Germanic
subjects a tribute that was partly paid in the form of the plant.
* * * * *
The Assyrian King Sardanapalus was known for his forthright,
unrestrained mode of living. He perpetuated his memory in an inscription
on a stone statue of himself:
Sardanapalus, son of Anacyndaraxes, who conquered
Anchiale and Tarsus on a single day. Eat! Drink
Love! For all else is naught.
* * * * *
In Hindu erotology, there are legends concerning magic devices for
overcoming sterility.
King Brihadratha, ruler of Magadha, was sensual and libidinous. But his
great regret was the lack of an heir. He therefore consulted a holy
ascetic, a certain Candakaucika. The latter presented the king with a
juicy mango that had just fallen from its tree. The mango was given to
the king’s two wives. Each wife gave birth to half a child. The two
parts, being brought together, thus produced a complete heir.
* * * * *
The Emperor Heliogabalus, according to the Historia Augusta, a Latin
collection of the biographies of thirty Roman emperors, was notorious
for his unsavory conduct: It was said that in one day he visited all the
harlots in the circus, the theatre, the amphitheatre, and every spot in
the city. He would cover his head with a muleteer’s hood, in order to
avoid recognition. After bestowing on all the prostitutes pieces of
gold, without consummating his lusts, he would add: Let nobody know that
the Emperor gave you this.
* * * * *
The association of an Emperor and a harlot is described in the Latin
collection of imperial biographies known as the Historia Augusta. The
story concerns the Emperor Verus, who reigned in the second century A.D.
At the instigation of a public harlot, he shaved off his beard while in
Syria, an act that created much hostile talk in Syria itself.
* * * * *
In the same Historia Augusta, the wild performances of the Emperor
Heliogabalus are retailed:
He usually coaxed his friends into a state of drunkenness and suddenly
at night let loose among them lions, leopards, and bears. When they woke
up in the same chamber as the animals, and found lions, bears, and
leopards around them, in the morning, or, what was worse, at night, they
died of fright.
The Emperor would buy up harlots from all the pimps and then set them
free. He gathered together all the prostitutes from the circus, the
theatre, the stadium, and from everywhere, and brought them into the
public buildings, and delivered military harangues, as it were, calling
them fellow-soldiers.
At similar gatherings he addressed ex-pimps that he assembled from every
quarter, as well as the most depraved boys and youths. When he went to
the prostitutes, he dressed as a woman. At his banquets he and his
friends performed with women.
The story went that he bought a well-known and very beautiful harlot for
one hundred thousand sesterces.
In balneis semper cum muliebribus fuit, ita ut eas ipse
psilothro curaret: ipse quoque barbam psilothro adcurans:
quodque pudendum dictu est, eodem, quo mulieres adcurabantur, et
eadem hora, rasit et virilia subactoribus suis, novacula manu
sua, qua postea barbam fecit.
* * * * *
The Historia Augusta makes many revelations about the intimate personal
life of the Roman Emperors and their erotic mores. Among the later
rulers, Commodus, who belongs in the second century A.D., defiled the
temples of the gods with fornication and human blood.
* * * * *
Of the Emperor Severus, who flourished in the second century A.D., the
Historia Augusta says:
Domestically, he was indifferent, and kept his wife Julia,
although she was a notorious adulteress and an accomplice in the
conspiracy against his own life.
* * * * *
Heliogabalus, whose biography appears in the Historia Augusta and who
ruled in the third century A.D., discovered certain kinds of lustful
pleasures, as the chronicle states, to supersede the male prostitutes.
* * * * *
The younger Gordianus, the Roman Emperor who ruled in the third century
A.D., was particularly fond of wine, and also of gastronomic delights.
He had a great attachment to women, and was said to have twenty-two
concubines assigned to him. He was called the Priam of his day, but the
popular name for him was the Priapus of his times.
* * * * *
The Roman general Lucullus, who belongs in the first century B.C., was
also a renowned gourmet, and held lavish and exotic banquets for his
friends. The Greek biographer and philosopher Plutarch, and the Roman
historian Cornelius Nepos both relate that Lucullus consumed
love-potions, that made him unconscious.
* * * * *
The increase of libidinous inclinations, along with the physiological
stimulus, was not invariably the sole, exclusive, and predictable effect
of the love-potion. There were circumstances in which the potion might
produce, for instance, temporary conditions of insanity. Such was the
case, according to historical records, of the notable Roman
administrator Gallus, who belongs in the first century B.C. He was
driven mad through the excessive use of aphrodisiac philtres. Again,
there is a tradition that Titus Lucretius Carus, the Roman poet who
produced the remarkable epic entitled _The Nature of Things_, was the
occasional victim of a potion administered by his wife with the
intention of producing temporary insanity. So, too, with Lucullus, the
Roman general and noted gourmet, who dates in the first century B.C. He
succumbed to a poison that was contained as an ingredient in a love
philtre.
* * * * *
In the Orient, the almond becomes an amatory agent: either eaten whole,
or ground into a powder, or mixed with other ingredients. Powdered
almonds with cream and egg yolks and chicken stock act presumably as a
stimulant. So with honey taken with almonds and pine tree grains.
* * * * *
Minerals, precious stones have been constituents in exciting
preparations. The medieval centuries in particular placed profound
credence in their virtues. The agate was thus reputed to promote
genesiac activity. So with molten gold taken in an infusion.
* * * * *
All sorts of brews are known and experimented with in the East. A
stimulant that, although credited with amatory effects, produced at the
same time violent reactions, was a Chinese concoction of opium and other
ingredients, called affion.
* * * * *
Herbs were always a contribution in love drinks. An aromatic herb that
was called by the Romans Venus’ plant was known in the Middle Ages as
Sweet Flag and was considered an erotic excitation.
* * * * *
Animal flesh and organs have immemorially formed part of the amatory
apparatus. In the second century A.D. a physician of Alexandria
recommended the flesh of lizard as a genesiac agent.
* * * * *
Cheese and cherries, dried shrimp and scallops, fried spinach and
noodles: chestnuts boiled with pistachio nuts, pine kernels, sugar,
rocket seed and cinnamon: chicken gizzard: a compound of juice of
powdered onion and ghee, heated and then cooled and mixed with
chick-peas and water: a cider drink: cinchona bark: a liqueur distilled
from cinnamon: civet-perfumed candy: cod liver, and cod roe: cockles:
all these disparate items, some centuries ago, others in our own
contemporary times, East and West, have been in use as generative
provocations: sometimes traditionally and hopefully: at other times,
merely traditionally.
* * * * *
In the Hindu manuals there are enumerated and described such varied
potions and unguents and drugs that masculine activity, according to
legend, can be prolonged continuously to the extent of hundreds of
individual and successive occasions.
* * * * *
In the South Seas a stimulating drink, consumed after wedding ceremonies
and other notable occasions, is made from the roots of the plant kava
piperaceae. The root is chewed and then the juice extruded into a bowl:
the liquid is then strained and served.
* * * * *
In the Orient, from the bird known as King’s Crow, the extracted bile is
compounded into an amatory philtre.
* * * * *
A certain perfume popular among Arabs for amatory stimulus is known as
dufz.
* * * * *
All sorts of drugs, both in their natural state and in synthetic
preparations, dangerous in their application and fatal in their effects,
have frantically been enlisted as erotic attendants. The venereal
passion has thus frequently transcended health, sanity, and the
continuance of life itself. Among such drugs, draughts, and preparations
are: damiana, absinthe, yohimbine, adrenaline, brucine, aphrodisin,
amanita muscaria, belladonna, borax, hashish, cocaine, bhang, mescaline,
bufotenin, rauwiloid, harmine.
* * * * *
Among gruesome items used for libidinous purposes was human dried liver.
The Romans were familiar with this ingredient, and Horace, the first
century B.C. poet, makes mention of it in describing the dark operations
of a witch.
* * * * *
Formerly used as a love charm was dragon’s blood: a red resin extracted
from the fruit of a palm tree called botanically calamus draco. Cast
into a fire, dragon’s blood was believed, when accompanied by a binding
spell in the form of a rhyming couplet, to induce an errant lover to
return to the object of his passion.
* * * * *
Dog-stones, tubers of the orchis species, are shaped like the testiculi
canis, and hence are so called. At one time this plant was assumed to
have an amatory virtue.
* * * * *
In the case of women, darnel grass was considered an amatory
provocation, when mixed with barley meal, myrrh, and frankincense.
* * * * *
The comparatively innocuous cucumber, used domestically in salads, has
sometimes been credited, mainly for its phallic shape, with venereal
properties.
* * * * *
In the Orient, the aromatic plant cumin, which is used as a condiment,
is also considered aphrodisiacally. So with the pungent berry cubeb,
native to Java, and used in cooking and medicinally.
In the East, cubebs are chewed, sometimes powdered and mixed with honey:
sometimes made into an infusion with cubeb leaves. The provocative
virtues of cubeb peppers are widely known and esteemed, from Arabia to
China, and have been used erotically since at least the thirteenth
century.
* * * * *
Periapts and amulets of various types, both inanimate and organic, have
been used with amatory prospects. Thus, in the Orient, betel nuts were
so used. Or a lock of woman’s hair, over which a spell had been uttered.
Or the human liver, as in ancient Greece, was considered the source of
all desire and hence became a fetish. Or, in the East, a hyena’s udder,
tied on the left arm, would induce the longed-for passion.
* * * * *
The aromatic plant basil, used as a condiment, was also credited with
exciting reactions. So much so, in fact, that in Italy the herb was used
by maidens as a love charm.
Beans, too, were thought at all times to be highly amatory in their
results. Hence the Church Father St. Jerome forbade the use of beans to
nuns.
Carrots, turnips, wild cabbage, and beets have also been included at
various times in this category. Pliny the Elder, the Roman author of the
Historia Naturalis, states that white beets are an amatory aid.
* * * * *
There was a long accepted tradition in the efficacy of certain fish,
especially the barbel, which is mentioned by the Roman poet Ausonius in
a poem dealing with various species of fish.
* * * * *
The fat of a camel’s hump, melted down, and also camel’s milk taken with
honey are, in Oriental erotological literature, considered of marked
venereal value.
* * * * *
The brains of certain animals were at various periods considered, apart
from their food value, to possess erotic effects. So with the brains of
sheep, pig, and calf. In some countries, notably in the Mediterranean
area, animal brains are prepared as a gastronomic delicacy.
* * * * *
At one time the milk of a chameleon was treated as a generative
excitation. The thirteenth century Arab physician and philosopher
Avicenna so recommended it.
* * * * *
Rhubarb and cinnamon, ginger and vanilla, mixed in wine, produce a
recipe that was prevalent in Italy, So with curaçao, mixed with madeira
wine: to which were added pieces of sugar.
* * * * *
An old collection of unique recipes, entitled the Golden Cabinet of
Secrets, was formerly but incorrectly included among the works of the
Greek philosopher Aristotle. The collection itself was long popular for
its putative authority. An amatory powder, described in the Cabinet, is
compounded thus: Flowers of seeds of elecampane, vervain, mistletoe
berries are crushed together and dried thoroughly in an oven. The powder
is taken in a glass of wine, and the effects, it was urged, would be
most gratifying.
* * * * *
Usually, amatory concoctions were prepared individually, for each
suppliant. In the seventeenth century, however, an Englishman by the
name of Burton, an apothecary, established a factory in the town of
Colchester. Here he produced on a large scale aphrodisiacs compounded of
the roots of sea holly.
* * * * *
There were for sale, in Rome, in the market place, in booths and
emporia, and in quarters where people of all ranks and all ethnic
origins congregated, philtres and brews, and articles putatively endowed
with provocative and generative properties. Dried human marrow, and the
sucking-fish, star-fish and intimate genital secretions, both male and
female, were used in these concoctions. And over the preparations arose
supplications and invocations and incantations directed to the
divinities of the underworld, entreating efficacy in the purchased
potions.
* * * * *
Among plants that have both culinary uses and at least presumed amatory
implications are the artichoke and asparagus. In France, artichokes were
sold by vendors who, in their street cries, added forthrightly that
artichokes aroused the genital areas.
Similarly, in the Orient, asparagus, fried with egg yolks, and sprinkled
with spices, constituted a decidedly amatory dish.
The egg plant, too, split and boiled with a flour paste, vanilla beans,
pimentos, chives, and pepper-corns, and a concoction known as bois bandé
or tightening wood, containing strychnine and hence highly dangerous,
was commonly in use in the West Indies, where it was credited with
excitant qualities.
In China, again, bamboo shoots, usually an appetizing culinary
ingredient, are believed to have an aphrodisiac value.
A shrub that, since Roman times, was used for inciting desire was
birthwort. In this respect it was quite familiar to the Middle Ages.
Bitter sweet, too, like many herbs, was at one time credited with erotic
virtues.
The berry of the caper plant, that is, caperberry, belongs in the same
category. Its potency was reputedly so great that the plant is equated,
in Ecclesiastes, with erotic desire itself.
Paprika, which is Hungarian red pepper, is prepared from the plant
capsicum annuum, and is both a spice and a traditionally credited
amatory aid.
A plant similar to the artichoke, and equally prickly, is cardoon,
considered a stimulating agent. In France, the fleshy parts of the inner
leaves are consumed with this intent.
Caraway seeds, in the East, are valued erotically.
Stewed in milk sauce, carrots are endowed, in Oriental manuals, with
stimulating characteristics. In ancient Greece the carrot, used as a
venereal medicine, was called a philtron.
Rosemary, the aromatic shrub, has leaves that are used in perfumery,
medicinally, and in cookery. Among the Romans, it has an amatory virtue.
* * * * *
Some amatory doses are of such a nature that excess may prove fatal. An
urgent young man, invited to a dinner prepared by a courtesan, ate too
heartily. He died on the following day, as all the dishes had been
spiced with a potent stimulus.
Ferdinand of Castile, too, died from an administration of the same drug
that had spiced the courses at the banquet.
* * * * *
A medieval powder that was an energizing potential, rejuvenating and
refreshing, is described by the English dramatist Ben Jonson (c.
1573–1637) in his comedy Volpone. Volpone himself offers the beautifying
powder thus:
Here is a powder concealed in this paper, of which, if I should
speak to the worth, nine thousand volumes were but as one page,
that page as a line, that line as a word; so short is this
pilgrimage of man (which some call life) to the expressing of
it. Would I reflect on the price? Why, the whole world is but as
an empire, that empire as a province, that province as a bank,
that bank as a private purse to the purchase of it. I will only
tell you; it is the powder that made Venus a goddess (given her
by Apollo), that kept her perpetually young, cleared her
wrinkles, firmed her gums, filled her skin, colored her hair;
from her derived to Helen, and at the sack of Troy unfortunately
lost, till now, in this our age, it was as happily recovered, by
a studious antiquary, out of some ruins of Asia, who sent a
moiety of it to the court of France (but much sophisticated),
wherewith the ladies there, now, color their hair.
* * * * *
The innocuous cress, that is regularly used in salads, was formerly
consumed, either raw or boiled or as a juice, for its invigorating
value. Cress was prescribed, in Roman times, in recipes intended to cure
incapacity. In the Orient, this property of cress as an aphrodisiac is
stressed in the erotic manuals.
* * * * *
Among many other herbs and plants that induce amatory conditions are
valerian and coriander and violet: these are mentioned in this respect
by Albertus Magnus, the medieval philosopher.
Another plant, botanically known as melampryum pratense and commonly
called cow wheat, was given as fodder to cows. But it had also a
reputation, according to Pliny the Elder and the Greek physician
Dioscorides, as a rousing stimulus of passion.
* * * * *
The dried seeds of the Cola Nitida, a nut indigenous to Africa,
furnishes a drink called cola. This beverage is also known as bichy. The
cola nut itself, which is chewed, is credited, among the Africans, with
promoting vigor.
* * * * *
A brew compounded of the Indian root called galanga, and cardamoms,
laurel seeds, sparrow wort, nutmeg, cubebs, cloves, in a fowl or pigeon
broth, was held to be a powerful stimulant, especially among Arabs.
* * * * *
Women esteemed, as an amatory incitement, the brains of the mustela
piscis.
* * * * *
To a plant with a root shaped like a claw, called lycopodium, was
formerly attributed the quality of inducing desire.
* * * * *
In Eastern countries, the fruit of the mastic-tree, pounded with oil and
honey, makes a drink that is highly esteemed among Arabs as a venereal
provocation.
* * * * *
The Arab erotologist Umar ibn Muhammed al-Nefzawi, author of _The
Perfumed Garden_, a survey in amatory practices, discusses the entire
range of erotic experiences and procedures among men and women. He
treats of genital conditions, medical problems, potions, sexual
ceremonials, circumstances favorable to amatory consummations,
manipulations and contrivances and preparations that affect amatory
potentialities. With all this mass of detail and particularization of
venereal topics, the author emphasizes that his work is not an
exposition directed toward lewd and libidinous ends, but a virtual
glorification of the gifts bestowed upon men by divine graciousness and
indulgent beneficence.
* * * * *
Plutarch, the Greek historian and philosopher, in his _De Sanitate
Tuenda Praecepta_, Advice on Keeping Well, tells of an amatory incident:
When the young men described by Menander were, as they were
drinking, insidiously beset by the pimp, who introduced some
handsome and high-priced concubines, each one of them (as he
says),
Bent down his head and munched his own dessert, being on his
guard and afraid to look at them.
* * * * *
The inventive genius of man has included in the preparation of love
philtres the most heterogeneous items, such as: human fingers, hoopee
brains, tobacco, human excrement, snake bones, toads, skulls and
intestinal fluids and organs. Horace and Catullus, Pliny the Elder and
Apuleius, among the Romans, have frequent occasion to refer to philtres
and their ingredients and effects.
So too the medieval and later physicians and demonographers have much to
say on the subject: Martin Delrio and Sprenger, Reginald Scott and
Bodin, Johannes Muller and Sinibaldus. A Roman recipe, composed by a
witch, runs as follows:
Bring the eggs and plumage foul
Of a midnight shrieking owl,
Be they well besmear’d with blood
Of the blackest venom’d toad,
Bring the choicest drugs of Spain,
Produce of the poisonous plain,
Then into the charm be thrown,
Snatch’d from famish’d bitch, a bone,
Burn them all with magic flame,
Kindled first by Colchian dame.
John Gay, the eighteenth century playwright, in _The Shepherd’s Week_,
has one of the characters refer to a philtre in a casual and incidental
manner, implying that the practice of this usage was in common vogue:
And in love powder all my money spent;
Behap what will, next Sunday after prayers,
When to the ale house Lupperkin repairs,
These golden flies into his mug I’ll throw,
And soon the swain with fervent love shall glow.
Shakespeare, too, in _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, alludes to the love
philtre:
Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell,
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,
And maidens call it Love-in-Idleness.
Fetch me that flower; the herb I show’d thee once,
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Again:
I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep,
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes,
The next thing then she waking looks upon,
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
She shall pursue it with the soul of love.
* * * * *
Perfumes of all kinds, used on the person, on the genitalia, on clothes,
in beds, in foods, were considered arousing stimulants. This procedure
was in vogue both among the ancient Greeks and Romans, in the Orient,
and during the Middle Ages: and is, of course, far from obsolescent
these days.
The Greek playwright Aristophanes mentions perfumes in his comedy
_Lysistrata_ in connection with sexual enticements. Horace the Roman
lyric poet tells of an old lecher ‘scented with nard.’
Ambergris and civet were immensely popular. An ointment, extracted from
spikenard, was known as foliatum: another, as nicerotiana. Cinnamon,
sweet marjoram, myrrh, were in use. So with aromatic oils. Perfumes, in
fact, are regularly mentioned in erotic and sexual situations and
contexts. The corpus of the _Arabian Nights_ contains many episodes
involving the use and impact of scents. The Biblical _Song of Songs_ too
makes apposite reference to the subject:
a bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me ...
ointment and perfumes rejoice the heart ...
perfumes and sweet spices ...
beds of aromatic spices ...
Ben Jonson, the English dramatist, has Volpone, in the comedy of that
name, offer Celia perfumed baths:
The milk of unicorns, and panthers’ breath
Gathered in bags, and mixed with Cretan wines.
Our drink shall be prepared gold and amber.
* * * * *
Onions in particular have for centuries possessed an aphrodisiac
reputation. Onion is recommended for such intentions by the Greek and
Roman poets. Ovid and Martial, and the later bucolic poet Columella
urgently stress the eating of plenty of onions as both a rejuvenating
and an animating agent. The Greek physician Galen also considered onions
as having stimulating virtues.
In the East, onion seed is pounded, mixed with honey, and taken while
one is fasting, in the hope of physiological urgency.
Among Arabs, onions boiled with spices, then fried in oil with egg
yolks, are, if taken successively on a number of days, considered of
high potency.
* * * * *
The seat of amorous passion was traditionally the liver. This concept is
exemplified in _The Faithful Shepherdess_, by John Fletcher:
Amoret: Dear friend, you must not blame me, if I make
A doubt of what the silent night may do,
Coupled with this day’s heat, to move your blood.
Maids must be fearful. Sure you have not been
Wash’d white enough, for yet I see a stain
Stick in your liver: go and purge again.
Perigot: Oh, do not wrong my honest simple truth!
Myself and my affections are as pure
As those chaste flames that burn before the shrine
Of the great Dian; only my intent
To drag you thither was to plight our troths,
With interchange of mutual chaste embraces,
And ceremonious tying of our souls.
For to that holy wood is consecrate
A virtuous well, about whose flowery banks
The nimble-footed fairies dance their rounds
By the pale moonshine, dipping oftentimes
Their stolen children, so to make them free
From dying flesh and dull mortality.
By this fair fount hath many a shepherd sworn,
And given away his freedom, many a troth
Been plight, which neither envy nor old time
Could ever break, with many a chaste kiss given
In hope of coming happiness; by this
Fresh fountain many a blushing maid
Hath crown’d the head of her long-loved shepherd
With gaudy flowers, whilst he happy sung
Lays of his love and dear captivity.
There grow all herbs fit to cool looser flames
Our sensual parts provoke, chiding our bloods,
And quenching by their power those hidden sparks
That else would break out, and provoke our sense
To open fires; so virtuous is that place.
Then, gentle shepherdess, believe and grant.
In troth, it fits not with that face to scant
Your faithful shepherd of those chaste desires
He ever aim’d at, and ...
Amoret: Thou hast prevail’d; farewell. This coming night
Shall crown thy chaste hopes with long-wish’d delight.
Perigot: Our great god Pan reward thee for that good
Thou hast given thy poor shepherd!
* * * * *
A medieval song, that appears in _The Maid’s Tragedy_, by Beaumont and
Fletcher, suggests that restraint in lust may occasionally be a
desideratum:
I could never have the power
To love one above an hour,
But my heart would prompt mine eye
On some other man to fly.
Venus, fix mine eyes fast,
Or, if not, give me all that I shall see at last!
* * * * *
In _Philaster_, a play by Beaumont and Fletcher, mention is made of an
amatory provocative that was in common use in the Middle Ages and later:
Cleremont: Sure this lady has a good turn done her against her
will; before she was common talk, now none dare say cantharides
can stir her. Her face looks like a warrant, willing and
commanding all tongues, as they will answer it, to be tied up
and bolted when this lady means to let herself loose. As I live,
she has got her a goodly protection and a gracious; and may use
her body discreetly for her health’s sake, once a week,
excepting Lent and dog-days. Oh, if they were to be got for
money, what a great sum would come out of the city for these
licenses!
* * * * *
Foods and herbs that have a gastronomic appeal are often empirically
credited with amatory traits as well. For instance, eel soup and
preserves and sundry pies have been brought into the field of such
beneficial stimulants. Also the herb eryngium maritimum or Sea Holly,
whose fleshy roots were candied and served hot in Elizabethan and later
days. Figs and fennel soup: tunny fish and plovers’ eggs, halibut,
plaice, mackerel and mullet. So with apples and potatoes and garlic.
Horseradish and sesame seeds, vanilla and turmeric, frangipane cream and
purslane: frogs’ legs and peaches. Ghee, ginger-fruit jam. Goose-tongues
and grapes and guinea fowl. Hare soup and haricot beans. Soup seasoned
with thyme, pimento, cloves, and laurel. Lentils and pomegranates and
dates. Mutton, lamb, and rice. Mallows boiled in goat milk. Or the sap
of mallows. Aromatic marjoram and marrow. Mint and onions, pineapple and
mushrooms. Peas, and pastries kneaded into phallic and genital forms.
All things, it appears, that are edible or potable come at some time or
other under the classification of anticipatory amatory aids.
* * * * *
Messalina, the wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius, was infamous for her
licentiousness, her intrigues, and her obscene amours. Historical
testimony relates that she had amorous encounters with fourteen
athletes, and in consequence assumed the honorific of _Invincible_. In
commemoration of the episode she also dedicated fourteen wreaths to the
Priapic god.
* * * * *
Apuleius, the Roman novelist who flourished in the second century A.D.,
alludes to an ancient Roman list of ingredients in the preparation of
love-potions:
They dig out all kinds of philtres
from everywhere:
they search for the agent that
arouses mutual love:
pills and nails and threads,
roots and herbs and shoots,
the two-tailed lizard,
and charms from mares.
* * * * *
A certain philtre, according to the testimony of Girolamo Folengo in his
_Maccaronea_, published in 1519, was composed of black dust from a tomb,
the venom of a toad, the flesh of a brigand, the lung of an ass, the
blood of a blind infant, the bile of an ox, and corpses rifled from
graves.
* * * * *
It is unusual to discover a decided anti-aphrodisiac, recommended as an
antidote, for banishing lust. The following prescription appears in the
_Secrets of Albertus Magnus_, a medieval magic manual:
Turtur, a Turtle, is a birde very well knowne. It is called
Merlon of the Chaldees, of the Greeks Pilax. If the heart of
this foule be borne in a Wolves skin, he that weareth it shall
never have an appetite to commit lechery from henceforth.
* * * * *
In the same magic manual attributed to Albertus Magnus the medieval
philosopher, there is a description of a philtre that has a number of
properties, both medicinal and amatory:
The seventh is the herb of the planet Venus, and is called
Pisterion, of some Hierobotane, id est, Sterbo columbaria et
Verbena, Vervin.
The root of this herb put upon the neck healeth the swine
pockes, apostumus behinde the eares, and botches of the neck,
and such as cannot keepe their water. It healeth cuts also, and
swelling of the evil, or fundament, proceeding of an
inflammation which groweth in the fundament.
It is also of great strength in veneriall pastimes. If any man
put it into his house or vineyard, or in the ground, he shal
have great store of increase.
* * * * *
Another love charm, from Albertus Magnus’ _Book of the Marvels of the
World_, is designed to stabilize a woman’s affection:
If thou wilt that a woman bee not visious nor desire men, take
the private members of a Woolfe, and the haires which doe grow
on the cheekes or eyebrowes of him, and the haires which bee
under his beard, and burne it all, and give it to her to drinke,
when she knoweth not, and she shal desire no other man.
* * * * *
Macrobius, a Roman writer who flourished c. 400 A.D., is the author of a
symposium entitled _Saturnalia_, in which he states that hot drinks,
particularly wine, are provocative of amatory exercise: deinde omnia
calida Venerem provocant et semen excitant et generationi favent. Hausto
autem mero plurimo fiunt viri ad coitum pigriores. That is, a long
draught of unmixed wine is a decided stimulant to genesiac activity. On
the other hand, like many of the ancient erotic poets, Macrobius adds
that excessive and cold wine is a deterrent: vini nimietas ut frigidi
facit semen exile vel debile.
* * * * *
The plant verbena officinalis was known to Hippocrates and later on to
Pliny the Elder as an effective means of inducing virile potency.
* * * * *
An Indian plant named Datroa, the juice of which was used in a drink,
was given as a physiological stimulant
* * * * *
In the eighteenth century an erotic concoction known as Diavolini was
popular in Italy. In France, these Diavolini became equally popular
under the name of diablotins—devil-pastilles.
* * * * *
The nettle, urtica urens, was a legendary and traditional stimulus,
credited with promoting decisive potency.
* * * * *
Ocimum Basilicum is a plant with labiate flowers. It was known to the
Egyptians and is mentioned by the Roman encyclopedist Pliny the Elder.
It was used as an aphrodisiac as well as for other medicinal purposes.
* * * * *
Lycopodium Clavatum, a plant known by a variety of other names, was
formerly used in amatory practices.
* * * * *
The amethyst was anciently considered a stone whose contact was a
stimulus to passion.
* * * * *
In the Middle Ages there was in Germany a kind of humorous folk legend
that was called the Old Wives’ Mill. This legend extended into the
eighteenth century. The theme was the rejuvenation of old women into
young maidens and young women. There is an old print depicting the Mill,
with elderly females being carried into the Mill and coming out young
and comely.
* * * * *
The means of arousing erotic sensations and the devices contrived for
the furtherance of weird or furtive amatory conditions have varied all
the way from forthright bestialities, sacrificial blood rituals, as
described by the poet Horace with reference to the witch Canidia’s
practices, down to more or less innocuous or ineffectual concoctions.
As far as ritual killing is concerned, and the extraction of human
organs for amatory purposes, such methods were in vogue in Europe until
far into the seventeenth century, notably in France.
A French preparation, that promised a renewal of physiological vigor,
was known as Essence à l’usage des monstres.
* * * * *
Certain ancient Greek papyri contain suggestions and recipes intended to
promote physiological vigor and by means of magic formulas to correct
amatory deficiencies. These papyri now belong in the Louvre, in Paris,
and in the British Museum.
Diagrams and symbols appear in the papyri. There are invocations, magic
ritualistic prescriptions. There are, also, invocations and
supplications to strange deities: among them, Sabazios, a
Thracian-Phrygian god who had affinities with Dionysus, the god of wine,
of fertility, and of procreation. He was also equated with the deity
called Curios Sabaoth, mentioned in the Septuagint, and also Theos
Hypsistos.
The Greek writer Lucian’s _Lover of Lies_ consists of a collection of
sketches on various contemporary superstitions and practices. There are
descriptions of magic statues endowed with animation, awesome
apparitions, and also charms for bringing back a lover who has strayed.
* * * * *
The River Scamander, in Greece, was reputed to be such a potent amatory
stimulus that maidens hopefully bathed in its waters. On one occasion,
according to the testimony of the orator Aeschines, the beautiful
Callirhoë, on her way to bathing in the sacred Scamander, was met by a
young man who represented himself as an aide to the river god. The young
man then substituted himself for the god and performed his divine
function.
* * * * *
The medieval demonographer Martin Delrio, in his Disquisitionum
Magicarum Libri Sex, discusses love charms, brews of all kinds, and
other amatory inducements used by practitioners in the Black Arts. He
mentions formulas and incantations, spells and alluring chants such as
the seductive croonings of the ancient sirens, as well as the hypnotic
music produced by Orpheus: also concoctions compounded of viscera and
blood and other more intimate secretions.
* * * * *
Amatory inducements may be merely sensuous, or bodily proximity, as in
dancing. Or excitation may be provoked by listening to an appealing
voice, or visually observing a theatrical spectacle. Or recalling a
fragment of song, a forgotten melody.
* * * * *
Particularly in the Orient, amatory preparations often run the gamut
from oddities or puerilities to items that are monstrous in themselves,
or so rare as to preclude the possibility of securing them: as, the
scale of a tortoise, or the secretions of a stag, or a corpse, or a
hyena’s brains or whiskers.
Yet, in the East, these ingredients might well be furtively whispered to
the love-sick suppliant by some aged crone who is the repository of
legendary remedies, or by an obscure apothecary, whose pharmacopoeia is
medieval, or by some wandering minstrel or trader.
* * * * *
Certain plants are associated with erotic consequences and have been
resorted to by those in restless quest of amatory contentments. Among
these plants are: the root of narcissus, vervain, water lilies, and
bamboo.
* * * * *
In one Hindu erotic manual, a kind of Rake’s Progress entitled The
Harlot’s Guide, certain ingredients are enumerated as contributing to
the potency of philtres. Included in the items are fish soup, ghee, and
indigenous herbs.
* * * * *
In former times, in France, a dish of the testes of a kid or a bull or a
fox or a hare would be set before a man who intended to embark on
amatory ventures.
* * * * *
Love stimulants may be both material and psychic. They may have
physiological impacts that result in amatory capacity, or they may
heighten and arouse the emotional awareness and sensitivity, with
similar results.
Among the medieval investigators, philosophers, and alchemists and
occultists, Albertus Magnus held a dominant position. He had a
perception of scientific method, yet he also dealt in unwarranted and
legendary fantasies. He wrote on physiology and astronomy. He
investigated plant and animal life. He equated the characteristics and
properties of certain stones, certain metals, certain creatures, with
corresponding human traits and faculties. He felt that such stones, or
the extraction of certain animal organs, would be conducive to the
realization of the virtues of these minerals or viscera in relation to
the human being. The lion’s bravery resides in the lion’s heart. Hence
the eating of the heart, by a kind of sympathetic transference, will
render the human consumer equally courageous. So the procedure extends
throughout the entire amatory field. Certain animals and birds, as the
pigeon and the ass and the goat and the bull, are known for their
lubricity. The testes, therefore, and the genitalia of such animals will
correspondingly endow the man who consumes them with equally intense
capacity. Certain formulas, particular invocations and ritualistic
procedures, diagrams and symbols and periapts will all contribute to the
efficacy of the rite.
Thus, to stimulate desire in either sex, the genitalia of the animals of
the opposite sex are consumed.
In the nests of eagles are found stones called echites. Worn on the left
arm, these stones promote erotic sensations.
To ensure erotic continuance, the marrow of a wolf’s left foot is
advised. This is mixed with chypre and ambergris and the resultant
unguent is rubbed on the object of affection.
Like a culinary direction, but usually with less promptness or ease, one
is enjoined to take the liver of a sparrow, a swallow’s womb, a hare’s
kidney, a pigeon’s heart. Dry and crush into a powder. Add equal weight
of one’s own blood. Dry and mix in soup as an infallible potion.
For reinvigorating purposes, an ointment composed of ash of star-lizard,
civet oil, St. John’s wort oil is prepared. This is smeared on the toe
of the left foot and the loins.
The fat of a young buck, together with civet and ambergris, is equally
efficacious.
Goose testes and the stomach of a hare, well seasoned with spices, are
amatory aids.
Also: a salad made of satyrion, rocket, and celery, soaked in oil and
rose vinegar.
As, in rarer cases, an anaphrodisiac, on the other hand, the powdered
genitals of a mild bull are recommended, in a soup containing veal,
purslain, and lettuce.
The medieval grimoires, those manuals dedicated to sorcery, also treated
of philtres and amatory brews.
Take two new knives. On a Friday morning—the day that is consecrated to
Aphrodite—go to a spot where you can find earthworms. Take two, join the
two knives together, then cut the two heads and the two tails of the
worms. Keep the bodies. On returning home, smear them with sperm: dry,
and pulverize them.
Again: Pull out three pubic hairs and three from the left armpit. Burn
them on a hot shovel. Pulverize, and insert in a piece of bread, that
will be dipped in soup.
Or: With the left hand pluck a bunch of vervain and repeat: I pluck you
by the power of Lucifer, Prince of the Infernal Regions, and of
Beelzebub, mother of three demons. Let her send Attos, Effeton, and
Canabo to torment X so that, within twenty-four hours, she may do my
will.
There is a prescription against cuckoldry, involving the organs, the
skin, and the eyes of a wolf: pounded and calcined and composed into a
drink.
Another prescription, designed for amatory purposes, involves a loaf of
warm bread into which nine drops of blood are distilled. The bread is
then dried, pulverized, and taken with coffee.
Another recipe requires the fat and the bile of a goat, dried, and mixed
with oil. Its use will ensure faithful and continuous attachment to the
person loved.
Another device for maintaining enduring love requires two turtle doves,
male and female. After they are strangled, the blood is poured into a
cup never before used. One’s own blood is added, together with some hair
of the woman. On the first white page of a new Bible there is now
written with a gold pen dipped in the turtle doves’ blood: Where you go,
I shall go. Where you stay, I shall stay. Your people are my people and
your god is my god. I shall die where you die. Only death shall separate
us. The document is sprinkled with incense and placed under the nuptial
pillow. The brew is poured into another cup, never before used, and
mixed with wine. Each of the two persons concerned in the ceremony now
takes a drink.
* * * * *
An elaborate potion, that involves many ingredients, much time, and
careful and scrupulous preparation, is as follows:
On the first Friday after a summer new moon, go at noon and look for a
snake. Cut its head off, and carry it away in a new silk bag. Once home,
throw the stick used for killing the snake toward the East, and hang the
bag in a dark, warm corner. The following night, go barefooted to a
meadow. Before midnight, gather two leaves of white clover, two of red
clover, and six stems of spurge. Bring them back in a new basket. Then
take a white bud from two rose bushes, a red bud and a young leaf of
each, wrap in virgin parchment on which you write: Revarin myrtol her
kulbata with a new goose quill dipped in your own blood.
The leaves, their contents, and the basket are set at the head of the
bed, on a table on which a lamp burns for at least three hours. On
waking up, spray the flowers and leaves with cold well water and set
them in the place where the snake’s head is drying. Wait until night.
About eleven p.m. stretch out, on a table in the room, virgin parchment,
draw thereon with a fresh heated point a six-branched star, by the light
of an old church taper placed in a silver holder.
Procure a new chopper, two new knives, a new porcelain bowl, a new, well
rinsed bottle, a black glass, a carafe of cold water, a stick of new
wax, a seal, a mortar, and a new cork.
At midnight, make the sign of the cross three times. Then put the
snake’s head in the mortar with the leaves and flowers crushed into a
paste. Heap up into a consistent mixture. Put the mortar on the flame
until the contents are dry: then pulverize, while the mortar is heating.
With the new knives, let six drops of your blood fall into the cup: add
water, pour the contents of the mortar into the cup, stir, and boil.
Take three of your hairs, calcine them and throw into the cup. Do
likewise with the parchment and the bag. Pour into the bottle, add water
until it overflows. Cork it and seal it, place it in the bed, put out
the light, pray and go to sleep.
After three days, after leaving it in the dark, by the window, on the
third midnight the brew will be ready. Five drops for men, three for
women, mixed with drink or food.
This elixir was reputed to be highly effective.