Love Potions through the Ages - A Study of Amatory Devices and Mores

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Title: Love Potions through the Ages - A Study of Amatory Devices and Mores
Author: Wedeck, Harry E.
Language: English
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LOVE POTIONS THROUGH THE AGES
_A Study of Amatory Devices and Mores_

HARRY E. WEDECK

_Lecturer in Classics, Brooklyn College of the City University, N. Y._
_Fellow, International Institute of Arts and Letters_

THE CITADEL PRESS
NEW YORK

FIRST PAPERBOUND EDITION

Published by The Citadel Press
222 Park Avenue South, New York 3, N. Y.

by Philosophical Library, Inc.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 62–18549

_Printed in the United States of America_

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ix

I ANTIQUITY 1

Erotic cults. Rites, Periapts. Phallic symbols. Ceremonials.
Concepts. Greece. Asia Minor. Egypt. Literary and historical
testimony. Erotic manifestations in various ethnic areas.
Search for amatory stimulants. Condemnation of pagan mores.
Biblical instances. Sacredness of genitalia. Herodotus on
Egyptian cults. Bacchic cult in European countries.
Pervasiveness of phallus. Phallic emblems. Biblical
references. Incantations. Spells. Philtres. Egyptian love
song. Near East. Hittite ritual. Babylon. Canaanites. Greece
and Rome. Biblical ethics. Hellenistic Age. Baths. Phallic
food. Drillipotae. Yellow. Figurae Veneris. Erotic poems.
Phallic divinities. Philodemus of Gadara. Dress. Athens.
Panders. Biblical—phallic. Power of woman. Woman as an evil.
Aphrodite. Love as an end. Initiation. Rites of Venus. Essence
of love. Mysticism. Priapic. Asia Minor. Variant names.
Generation. Talisman. Floral.

II GREEK 67

Plato. Dioscorides. Nonnus. Theodora. Antonina. Belisarius.
Demosthenes. Concept of love.

III ROMANS 82

Testimony of the poets. Obscene deities. Amatory philtres.
Amatory foods. Bacchic worship. Ovid on erotic practices. Ovid
on philtres. Roman generative deities. Rites of Bona Dea.
Generative tutelary deities. Phallic breads. Magic love
spells. Assignations. Fescennini versus. Lamps. Larentalia.
Heliogabalus. Nonaria. Nose and lips. Ovid. Imperial Rome.

IV ORIENT 119

Hindu and Arab treatments and practices. Philtres. Other
provocative preparations. Islam. Sterility. Potions. Perfume.
Arab erotologist. Amatory principles.

V INDIA 135

Erotic manuals. Amatory practices. Philtres. Other means of
stimulation. Temple prostitution. Search for husband.

VI VARIETIES AND OCCASIONS OF POTIONS 155

Examples from Greek and Roman antiquity. Asia. Love cult.

VII POTENCY OF PHILTRES 167

Literary testimony. Woman in the ascendant. Water.
Inducements.

VIII INGREDIENTS OF POTIONS. RECIPES. ANECDOTES 174

Preparation of philtres. Illustrative legendary, historical,
and literary anecdotes, allusions, and citations confirming
potency of philtres. Divertive philtres. Medieval philtres.
Macrobius. Herbs and plants. The Mill. Amatory procedures.
French stimulant. Papyri. Lucian. River. Black Art potion.
Inducements. Oriental. Flowers, etc. Variety of ingredients.

IX MIDDLE AGES AND LATER 231

Philtres. Dispensers of preparations. Occultists and
alchemists associated with preparations. Literary and
historical references. Manuals and other erotic texts. Priapus
as a saint. Phallic Society. Erotic mores in Europe. Clauder
on philtres. Northern deities. Belts of chastity. The
Congress: and other medieval practices. Divertive invocation.
Privileges. Orgies. Boccaccio. Turkey. Loïstes. Shakespeare.
Villon. Sects. Figurines. Demoniac unions. Astrological.

X MODERN TIMES 316

Contemporary eroticism. Amatory customs. Potions.
Publications. Experimentation in erotic stimuli. Literary
mention. Popular press. Love spells and potions. Bayadère.
Advertisements. Restaurants. Erotica. Books. Hippomanes.

SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 335

INTRODUCTION

The amatory motif is pervasive, timeless, and universal. In some of its
phases and manifestations it has presented age-old provocations and, not
infrequently, problems that are still unresolved.

Among such problems are involved the faculty of physiological potency,
the urge to attract amorously, and, conversely, the problem of
preventing such attraction in a designated instance, or of diverting it
to another objective.

That, in brief, is the essence of the material means of effecting such a
realization. In its various mutations, its protean diversities, it is
the love-potion, the philtre, the mystic concoction that, once quaffed,
will instil love and passion and desire and lust, that will replenish
erotic inadequacies, that will awaken the ancient _fons vitae_, the
symbol of animate being, the source, as the antique Hellenes sensed and
exemplified, of all cosmic creation, of the totality of living
generation.

The potion, then, is at least a hypothetically efficacious instrument
for securing and preserving the amorous interests of the desired object.
It also serves as an apotropaic device for diverting misplaced love, as
the agent sees it, and redirecting it to the proper and preferred
channel.

The actual means for the fulfilment of these erotic purposes vary with
the ages, with ethnic groups and demographic alignments, with legendary
and folk traditions and mores, with the disparate levels of culture of a
specific region. They present variations and adaptations in
correspondence with climatic and epichorial conditions. But they retain
the essentially common characteristic, the unchanging property, of
attempting to shape and mould the amatory esurgences, in whatever
degree, and whether transitory or of more enduring permanence, by
impersonal, palpable, mechanistic and visual means.

It should be observed, as a _terminus a quo_, that the term philtre
itself stems from the Greek _philtron_, a love-potion (from _philein_,
to love, and _tron_, an instrumental suffix). It means, then, a
love-charm.

The term potion is derived immediately from the Latin _potio_, a
draught, whether of medicine or even of poison. The ultimate source is
the Greek _potos_, a drink. In a general sense, therefore, a love
philtre or potion is a concoction, usually liquid in form, but not
necessarily so, intended to produce or promote amatory sensibilities. In
a wide and comprehensive denotation, the philtre will include any object
or charm or periapt that serves the same erotic purpose.

This present survey touches on the use of the potion in the course of
the centuries, in varying circumstances and disparate countries: on the
fantastic factors that composed the final preparations; and on
anecdotes, both apocryphal and authenticated, and episodes and
occasional allusions that point up the treatment, its hazards, and even
its humors.

With regard to the potions and similar concoctions and preparations of
an amatory nature, a caveat must here be entered. All such philtres are
considered in this book from an exclusively traditional, historical, and
academic viewpoint. They are not recommended in any instance for
personal use, as they may involve unpredictable or even catastrophic
effects: in no sense, therefore, should such prescriptions be utilized
for empirical experimentation.

H.E.W.

_LOVE POTIONS THROUGH THE AGES_

CHAPTER I
ANTIQUITY

In ancient Greece, the climatic conditions, the long unending summer
days, the broad spaciousness of the sea, wine-dark and loud-sounding, as
Homer describes it, the secluded pools and fountains and glades, the
remote valleys, the snowy mountain summits were all alive, to the
Hellenic perceptive and imaginative mind, with graceful nymphs and
shaggy satyrs, with a multitude of anthropomorphic divinities, and with
the alluring pipes of Pan.

Under such conditions it was not difficult to conceive human life as
dominated by the cosmic creative force, and to do homage and obeisance
to the great god Dionysus, divinity of the fruitful wine, protector of
all procreative and generative functions.

The generative and sexual activities of the Greeks were, in general, so
freed from contrived restrictions, so much in harmony with their
instinctive and developed sensitivity to beauty of form, of movement, of
rhythm, that artificial aids and inducements to amatory performance were
far less necessary than they are in a highly complex and competitive and
in a sense exhausted contemporary social frame.

Hence we do not constantly hear of the _ad hoc_ use of philtres,
potions, and analogous means of stimulation. Yet their existence is
established, and in particular cases they were brought into effective
use. Xenocrates, a Greek physician of the first century A.D., as Pliny
the Elder records, advised drinking the sap of mallows as a love-potion.
Such a philtre, together with three mallow roots tied into a bunch,
would inflame the erotic passions of women.

Again, Dioscorides of Cilicia, in Asia Minor, an army physician who
flourished in the first century A.D., produced a _Materia Medica_ that
treated drugs, remedies, ingredients in a rational, systematic manner.
His text became a standard work, used for centuries, in both the East
and the West. He recommends the roots of boy-cabbage, soaked in fresh
goat’s milk. A good draught of this drink would be productive of intense
excitation of the sexual impulse.

Many spices, plants, herbs that were described, either by the
encyclopedists and historians or incidentally mentioned in dramatic
literature, in occasional poems, anecdotes or in epitomes of legends and
folklore, were of such obscurity and rarity that it is no longer
possible to ascertain the corresponding modern equivalent. There was, as
an instance, satyrion. It is frequently mentioned, both in Greek and
Roman contexts. Actually unidentifiable botanically, it may have been
analogous to the orchis. In Greek and also Roman antiquity it was
reputed to constitute a potent aphrodisiac, and is mentioned in an
accepted and traditional sense by writers such as Petronius, who
casually alludes to it in the course of his _Satyricon_ as a common
erotic aid.

The name satyrion is evidently associated with the Greek satyr, a wood
spirit, partly goat-like, and partly human. Attendants to the rustic god
Pan, the satyrs were known as bestial and lustful creatures, symbolic of
the basic sexual passion of man.

Botanically, satyrion is a plant with smooth leaves, red-tinted, and
equipped with a two-fold root. The lower part of this root was credited
anciently with promoting male conception, while the other part was
conducive to female conception. In its modern counterpart, satyrion has
been associated with the Iris florantina.

There is another variety of satyrion, called Serapias. This has
pear-shaped leaves and a tall elongated stem. Its root consists of two
tubers that have the appearance of testes. Unquestionably, the
association of the plant as an aphrodisiac derives from the orchidaceous
configuration of the root.

Remarkable properties were attributed to the root of satyrion. When it
was dissolved in goat’s milk, the erotic effect was so vigorous and
urgent that, as the Greek philosopher Theophrastus asserts in his
_Enquiry into Plants_, the potion produced, on a particular occasion,
some seventy consecutive coital performances.

Still another species of satyrion was erithraicon. This plant had a
peculiar virtue. The mere holding of it, or carrying it, in the hand,
occasioned a lustful desire. This fact is attested by Pliny, in his
_Natural History_, in Book 26, 96 and 98, as well as by Dioscorides in
his _Materia Medica_ 3. 134. When the libido became too intense, lettuce
was eaten to mitigate the effect, to allay the erotic provocation.

Greek mythology abounds in references to satyrion as an efficacious
stimulant. The prowess of Hercules, the lusty warrior, as the Roman
Petronius, Arbiter Elegantiarum, calls him, is attested in an amatory
sense by the story of his visit to a certain Thespius. Entertained
lavishly as a guest, Hercules, fortified by satyrion, repaid the host’s
entertainment by having intercourse with all fifty daughters of
Thespius.

In Roman times the effectiveness of the root in arousing erotic
excitation was common knowledge. Petronius, the voluptuary attached to
the court of the Emperor Nero and the author of the remarkable
picaresque novel entitled the _Satyricon_, alludes to the matter. One of
his characters, describing the frenzied activities in a brothel,
remarks:

We saw many persons of both sexes, at work in the cells, so much every
one of them seemed to have taken satyrion.

In a more general direction, important testimonies to manipulative and
mechanistic means of arousing vigor are the references in Petronius,
particularly the episode involving Quartilla:

Quartilla came up to me to cure me of the ague, but finding her
self disappointed, flew off in a rage, and returning in a little
while, told us, there were certain persons unknown, had a design
upon us, and therefore commanded to remove us into a noble
palace.

Here all our courage fail’d us, and nothing but certain death
seem’d to appear before us.

When I began, “If, madam, you design to be more severe with us,
be yet so kind as to dispatch it quickly; for whate’er our
offence be, it is not so heinous that we ought to be rack’d to
death for it”: Upon which her woman, whose name was Psyche,
spread a coverlet on the floor. Sollicitavit inguina mea mille
iam mortibus frigida. Ascyltos muffled his head in his coat, as
having had a hint given him, how dangerous it was to take notice
of what did not concern him: In the mean time Psyche took off
her garters, and with one of them bound my feet, and with the
other my hands.

Thus fetter’d as I lay, “This, madam,” said I, “is not the way
to rid you of your ague.”

“I grant it,” answer’d Psyche, “but I have a Dose at hand will
infallibly do it” and therefore brought me a lusty bowl of
satyricon and so merrily ran over the wonderful effects of it,
that I had well-nigh suck’d it all off; but because Ascyltos had
slighted her courtship, she finding his back toward her, threw
the bottom of it on him.

Ascyltos perceiving the chat was at an end, “Am not I worthy,”
said he, “to get a sup?” And Psyche fearing my laughter might
discover her, clapped her hands, and told him, “Young man, I
made you an offer of it, but your friend here has drunk it all
out.”

“Is it so,” quoth Quartilla, smiling very agreeably, “and has
Encolpius gugg’d it all down?” At last also even Gito laught for
company, at what time the young wench flung her arms about his
neck, and meeting no resistance, half smother’d him with kisses.

A peculiar situation in which erotic provocation or inducement to
passion is conditioned by the concept of social prestige, or, in the
contemporary idiom, status, is exemplified in a later passage in
Petronius’ _Satyricon_:

Going out full of these thoughts to divert my concern, I
resolv’d on a walk, but I had scarce got into a publick one,
e’re a pretty girl made up to me, and calling me Polyaemus, told
me her lady wou’d be proud of an opportunity to speak with me.

“You’re mistaken, sweet-heart,” return’d I, in a little heat,
“I’m but a servant, of another country too, and not worthy of so
great a favor.”

“No, sir,” said she, “I have commands to you; but because you
know what you can do, you’re proud; and if a lady wou’d receive
a favor from you, I see she must buy it: For to what end are all
those allurements, forsooth? the curl’d hair, the complexion
advanc’d by a wash, and the wanton roll of your eyes, the
study’d air of your gate? unless by shewing your parts, to
invite a purchaser? For my part I am neither a witch, nor a
conjurer, yet can guess at a man by his physiognomy. And when I
find a spark walking, I know his contemplation. To be short,
sir, if so be you are one of them that sell their ware, I’ll
procure you a merchant; but if you’re a courteous lender, confer
the benefit. As for your being a servant, and below, as you say,
such a favor, it increases the flames of her that’s dying for
you. ’Tis the wild extravagance of some women to be in love with
filth, nor can be rais’d to an appetite but by the charms,
forsooth of some slave or lacquy; some can be pleased with
nothing but the strutting of a prize-fighter with a hacktface,
and a red ribbon in his shirt: Or an actor betray’d to
prostitute himself on th’ stage, by the vanity of showing his
pretty shapes there; of this sort is my lady; who indeed,” added
she, “prefers the paultry lover of the upper gallery, with his
dirty face, and oaken staff, to all the fine gentlemen of the
boxes, with their patches, gunpowder-spots, and toothpickers.”

When pleas’d with the humor of her talk, “I beseech you, child,”
said I, “are you the she that’s so in love with my person?” Upon
which the maid fell into a fit of laughing.

“I wou’d not,” return’d she, “have you so extremely flatter
yourself. I never yet truckl’d to a waiter, nor will Venus allow
I shou’d imbrace a gibbet. You must address your self to ladies
that kiss the ensigns of slavery; be assur’d that I, though a
servant, have too fine a taste to converse with any below a
knight.” I was amaz’d at the relation of such unequal passions,
and thought it miraculous to find a servant, with the scornful
pride of a lady, and a lady with the humility of a servant.

A still more elaborate scene concerns the techniques of recovering the
faculty of erotic consummation. Encolpius, the narrator of the
_Satyricon_, is attached homosexually to the young Gito. He is in a
state of incapacity. At this juncture he receives a note from Circe, the
mistress of the maid Chrysis, commenting on his inadequacy:

Chrysis enter’d my chamber, and gave me a billet from her
mistress, in which I found this written:

“Had I rais’d my expectation, I might deceiv’d complain; now I’m
obliged to your impotence, that has made me sensible how much
too long I have trifl’d with mistaken hopes of pleasure. Tell
me, sir, how you design to bestow your self, and whether you
dare rashly venture home on your own legs? for no physician ever
allow’d it cou’d be done without strength. Let me advise your
tender years to beware of a palsie: I never saw any body in such
danger before. On my conscience you are just going! and shou’d
the same rude chilliness seize your other parts, I might be
soon, alas! put upon the severe trial of weeping at your
funeral. But if you would not suspect me of not being sincere,
tho’ my resentment can’t equal the injury, yet I shall not envy
the cure of a weak unhappy wretch. If you wou’d recover your
strength, ask Gito, or rather not ask him for’t—I can assure a
return of your vigor if you cou’d sleep three nights alone: As
to myself I am not in the least apprehensive of appearing to
another less charming than I have to you. I am told neither my
glass nor report does flatter me. Farewell, if you can.”

When Chrysis found I had read the reproach, “This is the custom, sir,”
said she, “and chiefly of this city, where the women are skill’d in
magick-charms, enough to make the moon confess their power, therefore
the recovery of any useful instrument of love becomes their care; ’tis
only writing some soft tender things to my lady, and you make her happy
in a kind return. For ’tis confest, since her disappointment, she has
not been her self.”

I readily consented, and calling for paper, thus addrest myself:

“’Tis confest, madam, I have often sinned, for I’m not only a
man, but a very young one, yet never left the field so
dishonorably before. You have at your feet a confessing
criminal, that deserves whatever you inflict: I have cut a
throat, betray’d my country, committed sacrilege; if a
punishment for any of these will serve, I am ready to receive
sentence. If you fancy my death, I wait you with my sword; but
if a beating will content you, I fly naked to your arms. Only
remember, that ’twas not the workman, but his instruments that
fail’d: I was ready to engage, but wanted arms. Who rob’d me of
them I know not; perhaps my eager mind outrun my body; or while
with an unhappy haste I aim’d at all; I was cheated with
abortive joys. I only know I don’t know what I’ve done: You bid
me fear a palsie, as if the disease you’d do greater that has
already rob’d me of that, by which I shou’d have purchas’d you.
All I have to say for my self, is this, that I will certainly
pay with interest the arrears of love, if you allow me time to
repair my misfortune.”

Having sent back Chrysis with this answer, to encourage my jaded body,
after the bath and strengthening oyles had a little rais’d me, I apply’d
my self to strong meats, such as strong broths and eggs, using wine very
moderately; upon which to settle my self, I took a little walk, and
returning to my chamber, slept that night without Gito; so great was my
care to acquit my self honorably with my mistress, that I was afraid he
might have tempted my constancy, by tickling my side.

The next day rising without prejudice, either to my body or spirits, I
went, tho’ I fear’d the place was ominous, to the same walk, and
expected Chrysis to conduct me to her mistress; I had not been long
there, e’re she came to me, and with her a little old woman. After she
had saluted me, “What, my nice Sir Courtly,” said she, “does your
stomach begin to come to you?”

At what time, the old woman, drawing from her bosom, a wreath of many
colors, bound my neck; and having mixed spittle and dust, she dipt her
finger in’t, and markt my forehead, whether I wou’d or not.

When this part of the charm was over, she made me spit thrice, and as
often prest to my bosom enchanted stones, that she had wrapt in purple;
Admotisque manibus temptare coepit inguinum vives. Dicto citius nervi
paruerunt imperio manusque aniculae ingenti motu repleverunt. At ilia
gaudio exsultans, “Vides,” inquit, “Chrysis mea, vides quod aliis
leporem excitavi?”

Never despair; Priapus I invoke
To help the parts that make his altars smoke.

After this, the old woman presented me to Chrysis; who was very glad she
had recover’d her mistress’s treasure; and therefore hastening to her,
she conducted me to a most pleasant retreat, deckt with all that nature
cou’d produce to please the sight.

Where lofty plains o’re-spread a summer shade,
And well-trimm’d pines their shaking tops display’d,
Where Daphne ’midst the Cyprus crown’d her head.
Near these, a circling river gently flows,
And rolls the pebbles as it murmuring goes.
A place design’d for love, the nightingale
And other wing’d inhabitants can tell.
That on each bush salute the coming day,
And in their orgies sing its hours away.

She was in an undress, reclining on a flowry bank, and diverting her
self with a myrtle branch; as soon as I appear’d, she blusht, as mindful
of her disappointment: Chrysis, very prudently withdrew, and when we
were left together, I approacht the temptation; at what time she
skreen’d my face with the myrtle, and as if there had been a wall
between us, becoming more bold; “what, my chill’d spark,” began she,
“have you brought all your self today?”

“Do you ask, madam,” I return’d, “rather than try?” And throwing myself
to her, that with open arms was eager to receive me, we last a little
age away; when giving the signal to prepare for other joys, she drew me
to a more close imbrace; and now, our murmuring kisses their sweet fury
tell; now, our twining limbs, try’d each fold of love; now, lockt in
each others arms, our bodies and our souls are join’d; but even here,
alas! even amidst these sweet beginnings, a sudden chilliness prest upon
my joys, and made me leave ’em not compleat.

Circe, enrag’d to be so affronted, had recourse to revenge, and calling
the grooms that belong’d to the house, made them give me a warming; nor
was she satisfi’d with this, but calling all the servant-wenches, and
meanest of the house, she made ’em spit upon me. I hid my head as well
as I cou’d, and, without begging pardon, for I knew what I had deserv’d,
am turn’d out of doors, with a large retinue of kicks and spittle:
Proselenos, the old woman was turn’d out too, and Chrysis beaten; and
the whole family wondering with themselves, enquir’d the cause of their
lady’s disorder.

I hid my bruises as well as I cou’d, lest my rival Eumolpus might sport
with my shame, or Gito be concern’d at it; therefore as the only way to
disguise my misfortune, I began to dissemble sickness, and having got in
bed, to revenge my self of that part of me, that had been the cause of
all my misfortunes; when taking hold of it,

With dreadful steel, the part I wou’d have lopt,
Thrice from my trembling hand the razor dropt.
Now, what I might before, I could not do,
For cold as ice the fearful thing withdrew;
And shrunk behind a wrinkled canopy,
Hiding his head from my revenge and me.
Thus, by his fear, I’m baulkt of my design,
When I in words more killing vent my spleen.

At what time, raising myself on the bed, in this or like manner, I
reproacht the sullen impotent: With what face can you look up, thou
shame of heaven and man? that can’st not be seriously mention’d. Have I
deserv’d from you, when rais’d within sight of heavens of joys, to be
struck down to the lowest hell? To have a scandal fixt on the very prime
and vigor of my years, and to be reduc’d to the weakness of an old man?
I beseech you, sir, give me an epitaph on my departed vigor; tho’ in a
great heat I had thus said:

He still continu’d looking on the ground,
Nor more, at this had rais’d his guilty head
Than th’ drooping poppy on its tender stalk.

Nor when I had done, did I less repent of my ridiculous passion, and
with a conscious blush, began to think, how unaccountable it was, that
forgetting all shame, I shou’d contend with that part of me, that all
men of sense, reckon not worth their thoughts. A little after, relapsing
to my former humor: But what’s the crime, began I, if by a natural
complaint I was eas’d of my grief? or how is it, that we blame our
stomachs or bellies, when ’tis our heads, that are distemper’d? Did not
Ulysses beat his breast, as if that had disturb’d him? And don’t we see
the actors punish their eyes, as if they heard the tragic scene? Those
that have the gout in their legs, swear at them; Those that have it in
their fingers, do so by them: Those that have sore eyes, are angry with
their eyes.

Why do the strickt-liv’d Cato’s of the age,
At my familiar lines so gravely rage?
In measures loosely plain, blunt satyr flows,
And all the people so sincerely shows.
For whose a stranger to the joys of love?
Who, can’t the thoughts of such lost pleasures move?
Such Epicurus own’d the chiefest bliss,
And such fives the gods themselves possess.

There’s nothing more deceitful than a ridiculous opinion, nor more
ridiculous, than an affected gravity. After this, I call’d Gito to me;
and “tell me,” said I, “but sincerely, whether Ascyltos, when he took
you from me, pursu’d the injury that night, or was chastly content to
lye alone?” The boy with his finger at his eyes, took a solemn oath,
that he had no incivility offer’d him by Ascyltos.

This drove me to my wits end, nor did I well know what to say: For why,
I consider’d, shou’d I think of the twice mischievous accident that
lately befell me? At last, I did what I cou’d to recover my vigor: and
willing to invoke the assistance of the gods, I went out to pay my
devotions to Priapus, and as wretched as I was, did not despair, but
kneeling at the entry of the chamber, thus beseecht the god:

Bacchus and Nymphs delight, O mighty God!
Whom Cynthia gave to rule the blooming wood.
Lesbos and verdant Thasos thee adore,
And Lydians, in loose flowing dress implore,
And raise devoted temples to thy power.
Thou Dryad’s joy, and Bacchus’s guardian, hear
My conscious prayer, with an attentive ear.
My hands with guiltless blood I never stain’d,
Or sacrilegiously the gods prophan’d.
To feeble me, restoring blessings send,
I did not thee, with my whole self offend.
Who sins thro’ weakness is less guilty thought,
Be pacify’d, and spare a venial fault.
On me, when smiling fate shall smiling gifts bestow,
I’ll not ungrateful to thy godhead go.
A destined goat shall on thy altar lye,
And the horn’d parent of my flock shall dye.
A sucking pig appease thy injur’d shrine,
And hallow’d bowls o’re-flow with generous wine.
Then thrice thy frantick votaries shall round
Thy temple dance, with youth and garlands crown’d,
In holy drunkenness thy orgies sound.

While I was thus at prayers, an old woman, with her hair about her eyes,
and disfigur’d with a mournful habit, coming in, disturb’d my devotions;
when taking hold of me, she drew all fear out of the entry; and “what
hag,” said she, “has devour’d your manhood? Or what ominous carcase have
you stumbl’d over in your nightly walks? You have not acquitted your
self above a boy; but faint, weak, and like a horse o’re-charg’d in a
steep, tyr’d have lost your toyl and sweat; nor content to sin alone,
but have unreveng’d against me, provokt the offended gods?”

When leading me, obedient to all her commands, a second time to the cell
of a neighboring priestess of Priapus, she threw me upon the bed, and
taking up a stick that fastened the door, reveng’d her self on me, that
very patiently receiv’d her fury: and at the first stroak, if the
breaking of the stick had not lessened its force, she might have broke
my head and arm.

I groan’d, and hiding with my arm my head, in a flood of tears lean’d on
the pillow: Nor did she then, less troubled, sit on the bed, and began
in a shrill voice, to blame her age, till the priestess came in upon us;
and “what,” said she, “do you do in my chappel, as if some funeral had
lately been, rather than a holy-day, in which, even the mournful are
merry?”

“Alas, my Enothea!” said she, “this youth was born under an ill star;
for neither boy nor maid can raise him to a perfect appetite; you ne’re
beheld a more unhappy man: In his garden the weak willow, not the lusty
cedar grows; in short, you may guess what he is, that cou’d rise unblest
from Circe’s bed.”

Upon this, Enothea fixt her self between us, and moving her head a
while; “I,” said she, “am the only one that can give remedy for that
disease; and not to delay it, let him sleep with me to-night; and next
morning, examine how vigorous I shall have made him:

“All Nature’s work my magick powers obey,
The blooming earth shall wither and decay,
And when I please, agen be fresh and gay.
From rugged rocks, I make sweet waters flow,
And raging billows to me humbly bow.
With rivers, winds, when I command, obey,
And at my feet, their fans contracted lay,
Tygers and dragons too, my will obey,
But these are small, when of my magick verse,
Descending Cynthia does the power confess.
When my commands, make trembling Phoebus reign,
His fiery steeds, their journey back again.
Such power have charms, by whose prevailing aid
The fury of the raging bulls was laid.
The Heaven-born Circe, with her magic song,
Ulysses’s men, did unto monsters turn.
Proteus, with this assum’d, what shape he wou’d.
I, who this art so long have understood,
Can send proud Ida’s top into the main,
And make the billows bear it up again.”

I shook with fear at such a romantick promise, and began more
intensively to view the old woman; Upon which, she cry’d out, “O
Enothea, be as good as your word”; when, carefully wiping her hands, she
lay down on the bed, and half smother’d me with kisses.

Enothea, in the middle of the altar, plac’d a turf-table, which she
heapt with burning coals, and her old crack cup (for sacrifice) repair’d
with temper’d pitch; when she had fixt it to the smoaking-wall from
which she took it; putting on her habit, she plac’d a kettle by the
fire, and took down a bag that hung near her, in which, a bean was kept
for that use, and a very aged piece of a hog’s forehead, with the print
of a hundred cuts out; when opening the bag, she threw me a part of the
bean, and bid me carefully strip it. I obey her command, and try,
without daubing my fingers, to deliver the grain from its nasty
coverings; but she, blaming my dullness, snatcht it from me, and
skilfully tearing its shells with her teeth, spit the black morsels from
her, that lay like dead flies on the ground. How ingenious is poverty,
and what strange arts will hunger teach? The priestess seemed so great a
lover of this sort of life, that her humor appear’d in every thing about
her, and her hut might be truly term’d, sacred to poverty:

Here shines no glittering ivory set with gold,
No marble covers the deluded mold,
By its own wealth deluded; but the shrine
With simple natural ornaments does shine.
Round Cere’s bower, but homely willows grow.
Earthen are all the sacred bowls they know.
Osier the dish, sacred to use divine:
Both course and stain’d, the jug that holds the wine.
Mud mixt with straw, make a defending fort,
The temple’s brazen studs, are knobs of dirt.
With rush and reed, is thatcht the hut it self,
Where, besides what is on a smoaky shelf,
Ripe service-berries into garlands bound,
And savory-bunches with dry’d grapes are found.
Such a low cottage Hecale confin’d,
Low was her cottage, but sublime her mind.
Her bounteous heart, a grateful praise shall crown,
And muses make immortal her renown.

After which, she tasted of the flesh, and hanging the rest, old as her
self, on the hook again; the rotten stool on which she was mounted
breaking, threw her into the fire, her fall spilt the kettle, and what
it held put out the fire; she burnt her elbow, and all her face was hid
with the ashes that her fall had rais’d.

Thus disturb’d, I arose, and laughing, took her up; immediately, lest
any thing shou’d hinder the offering, she ran for new fire to the
neighborhood, and had hardly got to the door, e’re I was set upon by
three sacred geese, that daily, I believe, about that time were fed by
the old woman; they made an hideous noise, and, surrounding me, one
tears my coat, another my shoes, while their furious captain made
nothing of doing so by my legs; till seeing my self in danger, I began
to be in earnest, and snatching up one of the feet of our little table,
made the valiant animal feel my arm’d hand; nor content with a slight
blow or two, but reveng’d my self with its death:

Such were the birds Alcides did subdue,
That from his conquering arm t’ward Heaven flew:
Such sure the harpyes were which poyson strow’d,
On cheated Phineus’s false deluding food.
Loud lamentations shake the trembling air,
The powers above the wild confusion share,
Horrors disturb the orders of the sky,
And frighted stars beyond their courses fly.

By this time the other two had eat up the pieces of the bean that lay
scatter’d on the floor, and having lost their leader, return’d to the
temple. When glad of the booty and my revenge, I heal’d the slight old
woman’s anger, I design’d to make off; and taking up my cloaths, began
my march; nor had I reach’d the door, e’re I saw Enothea bringing in her
hand an earthen pot fill’d with fire; upon which I retreated, and
throwing down my cloaths, fixt my self in the entry, as if I were
impatiently expecting her coming.

Enothea, entring, plac’d the fire, that with broken sticks she had got
together, and having heapt more wood upon those, began to excuse her
stay, that her friend wou’d not let her go before she had, against the
laws of drinking, taken off three healths together. When looking about
her, “What,” said she, “have you been doing in my absence? Where’s the
bean?”

I, who thought I had behav’d my self very honorably, told her the whole
fight; and to end her grief for the loss of her bean, presented the
goose: when I shew’d the goose, the old woman set up such an outcry,
that you wou’d have thought the geese were re-entering the place.

In confusion and amaz’d at so strange a humor, I askt the meaning of her
passion? or why she pity’d the goose rather than me.

But wringing her hands, “you wicked wretch,” said she, “d’ye speak too?
D’ye know what you’ve done? You’ve killed the gods delight, a goose the
pleasure of all matrons: And, lest you shou’d think your self innocent,
if a magistrate shou’d hear of it, you’d be hang’d. You have defil’d
with blood my cell, that to this day had been inviolate. You have done
that, for which, if any’s so malicious, he may expel me my office.”

She said, and trembling, rends her aged hairs,
And both her cheeks with wilder fury tears:
Sad murmurs from her troubl’d breast arise,
A shower of tears there issu’d from her eyes.
And down her face a rapid deluge run,
Such as is seen, when a hills frosty crown,
By warm Favonius is melted down.

Upon which, “I beseech you,” said I, “don’t grieve, I’ll recompence the
loss of your goose with an ostrich.”

While amaz’d I spoke, she sat down on the bed, lamented her loss; at
what time Proselenos came in with the sacrifice, and viewing the
murder’d goose, and enquiring the cause, began very earnestly to cry and
pity me, as it had been a father, not a goose I had slain. But tired
with this stuff, “I beseech you,” said I, “tell me, tho’ it had been a
man I kill’d, won’t gold wipe off the guilt? See here are two pieces of
gold: with these you may purchase gods as well as geese.”

Which, when Enothea beheld, “Pardon me, young man,” said she, “I am only
concern’d for your safety, which is an argument of love, not hatred;
therefore we’ll take what care we can to prevent a discovery: You have
nothing to do, but intreat the gods to forgive the sin.”

Who e’re has money may securely sail,
On all things with all-mighty gold prevail.
May Danae wed, or rival amo’rous Jove,
And make her father pandar to his love.
May be a poet, preacher, lawyer, too:
And bawling win the cause he does not know:
And up to Cato’s fame for wisdom grow.
Wealth without law will gain at bar renown,
How e’re the case appears, the cause is won,
Every rich lawyer is a Littleton.
In short of all you wish you are possest,
All things prevent the wealthy mans’ request,
For Jove himself’s the treasure of his chest.

While my thoughts were thus engag’d, she plac’d a cup of wine under my
hands, and having cleans’d my prophane extended fingers with sacred
leeks and parsley, threw into the wine, with some ejaculations,
hazel-nuts, and as they sunk or swam gave her judgment; but I well knew
the empty rotten ones wou’d swim, and those of entire kernels go to the
bottom.

When applying herself to the goose, from its breast she drew a lusty
liver, and then told me my future fortune. But that no mark of the
murder might be left, she fixt the rent goose to a spit, which, as she
said, she had fatten’d a little before, as sensible it was to die.

In the mean time the wine went briskly round, and now the old women
gladly devour the goose, they so lately lamented; when they had pickt
its bones, Enothea, half drunk, turn’d to me; “and now,” said she, “I’ll
finish the charm that recovers your strength”: When drawing out a
leathern ensign of Priapus, she dipt it in a medley of oyl, small
pepper, and the bruis’d seed of nettles, paulatim coepit inserere ano
meo. Hoc crudelissima anus spurgit subinde umore femina mea. Nasturcii
sucum cum abrotano miscet perfusisque inguinibus meis viridis urticae
fascem comprehendit, omniaque infra umbilicum coepit lenta manu caedere.
Upon which jumping from her, to avoid the sting, I made off. The old
woman in a great rage pursu’d me, and tho’ drunk with wine, and their
more hot desires, took the right way; and follow’d me through two or
three villages, crying stop thief; but with my hands all bloody, in the
hasty flight, I got off.

* * * * *

[Illustration:

National Gallery of Art

THE KISS

_by Rodin_
]

[Illustration:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

BESIDE THE SEA

_by Rodin_
]

Love manifestations and the passion for promoting weakened or inadequate
functional activity are familiar themes in the most remote areas of the
world. In the Arctic circle as well as in the Marshall Islands. Among
the Eskimo of uttermost Greenland and among the Jibaro Indians of
Equador. The Orang Kubau of Sumatra and the Semang and Senoi of Malacca
are knowledgeable in this regard. The natives of these disparate
territories are familiar with the plant and animal life of their
regions, the nuts and fruits, the herbs and leaves, and their properties
and specific virtues. They have tested them in food and drink, and in
other functional directions: and by long, groping, deductive sequences
they have come to definite practical conclusions. They have managed to
extract or to use certain essences and elements in these roots and
plants that they found conducive to specific purposes, particularly to
the primary function of life, the erotic motif, the functional
performance.

Oral traditions, the ways of the tribal society, derive,
pre-historically, from a matriarchal hierarchy. And to the women of the
tribe the obscure secrets of amorous practices and devices are
all-important. Because they are the conditions of procreation, the
source of fertility, the depositories of life and continuity. The love
mystique, then, is the primary and virtually exclusive sacrosanct
knowledge confined to the female of the tribe. Hence, after the ages of
oral transmission, when we enter upon the centuries of writing, verbal
transcription, and recording, then the sagas and chronicles, the legends
and folk consciousness, invariably dwell on the female, the wise old
woman, the witch, the adept, who possesses the arcana of erotic
functions.

In the course of undetermined time, as literary mastery grows and
develops culturally to the degree attained by Greece in the fifth
century B.C., the witch, as guardian of Aphrodite’s mysteries, is
paramount. She is known to the peasant and the hoplite, to the cobbler
and the young athlete, to the stroller in the agora, to the serious
dramatist, even to the philosophers, to Socrates, to Plato.

* * * * *

In classical legend, Phaon, a ferryman of Lesbos, was given a potent
periapt by Aphrodite, that made him remarkably handsome. The poetess
Sappho consequently fell passionately in love with him. According to the
Roman encyclopedist Pliny the Elder, author of the _Historia Naturalis_,
Phaon had found a mandrake root that resembled the male genitalia. This
root was an assurance of feminine love. Sappho, however, is said, in the
version of Ovid’s _Heroides_, to have flung herself from the Leucadian
rock on his account.

* * * * *

Xenophon, the Greek historian who belongs in the fourth century B.C.,
recounts, in his _Memorabilia_, a dialogue between the philosopher
Socrates and a hetaira named Theodote. The subject is the art of finding
and retaining lovers.

Socrates: There are my lady friends, who will never let me leave them,
night or day. They would always be having me teach them
love-charms and incantations.

Theodote: Are you really acquainted with such things, Socrates?

Socrates: Of course I am. What else is the reason, think you, that
Apollodorus and Antisthenes never leave my side? Why have Cebes
and Simmias come all the way from Thebes to stay with me? You may
be quite sure that not without love-charms and incantations and
magic-wheels can this be brought about.

Theodote: Lend me your wheel, then, that I may use it on you.

Socrates: Nay, I do not want to be drawn to you. I want you to come to
me.

Theodote: Well, I will come. But be sure to be at home.

Socrates: I will be at home to you, unless there be some lady with me
who is dearer than yourself.

* * * * *

A speech attributed to the Greek orator Antiphon, who dates in the fifth
century B.C., involves a belief that love could be secured by the
administration of a potion.

The Attic orator is addressing the court:

The girl began to consider how she should administer the potion
to them, before or after dinner, and, on reflection, she decided
it would be better to give it after the meal. I will endeavor to
give you a brief account of how the potion was actually
administered. The two friends partook of a good dinner, as you
can imagine, the host having a sacrifice to offer to the god of
his household and the guest being on the eve of a sea voyage.
When they had finished, they made a libation and added thereto
some grains of incense. But while they were murmuring their
prayer, the concubine slipped the poison into the wine she was
pouring out for them: and furthermore, thinking that she was
doing something clever, she gave Philoneos an extra dose,
supposing that the more she gave the warmer would be his love
for her.

The important deduction that follows as a corollary from the above
passage is that the love-potion, mentioned without elaborate comment,
was already, in the fifth century B.C., a matter of common knowledge and
common use.

* * * * *

The plant called anciently telephilon was used by the Greeks for amatory
purposes. Botanically, it has been identified with the poppy: and by
some, with a kind of pepper tree. Theocritus, the Greek bucolic poet,
refers to its use in the third Idyll. A goatherd goes to the cave of his
sweet-heart Amaryllis. He tries to re-awaken her former love:

I learned my fate but lately, when upon my bethinking me whether
you loved me, not even did the poppy leaf coming in contact make
a sound, but withered away just so upon my soft arm.

Lovers were accustomed to guess by the poppy leaf placed between
forefinger and thumb of the left hand, and then struck by the right,
whether their love was reciprocated. If a loud crack was produced, it
was a propitious amatory omen.

* * * * *

Among the ancient authorities the virtues of plants and herbs and spices
and their medicinal curative powers and also their amatory impacts were
frequently enumerated, described, and classified. In this group belongs
Dioscorides, a Greek army surgeon who flourished in the first century
A.D. His comprehensive treatise on the subject, _De Materia Medica Libri
Quinque_, was for centuries consulted and used as a standard text. In
the Middle Ages the famous Portuguese Marrano physician Amatus Lusitanus
produced an excellent edition of Dioscorides. It was published, with
numerous woodcut illustrations, at Leyden in Holland, in 1558.

* * * * *

According to the _Enquiry into Plants_ by Theophrastus, and equally to
the _Materia Medica_ of the Greek army surgeon Dioscorides, cyclamen,
which is sowbread, had erotic properties. The root of the plant was used
as an ingredient in love-potions.

The plant itself produces colorful flowers, while the fleshy roots are
favored by swine: hence the old name of sowbread.

* * * * *

The Greek physician Dioscorides, who served as a surgeon in the army of
the Roman Emperor Nero, mentions, in his _Materia Medica_, mandrake as
being anciently considered efficacious in love philtres. He also alludes
to the practice in his own days, when a concoction of the root of
mandrake steeped in wine was judged to be a favorable love-potion.

* * * * *

In the furious and unceasing search for some product of the earth, some
fabricated distillation, some suddenly and miraculously discovered
triumphant panacea that would efficaciously induce virile activity, the
ancients grasped at any object that, by its mere outward and physical
conformation, might conceivably have some cryptic, symbolic association
with genital resemblances, and hence with amatory functions.

Such a resemblance was readily and gratefully found in the mandrake. The
mandrake, even in Biblical times, was credited with unique properties,
not least, with amatory stimulation.

Mandrake, or mandragore, which is botanically mandragora, mandragora
officinarum, is a tuber with purple flowers, dark-leaved. It is native
to Palestine, and hence has a Hebrew name, mentioned in Biblical
literature. It is called there dudaim, an expression associated
etymologically with _love_.

The peculiarity of mandrake is that it often assumes a human shape, the
limbs in particular being formed like human extremities.

From the earliest literary eras mandrake was a customary ingredient in
love-potions. Circe, the sorceress who appears in Homer’s _Odyssey_, was
traditionally an adept in concocting brews with mandrake infusions. So
intimately was her name linked with this man-shaped plant, that it
became known as _Circe’s plant_.

As later Biblical confirmation of the significance of mandrake, the
strange and moving episode of Jacob and Rachel and the employment of the
very effective mandrake may be mentioned.

There is a further suggestion of its use in the Song of Songs.

The Greeks and the Romans likewise were acquainted with mandrake and its
virtues. The Greeks considered the root an amatory excitant, and, by
association, called Aphrodite, who presided over amatory functions,
Mandragoritis, She of the Mandrake. Plutarch, the Greek philosopher and
biographer, alludes to the plant and its resemblance to human genitalia.
In his monumental encyclopedia, the _Natural History_, the Roman Pliny
the Elder similarly dwells on this likeness, and adds that when a
mandrake root that has grown into male genital form is found, it will
unquestionably secure feminine love.

Without interruption the tradition of the mandrake lingered through the
centuries. Old chroniclers allude to it. Woodcuts and illustrations in
medieval vellum-bound folios present readers with the horrifyingly
semi-human form of the plant. Sinister and abhorrent legends have grown
up around the plant, many of them associated with death, gibbets,
hangings, thieves.

Medieval folklore trusted to the consumption of the root as a reliable
help in conception. This belief is also confirmed by a seventeenth
century traveler. Sorcerers and alchemists and other occult
practitioners concocted their elixirs with the aid of mandrake.

The seventeenth century English herbalist, John Gerarde, refers to
mandrake in his _Herball or General Historie of Plantes_, and to its use
in conception, particularly in the case of barrenness. He merely touches
on its employment in amatory practices, but he is repulsed by the
prurient and salacious nature of these devices.

In these days, too, mandrake evidently has not been neglected as a
possible invigorating agent. In Greece and in Italy, folk beliefs in the
plant still survive, and are put into active practice.

* * * * *

Sexual and procreative capacity was such a primal, essential factor in
the old religious cults that, in classical mythology, Greek and Roman,
and in Egyptian and Asian cults as well, the bull, the most potent among
animals, was the ceremonial and pictorial symbol of this cosmic power.
The bull, in fact, was equated with divinity. The processional sacrifice
among the Romans, the taurobolium, highlighted the preeminence and the
reverence due to the bull. In Egypt, he appears as Apis, the bull-god.
He is also present in the Mithraic cult, and Mithra himself is
sculpturally represented as holding a bull and cutting its throat. The
bull was an expiatory sacrifice among the Germanic tribes, and also
among the Northmen. In the Orient, too, the bull is sacred among the
Japanese. Cows, also, have been no less venerated among the Greeks, the
Hebrews, and the Hindus.

* * * * *

An ancient Egyptian record, the Doulaq Papyrus, reveals, in the
translation by the famous Egyptologist Sir William Flinders Petrie, how
even in antiquity sexual passion was channeled, promoted, and
controlled: and how the cult of money and the phallic cult often went
hand in hand and were intimately linked together. So that religious
prostitution, the sacred erotic rites of pagan worship, transcended the
common activities of the public prostitute and assumed a hieratic,
reverential status.

This status is stressed and confirmed in the story of the sacred
prostitute or hierodule Thubui, who was approached by Setna-Khamois, son
of the Egyptian Pharaoh Usimares. In the papyrus the lavish richness of
the hierodule’s apartment is described, and the bloody conditions she
exacts from her passionate prospective lover.

* * * * *

In the barber shops and the perfumers’, in the furtive taverns and the
baths and eating places, in Greece and later on in Rome, the lower types
of prostitute plied their trade. They might ostensibly be musicians and
singers of a sort, but these qualifications were mere preliminaries to
their more intimate ministrations. The ways of these harlots, their
outlook, their training, their future, are described vividly in Lucian’s
Dialogues of the Courtesans and in Alciphron’s fictional letters. The
poets, too, have their say about this institution, and many of their
pieces, sensuous and sensual, erotic, scatological and lewd, are
preserved in the Greek Anthology and the Palatine Anthology. In the
collection known as The Girdle of Aphrodite, one of the pieces deals
with the theme of Lolita. Another describes the operations of a
masseuse. Others deal with amorous performances and reflect on love and
its price.

* * * * *

The ancient cult of Bacchus, the god of wine and fertility, was marked
by highly erotic rites and orgies and phallic manifestations. Bacchus
himself was equated with the Greek god Dionysus, whose characteristics
and functions were identical. Dionysus himself was associated with
certain animals that were reputedly extremely lascivious by nature or
erotically exceptionally dominant. Among these animals were: the bull,
the ass, the panther, and the goat. The right testis of the ass, for
instance, worn in a bracelet, was, according to the testimony of Pliny
the Elder, who produced an encyclopedic Natural History, and the Greek
physician Dioscorides, considered an effective sexual stimulant.

In many regions of ancient Greece, both on the mainland but particularly
in the islands of the Aegean Sea, the Dionysiac cult was prevalent and
passionately celebrated.

Euripides, the Greek tragic poet, presents a detailed and authoritative
picture of Bacchic ceremonies and beliefs in his drama The Bacchae.

* * * * *

Among the priests of ancient Chaldea, noted for its thaumaturgic
practices and esoteric cults, there was a tradition that the secretions
of the liver of young boys would be a restorative of physiological
vigor.

* * * * *

Among professional Greek and Roman courtesans, there were special
devices for provoking male interest. During entertainments, for
instance, drinking cups, made of earthenware, emitted a perfumed aura,
while the contents themselves, containing myrrh and pepper, were direct
stimulants.

* * * * *

In Asia Minor, some four millennia ago, the Sumerians flourished and
produced a high literary culture. There is still extant a love song,
chanted annually by the Sumerians, that is in the manner of the Biblical
_Song of Songs_. It is an exultant amatory paean, dedicated to Inanna,
the Sumerian goddess of love and procreation, who may be equated with
the Babylonian Astarte and the Greek Aphrodite.

* * * * *

Storgethron, a plant used in ancient Greece as an amatory medicine, has
been identified as the leek.

* * * * *

The root called surag was, in antiquity, held to have a stimulative
virtue.

* * * * *

The aromatic leaves of tarragon, which grows in South East Europe, is
considered, in addition to its use as a flavoring agent, as an amatory
aid.

* * * * *

The oil extracted from the fresh leaves of the ruta graveolens plant
produces an amatory excitation.

* * * * *

Both in ancient and in medieval days amatory virtues were attributed to
the plant known botanically as radix Chinae.

* * * * *

The juice of the plant spurge, in composition with other items such as
ginger, nettle seed, pellitory, cinnamon, and cardamom, is considered,
among Arabs, as highly provocative.

* * * * *

The aromatic leaves of sage had an amatory repute. So with tulip bulbs
and savory which the Romans knew as satureia.

* * * * *

Hierobota, or pisteriona, an herb mentioned by the medieval philosopher
Albertus Magnus, was credited with such potency that its mere possession
was said to act as a stimulant.

* * * * *

Pimpinella anisum, which is the botanical designation of anise, is
native to the Eastern Mediterranean region. The ancients knew anise, and
it was equally familiar to the Middle Ages, as a love attribute.

* * * * *

The testes of animals have always been popular in amatory preparations,
both for their symbolic implications and also for their genesiac value.
This was the case with the testes of lamb, deer, ram, and ass.

* * * * *

The head of the perch contains a number of small stones. These were
included in the amatory preparations devised by sorceresses.

* * * * *

A French physician, Mery, in a treatise entitled _Traité Universel des
Drogues Simples_, stated that the partes genitales of a rooster served
as a potent stimulus.

* * * * *

Partridge was, according to the old writer Platina, in his _De
Valetudine Tuenda_, believed, apart from its gastronomic relish, to
‘arouse the half-extinct desire for venereal pleasures.’

* * * * *

In antiquity, snails were consumed for amatory purposes. The Roman poets
refer to this practice. Even in modern times a concoction of snails,
boiled in parsley, garlic, and onions, and fried in oil and again in red
wine, is reputed to serve as a rejuvenating factor.

* * * * *

An ancient Egyptian device for achieving amatory efficiency involves a
magic procedure:

Take a band of linen, of sixteen threads. Four of them white.
Four, green. Four, blue. Four, red. Fasten all strands into one
band, and strain with hoopoe blood. Bind with scarab posed as
the sun-god wrapped in byssus. Bind to the body of the boy
attendant who holds the sacred vessel.

* * * * *

The worship of the phallus in antiquity was not originally the worship
of the human generative organs, but of the divine procreative faculty
symbolized by the genitalia of the sacred bull and the sacred goat: in
Egyptian religious terminology, by Apis and Priapis or Priapus
respectively.

In Greece, the phallus, originally symbolic of the goat or bull, was
attached, disproportionately and _a posteriori_, to a human figure: so
that the phallus, in the course of time, became erroneously associated
with human capacity.

* * * * *

The Athenian orator Isocrates postulated a maxim: What is improper to do
is improper to say. Yet a rigid adherence to this view would mean a
cessation of investigations of all kinds, of many historical records and
archives, mores, and often matter that would give enlightenment on human
traditions and the more intimate details of communal, tribal, or
national life, of ethnic distinctions, of cultural progression.

Hence it might be more advisable to adapt the postulate of Isocrates and
to introduce the proviso that whatever has been done or said or written
by men should normally and regularly be transmitted to later generations
or to wider circles, provided that this transmission is intended as a
contribution to a knowledge of the past, or of contiguous races, or of
disparate mores, and as a revealing exposition of what man performed in
earlier ages, and not as a prurient and lewd inducement to wallow in
scatological or libidinous depths for mere light or indifferent or
transitory entertainment.

The anthropologist, the archaeologist, the professional scholar, the
historian are, by virtue of their interests and training and their
occupations, constantly dealing with subjects that have either been
taboo in a general sense, or that involve the most secretive
physiological and emotional human situations.

* * * * *

The ancient cult of the stars merged with religious ceremonials and
religious beliefs, emerging in the zodiacal bull. This bull was
anciently equated with the sun in its most auspicious phase, in spring
time. The sun bull later became the actual bull itself, as in the Minoan
and the Mithraic cults, and also among the Egyptians. For the bull was
now definitely the symbol of creative potency, of cosmic fecundity and
perpetuation.

* * * * *

The energized, salient phallus was the supreme symbol of being and
fertility. In antiquity it had divine significance. It was carried in
religious processions in ancient Egypt, in Greece, in the Greek islands,
in Phoenicia, Assyria, and in Chaldea and Ethiopia. In Egypt, phalli,
made of porcelain, were worn on the person as periapts.

* * * * *

In their fulminations against pagan mores and the sexual and erotic
licentiousness and aberrations that were so prevalent in antiquity both
socially and religiously, the ancient writers themselves were so
descriptively forthright and detailed in their denunciations, that these
very assaults and condemnatory attacks constitute in themselves,
cumulatively, a vast corpus of circumstantial knowledge of ancient
salaciousness, prurience, perversions, and total abandonment of amatory
and sexual restraints. Among such witnesses and authorities were the
Church Fathers Tertullian, Arnobius, and Clement of Alexandria.

The religious practice of women submitting or rather offering themselves
to the priapic symbol, the phallus or lingam, dates back to millennia
before this era. Herodotus, the Greek historian, mentions it; also
Strabo the geographer, and the Church Father Clement of Alexandria.

* * * * *

Among the ancient Moabites, the god Baal-Peor, that was at one time
worshipped by the Israelites and then execrated, was an idol equated
with the Greek and Roman phallic Priapus.

* * * * *

The consciousness that in Nature, in the totality of the cosmic scheme,
and in human beings the love motif conditions all existence and the
continuance of being is manifest in the images, the religious rituals,
symbols, ceremonials, and sacrificial offerings of all peoples, in every
age, ancient and modern, in Greece and among the Romans, in
pre-conquered Mexico and in India, throughout the East and in the
Pacific Islands, and among the early tribal and racial denominations of
Europe—the Germani and the Suevi, the Galli and the Normanni.

* * * * *

On the banks of the Euphrates, in Syria, there was anciently a vast,
elaborate, richly decorated and endowed temple. At the entrance rose two
gigantic phalli, dedicated, as the inscription ran, by Bacchus to the
goddess Juno. Offerings were made to the phalli by the thronging
suppliants, while within the building numerous wooden phalli were
dispersed throughout the spacious interior. Similar images and rituals
were manifest in contiguous countries, in Phoenicia, Persia, and
Phrygia.

* * * * *

Throughout every polis and colony and settlement of ancient Greece, and
also in the regions of the Mediterranean littoral, in Egypt and the
Middle East, the phallus was a symbol of veneration always associated
with religious ritual, with hieratic traditions, and temple worship on a
wide and enthusiastic scale.

In Greece, there were the phallic hermae, enormous phalli attached to
pedestals, tree-trunks, boundary-markers. They were protective and
apotropaic, and where the phalli appeared, there would credibly be
fecundity and erotic consummation, generation and abundance, in man and
beast and throughout the cosmic design.

The phallus was variously named Priapus and Tutunus and Mutunus and
Fascinum and, in Hindu religious mythology, the lingam. Among the
esoteric Gnostics, Jao, the sun-god, equipped with ithyphallic force,
had properties akin to those of Priapus. Thus the generative, energizing
organs of virility, of the cosmic erotic impulse and of its purpose,
are, despite variations of name and epichorial traits and accretions,
basically comprehended under one concept, in all proto-history, in
verifiable history, and, by traditional progression, in later ages.

* * * * *

Antiquity, free from the modern attitude that makes demarcations between
what is obscene and what is not so, venerated the sexual act, and its
symbolic representation of the phallus, as significant of the universal
sense of generation and procreation. As a consequence, all sexual, all
amatory performances, references, allusions were accepted as an integral
element in human life, and involved no intrusive image of salaciousness,
prurience, lewdness.

This phallic reverence, in its widest and most sweeping sense, was
especially prevalent among the ancient Greeks. But it was not confined
to this people. It was prevalent in Asia Minor, among the Hittites and
the Sumerians, the Accadians and the Parthians, the Medes and the
Babylonians and the Phoenicians. It was prevalent in Egypt and the North
African littoral, and it was equally prevalent along the Mediterranean
coastal regions. In the Far East, particularly but not exclusively in
India, the cult of the phallus was a devout religious experience,
equated with the dominant cults of the cosmic deities.

In later ages, when the human body became as it were dichotomous in
function, the merely physiological acts began to be held in lesser
esteem, and even became condemnatory in status, open to reproach and
disdain, and even violent abuse and ill-treatment. The body, in fact,
became obscene, invested with evil forces, compounded of malefic and
defiled factors. The body was to be crushed and tortured and disfigured,
in order to release the spiritual complements of the human being. The
amatory acts were now turned into licentious and mephitic obscenities,
into bestial defilements, into unspeakable carnal and animal
manifestations of the lower nature. As a consequence, phallic worship,
the glorification of the creative principle embodied in the male and
female, went underground. And by the mere fact of going underground, it
persisted, with qualifications, acquiring through the course of time
veneers of secrecy, accretions of furtiveness, elements of ribaldry as a
kind of protective coat.

* * * * *

Essentially, the phallic symbol was anciently viewed as an amatory
agent, a generative stimulant, in as much as the phallus was cosmically
the source of all being. Therefore offerings were made to the phallus in
sacrificial rituals, just as to any other potent deity from whom
privileges and favors were sought. Libations of milk were a normal form
of offering to Priapus. Women, anxious to become mothers, stood
reverently and suppliantly in puris naturalibus before the all-potent
phalli, and in a further urgent procedure, performed the act of erotic
consummation with the aid of the lingam figure itself. For the phallus,
in a pose of lubricity, was the final appeal, the ultimate resort, of
the pleading, awed, reverential mortal.

* * * * *

Among cities where the generative force symbolized by the phallus was
held in deep veneration, were Orneae, Cyllene, and Colophon. Under the
later impact of Christianity, however, the phallic cult diminished in
its influence and extent, or was re-directed into other channels. In one
specific direction, the cult merged into the Orphic mysteries.

* * * * *

Erotic awareness never went further than in the case of a city in Troas
named Priapus, on account of its consecration to the cult of the
phallus. There were other cities too, according to the testimony of
Pliny the Elder, that were named Priapus for identical reasons. In the
Ceramic Gulf there was an island named Priaponese: and an island in the
Aegean Sea called Priapus.

* * * * *

A notorious incident in Greek history involved the nocturnal mutilation
of hermae, in 415 B.C. Hermae were bronze or marble pillars surmounted
by a head and a phallus. These marble figures appeared in the streets
and squares of Athens and other Greek cities.

Suspicion for the defilement and desecration of the hermae fell upon the
brilliant but wayward Athenian general and statesman Alcibiades and his
companions. As a result, Alcibiades was condemned to banishment.

* * * * *

The cult of Priapus and his obscene association with the genitalia of
the ass, the symbol of unbridled lust, were expounded in ancient fable
and legend. Other commentaries and explanations were added later by
Hyginus, who flourished in the first century A.D. Hyginus wrote on
religious subjects and mystic cults. Pausanias, the Greek traveler and
geographer, who belongs in the second century A.D., and Lactantius, the
fourth century Church Father, also dwelt on the subject.

* * * * *

Of all cities of ancient Greece, Lampsacus, situated on the banks of the
Hellespont, was most dedicated to the veneration of Priapus. In a
legendary fable it was demonstrated that the origin of the priapic cult
was Lampsacus itself.

* * * * *

In the Greek festival called Thargelia, celebrated in May, the rites
were dedicated to Apollo, the sun god, and to Diana, the moon goddess.
At the ceremonial there was a procession of youths who carried olive
branches hung with food, fruit, and images of phalli.

* * * * *

The genesiac theme, in its most lustful implication, was so prevalent in
early history that there was a sect, known as the Baptae, dedicated to
Cotytto, an obscene and lewd goddess. They celebrated their nocturnal
abominations at Athens, Corinth, in Thrace, and on the island of Chios.

One of the peculiar features of the Baptae was their custom of drinking
from glass vessels shaped like a phallus. Juvenal, the Roman satirist,
in describing the Baptae and their mystic and symbolic rites, refers to
one participant who drinks from a glass Priapus: vitreo bibit ille
Priapo.

* * * * *

According to the testimony of the Greek historian Herodotus, a certain
Melampus brought the cult of Bacchus, the worship of the generative
capacity, to Greece, approximately in the thirteenth century B.C. He
expounded the features of the Egyptian cult and established processional
rites and ceremonies adapted from Egyptian usage.

* * * * *

In ancient Greece Bacchus, the phallic divinity, was equated with
Dionysus. In the cities the Greater Dionysia, or the Urban Dionysia,
were celebrated in his honor for three days. The locale was at Limnae in
Attica, and the season was the middle of the month of March.

In very early times, the Greek biographer and philosopher Plutarch
declares, the rites were of a simple but joyous nature. But in his own
time the celebration had reached a lavish, extravagant splendor.

Women, devotees of the Bacchic symbol and known as Bacchantes,
introduced the ritualistic procession. Chaste maidens, impeccable in
morality and of distinguished birth, followed. These were the
Canephoroi, the Basket-bearers who bore on their heads baskets
containing the sacred utensils used at the celebration: together with
mystic objects, flowers, salt, sesame, and a flower-bedecked phallus. A
detachment came next to the Canephoroi: these were the Phallophoroi. The
Phallophoroi were the Phallus-bearers, carrying, attached to long
staffs, the phallic emblem.

Musicians were also in the march, chanting and accompanying the choral
odes with twanging strings, and at brief intervals emitting loud
exclamations in glorification of the god.

There were other strange participants. The Ithyphalli, men dressed in
women’s garments, who chanted salacious phallic songs. Scandalous satyrs
led goats for sacrifice, while Bacchantes performed obscene dance
movements. There was, over the entire celebration, an atmosphere of
debauchery and libidinous license consonant with the phallic context of
the cult.

* * * * *

In Carthage, a spot outside the city was consecrated to Astarte, the
goddess of generation, and called Sicca Veneria. Among the Phoenicians a
similar spot, intended for the same purpose, that is religious
fornication, was known as Siccoth Venoth.

* * * * *

In Biblical antiquity, the primary concept was for man to be fruitful
and multiply, and replenish the earth. To this end, concubinage was
consequently not frowned upon and was practiced _pari passu_ with
marriage. Maid servants were commonly taken by their masters as
concubines, as in the case of Hagar, and also in that of Reumah. Lot
even gave his maiden daughters for the satisfaction of the lustful
inhabitants of Sodom. Later, he committed incest with these daughters.

The servant women of Jacob, Bilhah and Zilpah, became his concubines.
These are instances, among many others, that illustrate cases of
adultery and fornication that do not appear to have had a condemnatory
stigma or reproach attached to them. For the object in these
circumstances was procreation and propagation and that was the primal
function enjoined upon man.

The corollary is that sterility is a personal reproach in Biblical
times, a social defect that is looked upon with opprobrium, particularly
in Oriental countries.

* * * * *

In Spain, the phallic cult was practiced under the name of Hortanes.
This cult is mentioned by the Roman epic poet, Silius Italicus, in his
_Punica_. He describes the orgiastic revels of Satyrs and Maenads in
nocturnal rites in honor of the Hispanic fascinum.

In the South of France, also, and in Belgium, excavations unearthed
relics, monuments, amulets and other artifacts, bas-reliefs and
antiquities of various kinds, all testifying to the ancient cult of
Priapus and his functions and the deep and wide reverence for his
omnipotence. In Germany, Priapus lost the somewhat indulgent character
of a phallic and generative deity responsive to supplication and
promise, and became a violent, blood-lusting monstrosity. In parts of
Eastern Europe, again, Priapus became Pripe-Gala, sanguinary and
destructive.

* * * * *

Ancient Armenia had a deity analogous to Priapus or Aphrodite or
Astarte. She was known as Diana Anaïtis, and her cult involved temple
prostitution. The same practice, on the testimony of the Greek historian
Herodotus, was in vogue in Lydia. Another writer, the Roman geographer
Pomponius Mela, who belongs in the first century A.D., has similar
references in the case of an African people called the Augilae.

Again, the practice was prevalent at Naucratis, in Egypt.

* * * * *

The phallic cult, that was originally consecrated to the propagation of
all things, in as much as the fascinum itself symbolized the sacred
regeneration of all Nature, in time degenerated so that only the phallus
as such became the symbol of lust and passion and debauchery. It became
the emblem of excesses in erotic encounters, the sign of the prostitute.
Priapus actually became an object of some contempt, a humble scarecrow
of the fields, chthonic guardian of the orchards, a subject of coarse
ribaldry, as is testified in the Latin corpus of poems known under the
name of Priapeia.

* * * * *

The lascivious mores of the Egyptians under the guise of veneration of
the priapic bull Apis, and their obscene dances, rituals, and similar
performances are described and commented on in great detail by Herodotus
in his History of the Persian Wars.

* * * * *

The genitalia and all references to the phallic image were in very
ancient times held in such sacred esteem and reverence that in Biblical
literature the inviolable sanctity of an oath was ratified by touching
the area of the genitalia, or the thigh, to use the Biblical euphemism.
The Hebrews especially held the generative organs in the greatest
respect, socially, ethnically, and religiously: and nudity as a
consequence was a matter of shameful stigma and opprobrium.

Among the Moslems too the most binding oath was taken with respect to
the sanctity of the genitalia.

* * * * *

In Egypt, in the temple of Isis, sacred prostitution was a regular
religious practice. Reference to this circumstance is made by the Roman
satirist, Juvenal, who calls Isis a procuress and her shrine a
rendez-vous for adulterous and libidinous practices.

* * * * *

Among symbolic emblems that represented, in combination, the male and
female principles of generation and fecundity, were the Egyptian crux
ansata and the seal of Solomon.

* * * * *

The phallic symbol was so pervasive, so potent, in the lives of the
ancients, that the priapic function and the erotic variations of the
generative performance were pictorially represented in every conceivable
form of reproduction: scenes on vases representing perverted
consummations: baskets filled with phalli that were offered for sale to
yearning women: ithyphallic figures: monuments, lamps and other objects
depicting orgiastic lubricities.

* * * * *

In Ezekiel 16.17 there is a reference to the phallic figure: Fecisti
tibi imagines masculinas et fornicata es in eis.

* * * * *

In one of the bucolic Idyls of the Greek poet Theocritus (c. 310–c. 250
B.C.) the maiden Simaetha, in love with Delphis, who has abandoned her,
attempts to regain his love by performing certain magic rites and making
invocations to Selene, Aphrodite, and the horrendous Hecate.

She fashions a wax image of Delphis and by sympathetic magic anticipates
the melting of his heart in correspondence with the melting of the
image.

In addition, she makes use of the magic wheel, and her refrain
throughout the performance is:

My magic wheel, draw home to me
The man I love!

Intertwined with these rituals is the further refrain, addressed to
Selene, the moon goddess:

Bethink thee of my love,
And whence it came,
My Lady Moon!

* * * * *

In his _De Sanitate Tuenda Praecepta_, Advice on keeping Well, Plutarch,
the Greek philosopher and biographer, comments on lust and potions:

While we loathe and detest women who contrive philtres and magic to use
upon their husbands, we entrust our food and provisions to hirelings and
slaves to be all but bewitched and drugged. If the saying of Arcesilaus,
addressed to the adulterous and licentious, appears too bitter, to the
effect that ‘it makes no difference whether a man practices lewdness in
the front parlor or in the back hall,’ yet it is not without its
application to our subject. For in very truth, what difference does it
make whether a man employ aphrodisiacs to stir and excite licentiousness
for the purpose of pleasure or whether he stimulate his taste by odors
and sauces to require, like the itch, continual scratchings and
ticklings.

(Loeb)

* * * * *

In Greek mythology, Andromache, the wife of the Trojan warrior Hector,
was accused by Hermione, wife of Neoptolemus, of gaining his love by
means of love-potions. Euripides, the tragic poet (c. 485–406 B.C.),
refers to the situation in his drama _Andromache_:

Not of my philtres thy lord hateth thee,
But that thy nature is no mate for his.
That is the love-charm: woman, ’tis not beauty
That witcheth bridegrooms, nay, but nobleness.

* * * * *

Philtres were in actual use beyond mythological times. Xenophon (c.
430–354 B.C.), the Greek historian, author of _Memorabilia_, alludes to
the practice:

“They say,” replied Socrates, “that there are certain
incantations which those who know them chant to whomsoever they
please, and thus make them their friends; and that there are
also love potions which those who know them administer to whomso
they will; and are in consequence loved by them.”

* * * * *

Propertius, however, the Roman elegiac poet (c. 48 B.C.–16 B.C.), refers
to the futility of love potions:

Here herbs are of no avail,
nor nocturnal Cytaeis,
nor grasses brewed by the
hand of Perimede.

Cytaeis is the witch Medea: while Perimede is another witch, called by
Homer Agamede.

* * * * *

The Bacchic cult in Egypt is described by the Greek historian Herodotus
in Book 2 of his _History of the Persian Wars_:

To Bacchus, on the eve of his feast, every Egyptian sacrifices a
hog before the door of his house, which is then given back to
the swineherd by whom it was furnished, and by him carried away.
In other respects the festival is celebrated almost exactly as
Bacchic festivals are in Greece, excepting that the Egyptians
have no choral dances. They also use instead of phalli another
invention, consisting of images a cubit high, pulled by strings,
which the women carry round to the villages. A piper goes in
front, and the women follow, singing hymns in honor of Bacchus.
They give a religious reason for the peculiarities of the image.

* * * * *

In Book 5 of _The History of the Persian Wars_, Herodotus describes some
of the marital customs of the Thracians:

The Thracians who live above the Crestonaeans observe the
following customs. Each man among them has several wives; and no
sooner does a man die than a sharp contest ensues among the
wives upon the question, which of them all the husband loved
most tenderly; the friends of each eagerly plead on her behalf,
and she to whom the honor is adjudged, after receiving the
praises both of men and women, is slain over the grave by the
hand of her next of kin, and then buried with her husband. The
others are sorely grieved, for nothing is considered such a
disgrace.

The Thracians who do not belong to these tribes have the customs which
follow. They sell their children to traders. On their maidens they keep
no watch, but leave them altogether free, while on the conduct of their
wives they keep a most strict watch. Brides are purchased of their
parents for large sums of money.... The gods which they worship are but
three, Mars, Bacchus, and Dian.

* * * * *

An ancient Hittite text contains invocations and rituals intended to
remedy conditions of incapacity or lack of erotic desire.

A sacrifice is performed to Uliliyassis, continuing for three days. Food
is prepared: sacrificial loaves, grain, a pitcher of wine. The shirt of
the male suppliant is brought forth.

The suppliant bathes. He twines cords of red and of white wool. A sheep
is sacrificed. An invocation is made, beseeching help and favor: Come to
this man, the cry arises. Come down to this man. Make his wife conceive
and let him beget sons and daughters.

* * * * *

An Egyptian love song, belonging in the second millennium B.C., is still
extant. The love song was usually chanted to a musical accompaniment.
The lover is addressed as sister, or brother.

The heart is sick from love, laments the victim, and no physician, no
magician can heal this disease, except the appearance of the sister.
There is abundant reference to spices, to myrrh and incense, and the
tone of the amatory supplications and yearnings is the tone of the Song
of Songs. Listlessness on the part of the love-sick suppliant is
banished, as soon as he beholds his beloved, as soon as her arms open in
embrace.

* * * * *

In ancient orgiastic cults, particularly those dedicated to Dionysus and
to the Syrian Baal, religious frenzies were accompanied or stimulated by
drugs, fermented drink, by rhythmic dance movements, by tambourine,
drum, and flute music that culminated in ecstatic self-mutilation
followed by wild sexual debaucheries.

* * * * *

Passion, lust, incest, fornication, adultery, as well as concubinage and
polygamy, most of the sexual perversions and aberrations that are now
included under medico-psychiatric categories, occur in the Bible, in
both Testaments.

King David married eight women. On his flight from Absalom he left ten
concubines behind him. Jacob had two wives. King Solomon had seven
hundred wives and three hundred concubines.

There are instances of enduring affection too, as in the case of Jacob,
who labored for Rachel for fourteen years.

There is sudden, rapturous love at first sight, at all costs:

It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch
and was walking upon the roof of the king’s house, that he saw
from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.
And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is
not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite?”

So David sent messengers and took her, and he lay with her.

Amnon is overwhelmed by a passionate infatuation for his half sister
Tamar. He was so tormented that he made himself sick because of his
sister. He is advised by his friend Jonadab to go to bed and claim
illness. Tamar brings him food and at this point Amnon attempts
seduction. When she suggests an approach to the king, for permission to
marry Amnon, his lust overpowers him, and he consummates his passion.
After which, in a frenzy of hate, he banishes her.

The Song of Solomon is a paean to sexual love, an erotic exultation, the
apogee of amatory sensuality.

In the New Testament, too, there is frequent reference to harlots and
debauchees and to a variety of ‘sinners.’

* * * * *

Babylonian customs, in addition to the rites of temple prostitution,
included both male and female sacred concubines. There was considerable
pre-marital sexual freedom. But there was also monogamous marriage
involving rigid fidelity. Trial marriage was acknowledged. Adultery was
punished by drowning the guilty wife. In the degenerative days of
Babylon, morality broke down. Male prostitutes rouged their cheeks and
bedecked themselves with jewelry, while the poor exposed their daughters
to prostitution. Sensuality and erotic libertinage became dominant and
pervasive.

* * * * *

Among the Canaanites the most potent deities—Baal and El and
Asherah—were the symbols of procreation and sexuality. Hence, all acts,
all objects, all rituals associated with copulation, with the phallus,
with fecundity were divinely inspired and inherently sacred. Ceremonials
dedicated to the deities invariably included sexual activity, sacred and
ecstatic orgies. The voluptuous and sensual character of the dedicatory
rites was evidently so appealing that they lured the Israelites into
acceptance and imitation, for the deity of the Israelites was one,
supreme, without kin, without consort, without sexuality.

* * * * *

The New Testament attacks pagans, particularly Roman paganism, for
unnatural sexual practices, lusts, and corrupt and degenerate mores.

* * * * *

In primitive Greek society, under a primal matriarchy, the male
functioned as a kind of passive sexual partner, and virtually thereafter
as a domestic drudge.

But in the course of the centuries the male acquired dominance, in the
divine pantheon, and equally on a mortal and earthly plane, politically,
socially, and domestically.

But the concept of the inter-relationship of the sexes grew into a
concept of one primary harmonious principle of aesthetics, of essential
perfection of beauty, irrespective of sex and hence irrespective of any
compulsive admiration and appreciation of such beauty by one sex or the
other. Beauty became an entity in itself, a sexless trait. In the
Platonic dialogue, in fact, in the _Symposium_, the theory is postulated
that man was at one time androgynous.

The Greek hetaira or male companion was virtually a prostitute.
Sometimes she acquired a more permanent status, when she was bought by a
master and became a _pallakis_ or concubine.

Homosexuality, on the other hand, brought no stigma to the boys or young
men involved in the practice. Because homosexuality was a corollary,
applied in practice, of the primary concept of aesthetic beauty
irrespective of sex.

In the case of women, there was the corresponding though possibly not so
widespread cult of tribadism.

* * * * *

The Romans cultivated sexuality, particularly in a heterosexual
direction, with great vigor and lustfulness. It was largely through the
growing consciousness of Rome as an imperial power, and through the
increase in industry and commerce, in wealth and consequent luxury and
idleness, that perversions of all kinds increased and multiplied to such
an abnormal extent that in the first century A.D. the Romans themselves,
through their own poets, commented on the situation and contrasted it,
with some sense of nostalgia, with the severe and rigid and essentially
stabilized moral code that prevailed in the old pre-imperial days.

* * * * *

During the Roman Empire, with the increase of childless families, women
were able to give more scope to their femininity, their sexual appeal,
and their erotic allurements. As a consequence, there was an upsurge of
marital license, on the part of both husband and wife, but notoriously
so in the case of the women. This situation reached the most shameless
depths, as the poet Juvenal testifies: and as the Church Fathers later
on asserted, in their wholesale condemnations of pagan practices.

Early in the first century A.D. the insidious decline of domestic
morality became so manifest that imperial decrees required marriage in
the case of men under sixty and of women under fifty: and these
ordinances also restricted the freedoms of bachelorhood.

Marriage was thus officially encouraged, and large families were granted
special privileges and monetary awards from the imperial treasury. But
these and similar measures were abortive in their primary purpose. For
prostitution flourished and grew and became so flagrant and yet so
characteristically identified with later Roman society that there were
at least a score of designations for the public harlot, according to her
social status, her price, and her locale. Thus lust and eros were
rampantly triumphant.

Harlotry was manifestly rife in Old Testament days, for there is
repeated allusion to the practice: in the symbolism of Oholah and
Oholibah, in the Psalms and in the prophets, particularly Isaiah and
Jeremiah, in the Book of Judges, and in Samuel.

In addition, there is mention of the allurements of the harlot: her
chamber fragrant and enticing with spices and perfumes, aloes and myrrh
and cinnamon.

There is reference to the personal seductive persuasiveness of the
harlot’s coaxing words, the urgency of her erotic devices.

* * * * *

The Old Testament mentions and illustrates the morality involved in
sexual impulses resulting in physiological consummations. Under certain
circumstances, stoning the guilty pair was enjoined. In some cases, the
man only was punished, by death. In other situations the man who spurned
the woman after carnally knowing her was whipped and fined one hundred
shekels of silver. For fornication, the death penalty was normally
enforced. Sacred prostitution in the temple, too, whether affecting male
or female, was prohibited.

* * * * *

Homosexuality and sacred male prostitution are both known to the Bible.
In Deuteronomy there is an injunction against the sons of Israel
becoming sacred prostitutes. The abominations of Sodom receive ample
treatment. Even transvestism is prohibited, for it suggests sexual
dubiety, physiological ambiguity, and a possible merging of the sexes, a
potential elimination of the sexual demarcations. Other amatory
abnormalities also appear in Biblical contexts, among them: rape,
voyeurism, and bestiality.

* * * * *

With the onset of the Hellenistic Age, concurrent with Alexander the
Great’s death in 323 B.C., the Mysteries, the exclusive secretive cults,
advanced in importance and in the extent of their influence. Many of
these cults came from the East and merged, with adaptations and various
amplifications or modifications, into the Greek and Roman religious
sphere. The cult of Cybele, Magna Mater Deorum, the Mighty Mother of the
gods, was most dominant, transcending all other cults and to some degree
absorbing them. In addition, there were the cults of Sabazios, of
Mithras, of Isis and Osiris. These cults bound the initiates to close
secrecy: and thus only occasional fragments, hints, references from
various sources can present any degree of coherence and design in the
cults. It is known that there were dramatic presentations involving
communion with the deities, dark rites and ceremonials, even vague
adumbrations of the concept of immortality, as well as castigation and
castration, fertility symbolisms and seasonal fructifying cycles. There
were, further, the Gnostics, searchers for divine knowledge. Some of
these speculative cosmologists were scrupulously ascetic in every sense,
while others orgiastically indulged, toward the attainment of the same
end, in fleshly passions.

* * * * *

At the Greek celebration of the Phallophoria, leather or wooden
representations of the phallus were carried processionally through the
public streets of the polis. It was the thematic manifestation of
all-embracing fertility, on land, among the beasts of the fields, and in
human relationships. It was a kind of visual paean, in fact, to the
primal sexual impulse, to the basic erotic conflict.

* * * * *

One of the earliest instances of multiple incest occurs in Book 10 of
Homer’s _Odyssey_, in which Odysseus describes his visit to Aeolus.
Aeolus has a family of six daughters and six sons, and he has given his
daughters in marriage to his own sons.

* * * * *

In Greece the Aphrodision, and in Rome the Venereum, were the private
bordellos that were not used by the general indiscriminate public.

* * * * *

Both in antiquity and in later ages the public baths, with both sexes in
nude contacts in the _balnea mixta_, were a direct amatory stimulant. As
further provocatives, there was, in particular cases, bathing in asses’
milk, in essences of myrtle and lavender, in rose water, in almond paste
and in honey water, and also in champagne.

* * * * *

In Greece, the phallus was so pervasive as a genesiac symbol in every
phase of daily life, that there were loaves baked in phallic form. These
loaves were known, for another erotic reason, as olisbokolices.

* * * * *

Drillopotae were glass vessels in phallic form. They were used, in
ancient Rome, as drinking cups: and thus were an added erotic reminder
at banquets and similar gatherings.

* * * * *

In Roman antiquity the color yellow was associated with prostitutes, and
was a symbol of their profession. Yellow still retained this
significance in the Central European countries in later ages. In Tsarist
Russia, the yellow ticket was the official prostitute’s occupational
token. Alexander Kuprin’s _Yama the Pit_ describes the situation in a
vivid and grim narrative.

* * * * *

Figurae Veneris is a Latin expression meaning _positions of Venus_. This
phrase refers to the range of sexual positions. The Greeks were familiar
with some seventy such permutations and manipulations. There were the
symplegma and the catena, which involved more than two partners, and the
dodekamechanon. Hesychius the Greek lexicographer, Philaenis, and, among
the Romans, the poet Martial mention these contortions. In the Middle
Ages, the licentious poet Pietro Aretino produced a poetic commentary on
the entire extent of erotic possibilities.

Among periapts and amulets that were credited with promoting erotic
activity were charms in the shape of an extended hand, a wild boar, the
head of a bull, astrological signs; magic formulas too, inscribed on
various objects; the crux ansata, and genitalia.

* * * * *

Among erotic pieces that are no longer extant are certain elegiac poems,
of an amatory type, attributed formerly to Plato the philosopher. An
ancient Roman poet named Laevius wrote an erotopaegnion. Apuleius, the
Roman philosopher and novelist, produced a number of amatory epigrams.
These references, together with others that include Vergil’s _Aeneid_
and the _Georgics_, are made by the Roman poet Ausonius himself.

He adds, also, that, like Martial and other poets, his life is
unblemished though his verses may be dubious:

Igitur cui hic ludus noster non placet, ne legerit: aut cum
legerit, obliviscatur: aut non oblitus, ignoscat.

* * * * *

Phallic priests were called phallobatai. Not only Priapus, but other
deities as well in ancient Greece, were worshipped with erotic fervor.
Among these were Phanes, Lordon, and Orthanes.

* * * * *

[Illustration:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

LOVE AND PSYCHE

_by Rodin_
]

[Illustration:

Philadelphia Museum of Art

THE ABDUCTOR

_by Rodin_
]

Philodemus of Gadara, who flourished in the first century B.C., was a
Greek poet who settled in Rome. He became an intimate of powerful
political forces, and also gathered around him a coterie of Romans
interested in philosophy and literature. Among other works, mostly of a
philosophical nature, Philodemus produced erotic pieces marked by
extreme lewdness. Some twenty-five of these epigrams are still extant,
collected in the corpus known as the _Anthologia Palatina_. These poems
became popular in Rome and were imitated by both Horace and Ovid.

* * * * *

As an erotic stimulus, Greek women wore diaphanous thin-spun robes made
of silk from the island of Cos. In Rome, similarly, prostitutes
sometimes wore a toga vitrea—a glassy or transparent toga. There were,
too, vestes sericae—silk dresses, in feminine use.

All such robes, of course, were of a purposely revealing and tantalizing
nature, acting upon the viewer in a marked amatory direction. Seneca,
the Roman Stoic philosopher, makes blunt and condemnatory remarks on the
custom.

* * * * *

In Athens, there was an old quarter of the city dedicated to
prostitution of the lowest type. This area was known as the Ceramicus.

* * * * *

The agents who acted as intermediaries, as panders and procurers and
enticers in the furtive sexual commerce, in the seamy undercurrents of
ancient life, were known under various descriptive designations. In
Greece, there were the maulis and the draxon, the karbis and the
proagogos, the mastropos, the prokyklis and the nymphagogos and the
pornoboscos. Romans had their own counterparts: the professional
procurer, the leno, the mercator meretricius, the admissarius and the
institor, the lenonum minister, the perductor and the conductor: and,
among the female operatives, the agaga and the stimulatrix, the
conciliatrix and the stupri sequestra.

* * * * *

Phallic symbols enter into the Biblical context in I Kings, where Judah
is described as building high places and pillars on every high hill.
These pillars were actually phallic symbols, in the style of the
abominations of the Canaanite cults.

* * * * *

In antiquity, in Biblical and post-Biblical times, the woman, in the
widest sense, was the amatory slave of man. But with the woman’s
increase of knowledge in erotic skills and practices, in the secrets of
her potent physiological attractions, in the use of unguents and
cosmetics, potions and concoctions, in corporeal and mechanistic
allurements and seductions, the woman’s status gradually rose and
extended and became all-embracing. Slowly, by virtue of these very
artifices and techniques, by means of gyrations and gestures,
provocative dances and tantalizing dress, silent invitations and ocular
speech, she began to dominate man, to render him subservient and even
obsequious, to control his habits and inclinations and tendencies in
social and political directions: until woman, reaching the apogee of her
power, based primarily on her erotic compulsiveness, became the woman
behind the throne. She had attained her highest end, her ultimate
destiny, as the implicit director of human activities. She usurped man’s
status, and assumed the regal baton. She manipulated kings and sultans,
and her endearments were bought at the price of nations. She decided the
fate of empires by her mere brusque whims, or personal resentment, her
unpredictable likes. Man exchanged realms and justice for her amatory
acquiescence, her erotic beneficence.

* * * * *

In a formal religious-ceremonial sense, antiquity acknowledged
participation of women in the sacred temples. In Asia Minor, in the
cults of Baal-Peor, in the Egyptian cults of Isis and Osiris, in the
Mediterranean Hellenic islands where the cult of Aphrodite in various
forms and of analogous deities of passion and lust and procreation was
prevalent, in the case of the Vestal guardians of the Roman state
religion, priestesses took part in the hieratic rituals, in festive
ceremonials, in sacrificial and processional rites.

Even with the advent of Christianity the Greek church in the East had
its female votaries, while deaconesses were normally attached to the
Church in the West. In the course of time, however, this acquiescence in
a female priesthood turned into resentment, into hate, and finally into
bitter and continuous official condemnation. Woman became the evil
daemon, the essence of every malefic, licentious, forbidden, obscene
practice, the sink of turpitude, the scourge of men, the destruction of
humanity. Thus many early Fathers of the Church, Tertullian and Arnobius
and Clement of Alexandria, inveigh against the serpentine machinations
of woman. Hence this view and these attitudes were transmitted into the
Middle Ages. In these middle centuries woman is depicted as the ally of
Satanic forces, powerful on account of her very femininity, her presumed
innocent frailty. She is essentially guileful and treacherous, amoral
and immoral, and bent on the spiritual subjugation and desecration of
perplexed man. Woman became the symbol of all sin, the prototype of
every sacrilegious concept. She was stripped of a soul. She was in
league with the demoniac tenebrous forces, the Satanic legions that
furtively and thaumaturgically work their evil spells on man. She
became, in short, the Anti-Christ incarnate, the Abominable Witch,
consort of horned and hoofed Satan. And her attractions, her feminine
beauty, were merely distorted and insidious forms of her fundamental
iniquities.

* * * * *

Woman was conceived as attaining her sanguinary or lustful purposes by
means of feminine stratagems or conspiratorial schemes, by personal
ruthlessness that swept aside all frustrations, all moralities, and
stopped neither at poisoning nor at murder. The roster of such women, in
the stream of universal history, is long and challenging. It includes,
among many others equally notorious, equally branded, Lilith and
Cleopatra, Claudia and Messalina, Antonina and Theodora, Catherine of
Russia and Elizabeth Bathory, Madame de Montespan and Lady Kyteler, the
Borgias and Isobel Gowdie, Jeannette Biscar: and, in goetic contexts,
Sagana, Canidia, and Oenothea.

* * * * *

Aphrodite had many forms, multiple aspects of her functions and her
patronage, numberless descriptive designations, both in Greece itself
and in the cults of Asia Minor where her attributes were equated with
the properties of analogous and indigenous divinities. But basically she
was one, the universal, the cosmic force that dominates all amatory
contacts, that drives men, intent votaries of the goddess and bent on
adherent dedication to her offices, to the realization of her
injunctions at all costs, resorting to charms and mystic recipes, to
fantastic interpretations of precious stones and flowers, to talismans
and amatory manuals, grimoires, exotic herbs and insidious preparations.

* * * * *

For centuries man and woman have displayed mutual hostilities and
resentments in a number of directions: personally and socially,
politically and spiritually. Yet there appears a strange dichotomy in
this human pair of male and female. They have despised each other and
have sought each other, as Plato suggests in one of his more fanciful
moments. The mutual act of racial procreation merged and was
subsequently largely lost in the erotic consummations itself. So that,
as the complexities of life grew, and as its manifestations multiplied
and offered man a variety of experiences, motifs, recreational
facilities and diversions, the woman as such came into her own, and
Aphrodite established her sacred and profane sanctuaries at the
crossroads, in sundered islands of the Aegean Sea, on the highways, in
luxurious retreats, and in rural fastnesses. And, casting aside all
spiritualities in man’s search for a teleological significance to
existence, made Eros the alpha and omega, the final purpose, of cosmic
being.

* * * * *

Initiation into the cult of Aphrodite was known by the Greek expression
mysterion: the mystery. The participants, the mystai, after bathing in
the sea—and the sea itself was symbolic, for it was the source of
Aphrodite’s own birth—, they assembled in the evening in the Mystery
Hall. Torches were lit, casting flitting shadows and tenebrous shapes
through the chamber.

Then the ritual began. There were recitals by the initiates. Sacred
objects were shown to the awed gathering, as well as certain phenomena
about which too little knowledge has been transmitted. Then some kinds
of performances were presented, all associated with the portentous
relation between mortals, striving toward passionate intimacy with the
divinity, and the puissant deity herself.

Three degrees of initiation were in force: the first initiate approach:
the preliminary stage: and the highest rites. This final ritual, it is
believed, brought into communion the adept and the deity. Erotic and
sexual symbols were dominant factors in this ceremonial.

In this mystic cult of the goddess, the hierodule, the courtesan, is the
intermediary between the suppliant and the divinity. She is the sexual
passport, so to speak, that leads to the more secretive ritual of the
Aphroditic temple.

There is, in the course of this rite, the necessity for a purgation, a
purification by water. There is a reference to such an initiation in the
Roman poet Juvenal’s second satire. He speaks of a mystic sect called
the Baptae. This expression derives from the Greek baptizo, dipping in
water. The Baptae drank, as an element in their ritual, powerful liquids
from phallus-shaped vessels. These Baptae were devotees of Cotytto, an
obscene and salacious goddess.

Women were not admitted to the Aphroditic rites: but, strangely, the men
came robed as women, painted and powdered and reeking in exotic
perfumes. Subsequently, they dedicated themselves to every form of
sexual subtlety.

In another more advanced stage of initiation, where physical love became
sublimated, Aphrodite was in this phase the Syrian goddess Derceto or
Atargatis: the half woman, half fish deity. Basically she was a
fertility goddess, sometimes called Dea Syria, the Syrian goddess, the
universal divinity. Her cult is described by the Greek writer Lucian:
and Apuleius, the Roman philosopher and novelist, speaks about her
priests, the wandering Galli:

How the Priests of the Goddesse Siria Were Taken and Put in
Prison.

After that we had tarried there a few dayes at the cost and charges of
the whole Village, and had gotten much mony by our divination and
prognostication of things to come: The priests of the goddesse Siria
invented a new meanes to picke mens purses, for they had certaine lofts,
whereon were written: Coniuncti terram proscindunt boves ut in futurum
laeta germinent sata: that is to say. The Oxen tied and yoked together,
doe till the ground to the intent it may bring forth his increase: and
by these kind of lottes they deceive many of the simple sort, for if one
had demanded whether he should have a good wife or no, they would say
that his lot did testifie the same, that he should be tyed and yoked to
a good woman and have increase of children. If one demanded whether he
should buy lands and possession, they said that he should have much
ground that should yeeld his increase. If one demanded whether he should
have a good and prosperous voyage, they said he should have good
successe, and it should be for the increase of his profit. If one
demanded whether hee should vanquish his enemies, and prevaile in
pursuite of theeves, they said that this enemy should be tyed and yoked
to him: and his pursuite after theeves should be prosperous. Thus by the
telling of fortunes, they gathered a great quantity of money, but when
they were weary with giving of answers, they drave me away before them
next night, through a lane which was more dangerous and stony then the
way which we went the night before, for on the one side were quagmires
and foggy marshes, on the other side were falling trenches and ditches,
whereby my legges failed me, in such sort that I could scarce come to
the plaine field pathes. And behold by and by a great company of
inhabitants of the towne armed with weapons and on horseback overtooke
us, and incontinently arresting Philebus and his Priests, tied them by
the necks and beate them cruelly, calling them theeves and robbers, and
after they had manacled their hands: Shew us (quoth they) the cup of
gold, which (under the colour of your solemne religion) ye have taken
away, and now ye thinke to escape in the night without punishment for
your fact. By and by one came towards me, and thrusting his hand into
the bosome of the goddesse Siria, brought out the cup which they had
stole. Howbeit for all they appeared evident and plaine they would not
be confounded nor abashed, but jesting and laughing out the matter, gan
say: Is it reason masters that you should thus rigorously intreat us,
and threaten for a small trifling cup, which the mother of the Goddesse
determined to give to her sister for a present? Howbeit for all their
lyes and cavellations, they were carryed back unto the towne, and put in
prison by the Inhabitants, who taking the cup of gold, and the goddesse
which I bare, did put and consecrate them amongst the treasure of the
temple.

* * * * *

Aphrodite exacted from her devotees certain prescribed ceremonies,
testimonies to their communion with the goddess, palpable evidences of
their total mystic and spiritual absorption in the sacraments she
demanded of her votaries.

The ritual followed an established design. At sunset the catechumen is
conducted to the temple. Then, facing the East, the priest raises his
left hand skyward and with his right he seizes a bronze knife, plunges
it into boiling water, and then performs the ritual sexual rite with
respect to the catechumen.

Then followed solemn and hieratic instruction in the amatory procedures,
including the methods of arousing erotic sensibilities, provocative
postures and gestures, words and formulas, osculation and its pervasive
corporeal significance. There were, furthermore, illustrative
consummations, considered without lewdness, but accepted as formal
elements in the grave cosmic scheme. There was a musical accompaniment
that softly intertwined in the sequence of the various rituals and
presentations, a kind of amatory, seductive litany, enfolding the entire
ceremonial in a sacred aura of mysticism. In the concluding phase of
these rites, there appeared the phallic procession, the symbolic
glorification of the creative urge, and the actual illustration of this
potency culminated in an abandoned sexual orgy, indiscriminate and
incestuous, exultant and fleshly, carnal and spiritual in one fervid
syncretism. A concomitant of this vast sensual exhibition, this release
of the physical carapace, was prostitution itself, which for long
retained a ritualistic character.

The next step in this genesiac process was sacred prostitution, whereby
the woman symbolized the solemnity and the compulsiveness of the
Aphroditic cult, while the man was the visitant, a suppliant for the
favor of the divinity. And the hierodule thus was a kind of prototype,
associated with wise skills, a vestal of the goddess, initiating men
into secret amatory and sacred rituals: an adept too in concocting love
philtres to further genesiac exultation, to induce total participation
in a sort of Aphroditic gnosticism.

* * * * *

The Aphroditic injunction embraced, in a sense, the entire cosmos. It
involved primarily self-love, love of being, awareness of the
significant entity, the ego itself, marked by dignity, by esteem. Then
followed the love of the social milieu of which one formed part, and of
the impulse to maintain its equilibrium by contributing one’s own
efforts, one’s personal function, to the totality of the social frame.
Lastly, there was a kind of all-embracing, comprehensive cosmic love,
directed to a synthesis of corporeal love that mystically rose to a
sublimated spiritual-amatory zone.

* * * * *

In the mystic cults, it was postulated that the amatory embrace partakes
of both a human and a cosmic form of attraction, and becomes, in a
sublimated degree, an act of prayer, an erotic supplication.

* * * * *

The priapic cult was the male counterpart of the Aphroditic cult. Just
as the hierodule was the official priestess of the goddess, mentor in
the feminine erotic and reverential mysteries, so the priapic cult had
for its primary objective the exaltation of the male generative
principle. In remote antiquity, and particularly in Egyptian mysticism,
the phallus was the representative symbol of Osiris, the ultimate
creative potency. Gradually, in the course of the centuries, the phallic
symbol acquired a pejorative and degrading and exclusively and narrowly
functional nature associated with the mere physical act. And Priapus,
equated at one time with Osiris, degenerated into a secondary and minor
figure, a mere rustic threat. Yet Priapus retained some semblance of his
former repute. He still had his temple and his priestly ministrants. He
still received favors and offerings. He still made promises to his
devotees and listened to their urgent amatory pleas. He still maintained
his sexual rituals, however much they had lost their spiritual and
cosmic values. He still presided, in the actuality of performance, over
marriage initiations, over nuptial consummations. But with time he
disappeared as a member of the mystery cults. And only in vestiges of
legend, in old rites transmitted into the Middle Ages, in sculptural
presentations, in phallic symbolisms, did his former magnificence and
his primary rank retain any fragmentary reminiscence of his vanished
glories.

In the smaller towns of Italy festive occasions in honor of Priapus were
perpetuated until far into the Middle Ages; and Priapus, in some
instances, particularly in Brittany, in Belgium, and in France, merged
with Christian saints, who appropriated, in their turn, the genesiac
properties of their prototype.

In rural districts, shrines dedicated to Priapus defied the spread of
Christianity, while phallic forms, in marble and stone, adorned public
buildings, baths, columns, churches. Priapus, to some extent, thus went
underground. He became a furtive and then an obsolescent and forgotten
figure: but in Switzerland and in Sweden, in Provence and in Germany,
Priapus clung tenaciously, if only in an etymological sense. For Friday,
Friga’s day, is merely a Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon form of the Day of
Priapus.

Strange how the antique charms and periapts, the old Roman fascina, were
still suspended from the necks of children and women: often without any
awareness of the actual significance of the talisman, but just as
frequently, until late into the fourteenth century at least,
ecclesiastical ordinances and prohibitions made it evident that there
was official knowledge of the priapic survival.

* * * * *

Among the ancient Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Babylonians, the erotic cult
was dedicated to the fertility deities Ishtar and Bel and Sin. Ishtar
was the Mesopotamian Aphrodite: a goddess of love and at the same time a
warrior deity. Bel is Baal-Peor, the phallic deity, while Sin is the
moon divinity.

* * * * *

Aphrodite, as a universal goddess, with universal erotic functions that
embrace all humanity, all elements of the cosmos, appears in different
regions and centuries under a variety of names. She is Aphrodite
Callipygos and she is Aphrodite Anosia: Aphrodite Peribaso and Aphrodite
Anadyomene and Aphrodite Hetaira. Sometimes she is designated with
reference to her beauty, or to her amatory functions, or to her
epichorial association with temple worship dedicated to her person, or
to the suppliants whom she intimately protects. She is thus Aphrodite
Pandemos and Aphrodite Porne. She is Aphrodite Trymalitis and Aphrodite
Stratonikis. She is Aphrodite Pontia and Aphrodite Urania.

Then she becomes, retaining her essential character but merely
transferring her rituals, Venus Fisica and Venus Caelesiis and Venus
Erycian. She is the Cytherean and the Paphian, she is the Cyprian
divinity.

She is known, again, as Anaïtis and as Astoreth. She is Allat and
Argimpasa and Atargatis. In later ages she is Milda in Eastern Europe
and Merta and Freya in the North.

But under whatever designation she appears, in Arabia or Scythia, in the
Greek Islands or in Carthage, she is fertility incarnate and love. She
is the alma Venus genetrix that the Roman poet Lucretius reverently
invokes.

* * * * *

Through the ages the concept of generation has undergone progressively
definitive changes. In proto-historical times, when legend and myth,
mingling with supernatural fantasies, conceived imaginative unrealities
in relation to the medical and physiological facts, the ancient Hindu
epics assumed man as sprung from the forests, from aspen and ash trees,
sylvan creatures, in some sense, corresponding to the half-human form of
the ancient Hellenic satyrs. In some regions of India there was a belief
that the produce of certain trees was human beings, male and female, and
that the mortals fell upon the earth like ripe fruit. Among the Persians
and contiguous races of antiquity, pregnant women were given soma juice
to drink, to ensure handsome children. Soma is an intoxicating brew that
is often mentioned in Vedic religious rituals. According to Pliny the
Elder’s testimony, water in which mistletoe has been steeped encourages
procreation in women and animals.

The oak tree and the chestnut also have been reputed to aid in
procreation. So with plants too, that have at all times been treated as
potential and actual amatory aids. An African legend makes a girl, after
drinking the juice of a certain plant, give birth to a mighty warrior.

The chewing of lilies was considered conducive to fertility, in medieval
folklore. So, in still earlier times, with the pomegranate and the
almond. In many cases, the belief arose from the similarity of the plant
or flower or herb, in certain respects, to the genitalia or the pudenda.
This was so in the case of the bean. So with mandrake, and cress, and
certain species of berries.

* * * * *

Another legendary mode of conception, prevalent in ancient classical and
Oriental mythology, was theriomorphic theogamy: that is, generation by a
divinity who assumes animal form.

Instances are multiple. Zeus, in the shape of a bull, pursues Europa in
cow form. In Egypt, Apis the bull has a similar function. The seductive
serpent, again, is Zeus once more, exercising his protean capacity. On
occasion, he becomes a swan, and associates with Leda. Or he becomes a
variety of creatures: an ant, or a dove, or a goat, or an ass. Once,
Neptune, for a similar purpose, turned into a ram.

Sometimes, also, the divine serpent, sinuous and wily and knowledgeable,
is actually devoured by the woman, as in Arab regions.

Not only animals and plants were associated with generative capacities,
but natural phenomena as well: the winds and storms, hail and the sun
and the rain. Some primitive tribes attributed their origin to snow:
some to lightning, or to thunder, to the rainbow, to clouds, to the
morning star. A warm breeze, or a cyclone might equally well have been
their source. Greek, Roman, and Chinese myths contain numberless
illustrations of astral or phenomenal association with mortal
generation.

There is a wry anecdote on this phase in Flavius Josephus, the
historian. An ingenious suitor performs the function of the deity Anubis
with complete faithful acceptance.

This type of mortal substitution in place of the divinity was common in
the priestly rituals of Egypt, and was not unknown in Asia Minor, in
India, and in China.

* * * * *

Periapts or talismans as an erotic provocation were anciently devised in
phallic form. They were carried on the person, by both men and women, or
were used to decorate temples and shrines and public buildings.

In later ages, amatory talismans assumed a great variety of forms, in
the shape of rings, necklaces, plaques engraved with formulas or
astrological figures and signs of the Zodiac or possibly a bull, a dove,
a number or a series of mystic numbers. A piece of parchment might be
inscribed with names, or the alphabetical sign of Venus. Precious stones
were talismans, each possessing an esoteric virtue or property according
to color or substance. A periapt might be set in some strategic spot:
buried underground, placed under a pillow: or even ground into a powder.

The all-powerful goddess herself, Venus, had her own minerals. Copper,
associated with the love goddess, was known to the Greeks as aphrodon.
Tin also was of Aphroditic significance: while sulphur springs were
also, in a legendary sense, related to Venus.

It has even been credited that floral nomenclature contains amatory
significance, and that certain plants have their erotic symbolisms.

* * * * *

Flowers in antiquity as well as in modern times had their erotic
implications. To the Greeks and Romans, the essence of _areté_, of
beauty and perfection, was the rose, while the Egyptians too revered the
rose as the prototype of perfection.

To Aphrodite were consecrated the mistletoe and myrtle, the lily,
satyrion, the iris, celandine, sengreen, mallow, and verbena.

CHAPTER II
GREEK

_Plato_

Plato (c. 429–347 B.C.), the Greek philosopher who developed his
metaphysical and cosmological theories through a series of some
twenty-five dialogues and the _Apology_, has a great deal to say on the
erotic theme.

In the _Timaeus_, he says of sexual excess:

He who has the seed about the spinal marrow too plentiful and
overflowing, like a tree overladen with fruit, has many throes,
and also obtains many pleasures in his desires and their
offspring, and is for the most part of his life deranged because
his pleasures and pains are so very great; his soul is rendered
foolish and disordered by his body; yet he is regarded not as
one diseased, but as one who is voluntarily bad, which is a
mistake. The truth is that sexual intemperance is a disease of
the soul due chiefly to the moisture and fluidity which is
produced in one of the elements by the loose consistency of the
bones. And in general, all that which is termed the incontinence
of pleasure and is deemed a reproach under the idea that the
wicked voluntarily do wrong is not justly a matter for reproach.
For no man is voluntarily bad, but the bad become bad by reason
of an ill disposition of the body and bad education—things which
are hateful to every man and happen to him against his will.

Again, of sexual love, Plato says, in the _Timaeus_:

On the subject of animals, then, the following remarks may be
offered. Of the men who came into the world, those who were
cowards or led unrighteous lives may with reason be supposed to
have changed into the nature of women in the second generation.
And this was the reason why at that time the gods created in us
the desire of sexual intercourse, contriving in man one animated
substance, and in woman another, which they formed,
respectively, in the following manner. The outlet for drink by
which liquids pass through the lung under the kidneys and into
the bladder, which receives and then by the pressure of the air
emits them, was so fashioned by them as to penetrate also into
the body of the marrow, which passes from the head along the
neck and through the back, and which in the preceding discourse
we have named the seed. And the seed, having life and becoming
endowed with respiration, produces in that part in which it
respires a lively desire of emission, and thus creates in us the
love of procreation. Wherefore also in men the organ of
generation becoming rebellious and masterful, like an animal
disobedient to reason, and maddened with the sting of lust,
seeks to gain absolute sway, and the same is the case with the
so-called womb or matrix of women. The animal within them is
desirous of procreating children, and when remaining unfruitful
long beyond its proper time, gets discontented and angry, and
wandering in every direction through the body, closes up the
passages of the breath, and, by obstructing respiration, drives
them to extremity, causing all varieties of disease, until at
length the desire and love of the man and the woman, bringing
them together and as it were plucking the fruit from the tree,
sow in the womb, as in a field, animals unseen by reason of
their smallness and without form; these again are separated and
matured within; they are then finally brought out into the
light, and thus the generation of animals is completed.

In the _Symposium_, Plato postulates a philosophy of love:

Love is the love of beauty and not of deformity?
He assented.
And the admission has been already made that love is of that
which a man wants and has not?
True, he said.
Then love wants and has not beauty?
Certainly, he replied.
And would you call that beautiful which wants and does not possess
beauty?
Certainly not.
Then would you still say that love is beautiful?
Agathon replied: I fear that I did not understand what I was saying.
Nay, Agathon, replied Socrates; but I should like to
ask you one more question:—is not the good also the
beautiful?
Yes.
Then in wanting the beautiful love wants also the
good? I can not refute you, Socrates, said Agathon.
And let us suppose that what you say is true.

Say rather, dear Agathon, that you can not refute the
truth; for Socrates is easily refuted.

* * * * *

And now I will take my leave of you, and rehearse the tale of
love which I heard once upon a time from Diotima of Mantineia,
who was a wise woman in this and many other branches of
knowledge. She was the same who deferred the plague of Athens
ten years by a sacrifice, and was my instructress in the art of
love. In the attempt which I am about to make I shall pursue
Agathon’s method, and begin with his admissions, which are
nearly if not quite the same which I made to the wise woman when
she questioned me: this will be the easiest way, and I shall
take both parts myself as well as I can. For, like Agathon, she
spoke first of the being and nature of love, and then of his
works. And I said to her in nearly the same words which he

“As in the former instance, he is neither mortal fair; and she
proved to me as I proved to him that, in my way of speaking
about him, love was neither fair nor good. “What do you mean,
Diotima,” I said, “is love then evil and foul?”

“Hush,” she cried; “is that to be deemed foul which is not
fair?”

“Certainly,” I said.

“And is that which is not wise, ignorant? do you not see that
there is a mean between wisdom and ignorance?”

“And what is this?” I said.

“Right opinion,” she replied; “which, as you know, being
incapable of giving a reason, is not knowledge (for how could
knowledge be devoid of reason? nor again, ignorance, for neither
can ignorance attain the truth), but is clearly something which
is a mean between ignorance and wisdom.”

“Quite true,” I replied.

“Do not then insist,” she said, “that what is not fair is of
necessity foul, or what is not good evil; or infer that because
love is not fair and good he is therefore foul and evil; for he
is in a mean between them.”

“Well,” I said, “love is surely admitted by all to be a great
god.”

“By those who know or by those who don’t know?”

“By all.”

“And how, Socrates,” she said with a smile, “can love be
acknowledged to be a great god by those who say that he is not a
god at all?”

“And who are they?” I said.

“You and I are two of them,” she replied.

“How can that be?” I said.

“That is very intelligible,” she replied; “as you yourself would
acknowledge that the gods are happy and fair—of course you
would—would you dare to say that any god was not?”

“Certainly not,” I replied.

“And you mean by the happy, those who are the possessors of
things good and fair?”

“Yes.”

“And you admitted that love, because he was in want, desires
those good and fair things of which he is in want?”

“Yes, I admitted that.”

“But how can he be a god who has no share in the good or the
fair?”

“That is not to be supposed.”

“Then you see that you also deny the deity of love.”

“What then is love?” I asked; “Is he mortal?”

“No.”

“What then?”

“As in the former instance, he is neither mortal nor immortal,
but in a mean between them.”

“What is he then, Diotima?”

“He is a great spirit, and like all that is spiritual he is
intermediate between the divine and the mortal.”

“And what is the nature of this spiritual power?” I said.

“This is the power,” she said, “which interprets and conveys to
the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the
commands and rewards of the gods; and this power spans the chasm
which divides them, and in this all is bound together, and
through this the arts of the prophet and the priest, their
sacrifices and mysteries and charms, and all prophecy and
incantation, find their way. For God mingles not with man; and
through this power all the intercourse and speech of God with
man, whether awake or asleep, is carried on. The wisdom which
understands this is spiritual; all other wisdom, such as that of
arts or handicrafts, is mean and vulgar. Now these spirits or
intermediate powers are many and divine, and one of them is
love.”

“And who,” I said, “was his father and who his mother?”

“The tale,” she said, “will take time; nevertheless I will tell
you. On the birthday of Aphrodite there was a feast of the gods,
at which the god Poros or Plenty, who is the son of Metis or
Discretion, was one of the guests. When the feast was over,
Penia or Poverty, as the manner was, came about the doors to
beg. Now Plenty, who was the worse for nectar (there was no wine
in those days), came into the garden of Zeus and fell into a
heavy sleep; and Poverty considering her own straitened
circumstances, plotted to have him for a husband, and
accordingly she lay down at his side and conceived love, who
partly because he is naturally a lover of the beautiful, and
because Aphrodite is herself beautiful, and also because he was
born on Aphrodite’s birthday is her follower and attendant.”

(B. Jowett)

In Book 8 of _The Laws_, too, Plato discusses a variety of subjects,
among them festivals and contests in which men and women meet together.
This topic introduces the question of the sexes, and Plato makes
definitive statements in this respect. Licentiousness, he declares, is
abominable. Men ought to live under controlled moderation. That is what
nature herself enjoins. Man otherwise would fall below the level of
beasts. Here the laws should be restrictive. But if that is not
possible, there must at least be some adherence to decent mores.

* * * * *

Lust and desire are discussed in Book 6 of _The Laws_ and in the
_Greater Hippias_. The three universal appetites are food, drink, and
lust of procreation, which is linked with the imperious sexual frenzy
and its concomitant excitements. Sexual desire, the necessities of love,
overflowing into excesses, may be harmful to the welfare of the state.
Excesses must therefore be stemmed and controlled by laws. In this
manner evil may be diminished and the good of the state as a whole will
be promoted.

With regard to exhausted capacity and the loss of passion as a corollary
to old age, Plato says, in Book I of _The Republic_:

I will tell you, Socrates, he said, what my own feeling is. Men
of my age flock together; we are birds of a feather, as the old
proverb says; and at our meetings the tale of my acquaintance
commonly is—I can not eat, I can not drink; the pleasures of
youth and love are fled away; there was a good time once, but
now that is gone, and life is no longer life. Some complain of
the slights which are put upon them by relations, and they will
tell you sadly of how many evils their old age is the cause. But
to me, Socrates, these complainers seem to blame that which is
not really at fault. For if old age were the cause, I too being
old, and every other old man, would have felt as they do. But
this is not my own experience, nor that of others whom I have
known. How well I remember the aged poet Sophocles, when in
answer to the question, How does love suit with age,
Sophocles,—are you still the man you were? Peace, he replied;
most gladly have I escaped from a mad and furious master. His
words have often occurred to my mind since, and they seem as
good to me now as at the time when he uttered them. For
certainly old age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when
the passions relax their hold, then, as Sophocles says, we are
freed from the grasp not of one mad master only, but of many.
The truth is, Socrates, that these regrets, and also the
complaints about relations, are to be attributed to the same
cause, which is not old age, but men’s characters and tempers;
for he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the
pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition
youth and age are equally a burden.

Of sexual appetite Plato declares, in Book 8 of _The Republic_:

Are not necessary pleasures those of which we can not get rid,
and of which the satisfaction is a benefit to us? And they are
rightly called so, because we are framed by nature to desire
both what is beneficial and what is necessary, and can not help
it.

True.

We are not wrong therefore in calling them necessary?

We are not.

And the desires of which a man may get rid, if he takes pains
from his youth upwards—of which the presence, moreover, does no
good, and in some cases the reverse of good—shall we not be
right in saying that all these are unnecessary?

Yes, certainly.

Suppose we select an example of either kind, in order that we
may have a general notion of them?

Very good.

Will not the desire of eating, that is, of simple food and
condiments, in so far as they are required for health and
strength, be of the necessary class?

That is what I should suppose.

The pleasure of eating is necessary in two ways; it does us good
and it is essential to the continuance of life?

Yes.

But the condiments are only necessary in so far as they are good
for health?

Certainly.

And the desire which goes beyond this, of more delicate food, or
other luxuries, which might generally be got rid of, if
controlled and trained in youth, and is hurtful to the body, and
hurtful to the soul in the pursuit of wisdom and virtue, may be
rightly called unnecessary?

Very true.

May we not say that these desires spend, and that the others
make money because they conduce to production?

Certainly.

And of the pleasures of love, and all other pleasures, the same
holds good?

True.

And the drone of whom we spoke was he who was surfeited in
pleasures and desires of this sort, and was the slave of the
unnecessary desires, whereas he who was subject to the necessary
only was miserly and oligarchical?

Very true.

(B. Jowett)

* * * * *

Nakedness, both of boys and girls, was not an obscenity in ancient
Greece. The statesman Lycurgus, for example, established exercises in
Sparta in which boys and girls, in puris naturalibus, took part.

To the Greek philosopher Plato, too, nudity involved no indecency. He
actually advocated, in _The Laws_, naked dances by boys and girls, for
the purpose of mutual acquaintance.

_Dioscorides_

Pedanius Dioscorides, who flourished in the first century A.D., was born
in Anazarbus. He became an army physician: but, in addition, he was
deeply interested and versed in pharmacological subjects. With the
purpose of compiling a kind of encyclopedic work in this field,
Dioscorides traveled widely throughout Greece, Asia Minor, and the
Mediterranean countries, collecting information, legends, and
prescriptions.

Dioscorides is the author of a systematic Materia Medica, written with
clarity and precision and with an informative rather than a stylistic
purpose. His work includes plants and herbs, animals, minerals: all
arranged in exact subdivisions, and emphasizing the medicinal and
pharmacological virtues of all the items included. The text is arranged
in five books, and covers some thousand drugs. An English translation,
under the title of the Greek Herbal of Dioscorides, was produced by John
Goodyer in 1655, and was edited by Robert T. Gunther and first printed
by the Oxford University Press in 1934.

Apart from the fascination of the work in itself, Dioscorides lists a
number of herbs and roots that are of amatory interest as philtres.
Goodyer’s text, for the relevant items, follows:

Greek Cyclamen: It is sayd also that the root is taken amongst
love-procuring medicines being beaten, and soe made into
Trochiscks. Trochiscks are pastilles.

Brassica Rapa: Turnip: Also called Gongule. The Romans call it Rapum.
The roote of it being sod is nourishing, yet very windie, and
breeding moist and loose flesh, and provoking to Venerie.

(As an infusion) being dranck it is good against deadly medicines,
and doth provoke to Venerie.

Kuprinon: Oil of Cuperos. An invigorating oil.

Lolium Temulentum: Darnel: Being suffumigated with polenta, or Myrrh,
or Saffron, or Franckincense, it doth help conceptions.

Cardamom Lepidium Sativum: Cress: Some call it Cynocardamom. The best
is found in Babylon. The seed is effectual in inciting to
copulation.

Orchis Rubra: Orchis Papilionacea: And of this root it is said that if
the greater roote is eaten by men, it makes them beget males, and
the lesser, being eaten by women, to conceive females. It is
further storied that ye women in Thessalia do give to drink with
goates milk ye tenderer root to provoke Venerie, and the dry root
for ye suppressing, dissolving of Venerie. And that it being drank
ye one is dissolved by the other.

Satyrion: Also called Trifolium, because ‘it bears leaves in three’s,
as it were,’ bending down to ye earth like to Rumex or Lilium, yet
lesser, and reddish. But a naked stalk, long, as of a cubit, a
flower like a Lilly, white; a bulbous root, as bigg as an apple,
redd, but within white, like an egg, to ye taster sweet and
pleasant to ye mouth. This one ought to drink in black hard wine
for ye Opisthotonon, and use it, if he will lie with a woman. For
they say that this also doth stirr up courage in ye conjunction.

Saturion Eruthronion: Called by the Romans Morticulum Veneris. It hath
a seed like to flax seed. It is said that it doth stirr up
conjunctions, like ye Scincus doth. It is storied that the root
being taken into ye hand doth provoke to Venerie, but much more,
being drank with wine.

Salvia Horminum: The Romans call it Geminales. It is an herb like to
Marrubium. In the wild it is found round swart, but in the other
somewhat long, and black, of which there is use, and this also is
thought being drank with wine to provoke conjunction.

Galium Verum: Gallion. But ye root doth provoke to conjunction.

Katananke: The Romans call it Herba Filicula. The roots are of two
kinds. ‘But some report that both kinds are good for Philters, and
they say that the Thessalian women do use them.’

Phuteuma: Also called Silene spurium. Phuteuma hath leaves like to
Radicula, but smaller, much seed, bored through, little root,
thin, close to the earth, which some relate to be good for a love
medicine.

_Nonnus_

Nonnus was a Greek epic poet of Panopolis, in Egypt. He flourished in
the fifth century A.D., and is the author of _Dionysiaca_. This is a
long epic poem describing, in abundant detail, with picturesque imagery,
the triumphal progression of Dionysus, god of wine and fertility, to
India.

The poem is packed with quaint geographical lore, with a miscellaneous
mass of information on astrology and plants and other subjects
intertwined into the primary theme, and it also contains many erotic
incidents of a mythological nature.

The Corybantes take a prominent place in the worship of Dionysus. They
are the frantic, orgiastic priests of Cybele, the Mighty Mother of the
Gods, and their passionate ceremonials touch the erotic field.

The handsome, effeminate Cadmus appears—the cheeks of his love-begetting
face are red as roses, chants the poet: and the sight of Cadmus is
itself an amatory urge.

It is effective, too, in the case of Harmonia, destined to be Cadmus’
mate. Aphrodite addresses the prospective bride:

I will teach those grace-breathing kisses to women unhappy in
love.

There was, evidently, knowledge of potions and similar excitants, for
one character pleads:

Tell me what varied store of balsams can I apply in my heart to
cure the wound of love.

And again:

I shrink before a woman, for she shoots bright shafts from her
lovesmit countenance and pierces me with her beauty.

* * * * *

In the sixth century A.D., Theodora, a public courtesan whose name was a
byword in Byzantium, became first the mistress and then the wife of the
Roman Emperor Justinian. Even as an Empress she did not abandon her
profligate ways. She had experienced and invited every possible variety
of erotic practice. She went out with bands of youths and spent the
night in their riotous company. Her erotic frenzies drove her to public
exhibitionism. Often she had appeared in the theatre in puris
naturalibus. Yet her personal beauty made the Emperor her blind slave,
while her lusts extended in every direction.

* * * * *

The Greek chronicler Procopius describes the court of the Roman Emperor
Justinian and his consort Theodora. The Imperial general attached to the
court was Belisarius. He had a wife, named Antonina, who was so
passionate that she consummated her erotic impulses, in relation to a
youth named Theodosius, in the full presence of her servants and
attendant maids.

* * * * *

The Byzantine general Belisarius, attached to the court of the Emperor
Justinian, in the sixth century A.D., was again and again the victim of
his wife’s flagrant infidelities. Again and again, however, he forgave
her. He permitted himself self-deception, in spite, at times, of the
evidence of his own eyes. He was so deeply infatuated with her that he
preferred to retain her at all costs.

* * * * *

The Greek orator Demosthenes, in one of his famous legal speeches,
successfully pleaded for the death penalty in the case of one of the
mistresses of the dramatist Sophocles. She was associated with a secret
club, and was initiated in the preparation of philtres and magic
potions.

* * * * *

Among the Greeks, the concept of love in the modern sense was rare. Nor
was the medieval attitude to amatory sensibilities, embodied in courtly
love, any more prevalent. Love, in a general sense, was treated as an
aberration from normal life, a kind of sickness, a lack of balance in
the elements of the entity. Yet there was, of course, as the Greek
Anthology and other poetic testimony indicate, lust and passion and
erotic intimacy. There was, too, a greater freedom in this relationship
between men and public women, nor did this association affect in a
negative sense the marriage relationship.

There were these professional public hetairae, female companions who
often had marked intellectual endowments, whose association with poets
and dramatists, statesmen and philosophers brought not the slightest
stigma on such men in their artistic or public career. Aspasia of
Miletus was one of the most outstanding of this group. She was the
mistress of the statesman Pericles. Gnathaena and Lais were equally
known. It was said that Plato was in love with the hetaira Archeanassa
of Colophon. The comic poet Menander was associated with Glycera.
Phryne, the priestess of Aphrodite, as she was termed, was the most
beautiful of them all, the model for the sculptor Praxiteles’ Aphrodite.

The seductive equipment of the hetaira was as various as in modern
times, and as effective. It included diaphanous robes, of Coan silk,
veils and scarves, mirrors and unguents and rouge, jewelry for neck and
ears and arms. And the hetaira replenished her armory and refurbished
her memory of her techniques: for there were at hand, for her constant
use, manuals that contained guidance, amatory and financial and social,
specific instructions in a multiplicity of hypothetical but more than
probable cases, and ominous warnings as well.

CHAPTER III
ROMANS

In the first century B.C. the licentiousness of the Roman matron was
already a subject for grim condemnation. Horace, who was virtually the
Poet Laureate of the Augustan Age, laments the degeneration of morality.
The temples are abandoned, he bewails, and lie in ruins. The sacred
marriage vows are broken. The uprightness of the old domestic life is
gone. Our own generation is plunging headlong into destruction. Against
the women in particular he inveighs as follows:

The matron, when bidden, arises and goes forth publicly, not without the
knowledge of her husband, whether some pedlar invites her, or the
captain of a Spanish sailing vessel, who buys her shame at a high price.

* * * * *

A notorious, unsavory district in ancient Rome was known as the Subura.
It was a valley lying between the Esquiline and the Viminal Hills of the
city. This area was clamorous with brothels, with the dregs of Romans,
foreigners, slavers, pimps, and harlots. Loads of marble passed through
the narrow alleys. The lanes were cluttered with mules, dogs, goats, and
sheep.

There were also shops of various kinds, practically nothing but openings
in the wall spaces, where provisions were sold and various delicacies.
Barbers and tailors plied their occupations, while minor trades,
according to epigraphical evidence, were also conducted here. Julius
Caesar himself resided in the Subura. There was also a Jewish synagogue
in this district. The Subura is mentioned frequently in Roman
literature, in a derogatory and contemptuous sense, particularly by the
poets Juvenal, Persius, and Martial.

In the Subura all kinds of amatory contrivances, concoctions and aids
were offered to an eager clientele: amulets, incantations, spells,
philtres, drugs; and a flourishing market in these commodities
prevailed, at first furtively and warily: then with more determined and
acknowledged public awareness.

* * * * *

The Roman satirist Juvenal, who dates in the first century A.D.,
mentions potions and philtres used by women; frequently, however, for
purposes of torture or poisoning their husbands. Again, describing the
immoralities and licentiousness of the frantic Roman matrons of his own
days, Juvenal thunders:

From one person she secures magic incantations. From another,
she buys Thessalian love-potions to destroy her husband’s mind.

* * * * *

The Roman poet Lucan produced an epic poem entitled _Pharsalia_. Book 6
contains a vivid, elaborate description of magic scenes and practices.
The capacities of the witch are enumerated with a feeling of mounting
horror. Her skills come in for horrendous comment: brewing concoctions
for malefic purposes: pronouncing incantations that inspire strange
passions by virtue of their goetic potency. These spells, the poet
awesomely declares, are more effective than even love goblets.

The implication is that love philtres were manifestly in common use for
amatory purposes and in common knowledge.

* * * * *

Certain deities were anciently associated with particular sexual
practices. Volupia, an old Roman goddess mentioned by St. Augustine,
encouraged voluptuous pleasures. Strenia bestowed vigor on the male.
Stimula aroused the erotic desires of husbands.

* * * * *

The practice of amatory aids, among the Romans, reached as far as the
Imperial court. The Emperor Julian, known as the Apostate, for instance,
mentions, in a letter to his friend Callixenes, mandrake as a love
agent.

* * * * *

In antiquity, both Greek and Roman, Medea is the arch sorceress, the
supreme exemplar of witchcraft, the most powerful adept in the Black
Arts of Colchis.

Seneca, the Stoic philosopher and dramatist, who was also the tutor of
the Roman Emperor Nero, is the author of a drama entitled _Medea_, in
which he depicts the protagonist herself in frenzied action.

Medea’s nurse appears upon the scene, speaking of her mistress.

She describes Medea gathering potent herbs with her magic sickle, by the
light of the moon. Medea sprinkles the herbs with venom extracted from
serpents. Into this compound she thrusts the entrails and organs of
unclean birds: the heart of the screech owl, vampire’s vitals, torn from
the living flesh. Over the entire foul brew she murmurs her magic
incantations, concocting her philtres.

* * * * *

In spite of the frenzied commerce in philtres and other means of
stimulation, both in ancient and in modern times, Ovid himself, the
Roman poet who produced the superlative amatory guides in poetic form,
asserts categorically that invocations and formulas, enchantments and
sorcery, secretive recipes and exotic philtres are ultimately of no
avail in their purpose. Even witches and enchantresses such as Medea and
Circe, for all their skill in the goetic arts, could not circumvent
man’s own personal perversities, or prevent Jason, for instance, or
Ulysses, from amatory unfaithfulness.

In the contest of love, then, concludes the poet, philtres achieve
nothing but imbalanced minds, wrecked health, and, sometimes, death
itself.

* * * * *

Love philtres were not infrequently fatal in their effects. Such
veneficia amatoria were forbidden by imperial decree. But there were
furtive ways of circumventing these prohibitions.

Ingredients, apart from their poisonous nature, might be nauseating and
repulsive to administer. As an instance, the milk of an ass mixed with
the blood of a bat was considered a genesiac encouragement. The
ingredients, again, might induce sickness, madness, and even death.

Among known ingredients that went to form the final, putatively
effective brew were herbs, organs of birds, insects, blood, and
genitalia.

With the ages, the range of ingredients and recipes was extended. In
Mediterranean regions old traditional amatory philtres remained in folk
use. In other areas, particularly in the South American continent, the
natives used concoctions that were often virtual poisons. For they
ceaselessly ransacked the forests and jungles for amatory aids.

* * * * *

Among the Romans, the sepia octopus had a wide reputation for its
amatory potential. It is mentioned by the Roman comedy writer Plautus.
In a scene depicting an exhausted elder, an octopus is bought by him at
the market, as a rejuvenating aid.

* * * * *

In his _De Re Coquinaria_, a cookery book produced by Apicius, a Roman
of the first century A.D., there are many recipes for the preparation of
gourmet dishes as well as less luxurious fare: fish and game, meats,
vegetables, fruit, dessert, cereals.

Among the herbs that Apicius includes as ingredients in stews, roasts,
pottages, soups, and sauces, there are many that had and still have
reputedly, an amatory reaction, as: cumin and dill, aniseed, bay-berry,
celery-seed, capers and caraway, sesame, mustard, shallots, nard, thyme,
ginger and musk, wormwood, basil, parsley, origanum, pennyroyal, rocket,
safflower, rue-berry, flowers of mallow, rue-seed, lovage, hyssop and
garlic and capers.

Many vegetables, too, that are credited with genesiac virtue are
included in Apicius’ book, as: artichokes and beans, asparagus, turnips,
truffles, parsnips and leeks, beets and bryony, cabbage, chicory,
cucumbers, fenugreek, radishes, and lettuce.

* * * * *

Apicius’ culinary directions and preparations include a variety of fish
that had, in Rome times and also in later ages, provocative amatory
properties. Among such piscatory agents are: Grilled red mullet, young
tunny, sea-bream, murena, horse-mackerel, gold-bream. And, among sea
food: octopus and mussels, sea-urchin, oysters, cuttlefish, squid,
sea-crayfish, electric ray.

* * * * *

In some of the fragments and extant verses of the Roman philosopher
Seneca, there are illustrations of the erotic theme. In one poem the
partly obliterated verses run:

Love, my darling, and be loved in turn always,
So that at no instant may our mutual love cease ...
From sunrise to sunset,
And may the Evening Star gaze
upon our love
And the Morning Star too.

An instance of abnormal lust also occurs:

Fortunate is she who caresses your neck.
Fortunate is the girl who presses close to you, body
To body,
And crushes her tongue against your soft lips.

Another fragment inveighs against a wealthy, beautiful, noble matron,
lustful and incestuous.

In ancient Italy the cult of Liber or Bacchus was so widespread that
festivals held in his honor and called Liberalia were continued for an
entire month. During this period the phallus, carried in procession
exultantly, to the accompaniment of lewd songs, lascivious talk, and
obscene gestures, was decked with garlands, while erotic acts in their
final consummation were freely performed in public view, as reverential
testimony to the potency of the deity so symbolized.

* * * * *

The cult of Bacchus and of his symbol the phallus was introduced among
the Romans by the priests of Cybele, the Mighty Mother of the Gods, who
were known as Corybantes. Clement of Alexandria, the Church Father, also
calls these priests Cabiri.

* * * * *

In the Imperial Age of Rome, a certain distinguished poet, Verginius
Rufus, an elderly friend of Pliny the Younger, was known for his erotic
poems. These, however, are no longer extant.

* * * * *

In Imperial Rome, the professors of grammar and of rhetoric, two of the
basic subjects taught to young Romans, used many Greek and Roman authors
in bowdlerized versions. In the case of the lyric poets in particular,
the suggestive and erotic elements were minimized or excised.

* * * * *

During the Imperial Age of Rome, writers appeared at intervals who were
cumulatively known as _scriptores erotici_—writers on love themes. Their
tales, elaborately expanded and decked out with circumstantial details,
were concerned with the amatory adventures of mythological
personalities, among them, for instance, Acontius and Cydippe.

* * * * *

The Roman epigrammatist Martial (c. 40 A.D.–c. 104) claimed that,
despite his obscene verses, his own personal life was unstained. He
produced a large body of epigrams and occasional poems dealing, to a
very considerable extent, with erotic and sexual topics: perversions,
sodomy and incest, adultery and pederasty. His pieces mention actual
contemporary figures, and thus present a realistic and intimate picture
of Roman salacious aberrations at all levels of society, as well as the
erotic degeneration of the age.

* * * * *

The Emperor Nero, with all his inhuman and vicious traits and bloody
crimes, was a versatile poet. He was the author of sportive and also
erotic pieces, none of which, however, are now extant.

* * * * *

Among the rites practiced by the Romans with respect to the cult of
Priapus, there was the custom of the bride who, seated before the
phallic image, made at least a symbolic contact, and most commonly an
actual one, with a view to encourage later marital fecundity. It was at
the same time an apotropaic measure as well. Married women were included
in this ritual, and participated in similar practices. These rites,
described in violently condemnatory terms, are mentioned by St.
Augustine and Lactantius and Arnobius, who take occasion to point out
the Roman pagan abominations in sexual matters.

* * * * *

With respect to the cult of Bacchus, the god himself had in his service
women as priestesses. In the fanes dedicated to the phallic god, these
priestesses celebrated nocturnal mystic rites. This practice is
described in some detail by Petronius, the author of the remarkable
Roman picaresque novel entitled the _Satyricon_:

We had resolv’d to keep out of the broad streets, and
accordingly took our walk thro’ that quarter of the city where
we were likely to meet least company; when in a narrow winding
lane that had not passage thro’, we saw somewhat before us, two
comely matron-like women, and followed them at a distance to a
chappel, which they entred, whence we heard an odd humming kind
of noise, as if it came from the hollow of a cave: Curiosity
also made us go in after them, where we saw a number of women,
as mad as they had been sacrificing to Bacchus, and each of them
an amulet, the ensign of Bacchus, in her hand. More than that we
could not get to see; for they no sooner perceived us, that they
set up such a shout, that the roof of the temple shook agen, and
withal endeavored to lay hands on us; but we scamper’d and made
what haste we could to the inn.

Nor had we sooner stuff’d our selves with the supper Gito had
got for us, when a more than ordinary bounce at the door, put us
into another fright; and when we, pale as death, ask’d who was
there, ’twas answered, “Open the door and you’ll see.” While we
were yet talking, the bolt drop’d off, and the door flew open,
on which, a woman with her head muffl’d came in upon us, but the
same who a little before had stood by the country-man in the
market: “And what,” said she, “do you think to put a trick upon
me? I am Quartilla’s maid, whose sacred recess you so lately
disturb’d: she is at the inn-gate, and desires to speak with ye:
not that she either taxes your inadvertency, or has a mind to so
resent it, but rather wonders, what gods brought such civil
gentlemen into her quarters.”

We were silent as yet, and gave her the hearing, but inclin’d to
neither part of what she had said, when in came Quartilla her
self, attended with a young girl, and sitting down by me, fell a
weeping: nor here also did we offer a word, but stood expecting
what those tears at command meant. At last when the showre had
emptied it self, she disdainfully turn’d up her hood, and
clinching her fingers together, till the joints were ready to
crack, “What impudence,” said she, “is this? or where learnt ye
those shamms, and that sleight of hand ye have so lately been
beholding to? By my faith, young-men, I am sorry for ye; for no
one beheld what was unlawful for him to see, and went off
unpunisht: and verily our part of the town has so many deities,
you’ll sooner find a god than a man in’t: And that you may not
think I came hither to be revenged on ye, I am more concern’d
for your youth, than the injury ye have done me: for unawares,
as I yet think, ye have committed an unexpiable abomination.”

* * * * *

Among the Romans the symbol of satisfied and contented love was the
myrtle branch, offered in sacrifice, along with milk and honey, to the
obscene deity Priapus.

* * * * *

As a fetish, an apotropaic periapt, protective against all kinds of
mishaps, the Romans made use of an amulet in the form of a fascinum. It
was fashioned of various materials, often in the shape of a phallic
symbol in high relief, on a plaque or medallion. The object was hung
round children’s necks, on garden walls, on doors, or chariots, and on
public buildings.

* * * * *

The Roman historian Julian Capitolinus, in his biography of the Emperor
Pertinax, mentions glass vessels, phallic-shaped, that were used by the
Romans for drinking. These vessels were known as phallovitroboli.

* * * * *

The ithyphallic concept as the source of creation was so deeply
ingrained in the Roman consciousness, that they attached the ithyphallic
device on all manner of objects: stones, seals, rings, medals, and
lamps. As an extension of this concept, the Romans engraved on their
drinking vessels phallic designs, as well as lewd scenes that would
create in the drinker violent erotic provocations.

* * * * *

Sextus Pompeius Festus was a Roman lexicographer of the second century
A.D., who describes a shrine in Rome dedicated to the obscene deities
Mutunus and Tutunus. In this religious cult the suppliants were women.
With head veiled, they came to offer sacrifice to the phallic powers.

* * * * *

The lewd rites of the phallic god Bacchus were celebrated by the Romans
in a sacred wood near the River Tiber. Originally open to women only,
the ceremonies were later on extended to men also, particularly to young
men not over twenty years of age. At the nocturnal rituals there was
clashing of cymbals, beating of drums. After an interval of excessive
wine drinking, there ensued wild scenes of sexual promiscuity and
perversions unlimited. Those initiates who seemed to have any scruples
were sacrificed, and their bodies were thrown into the depths of a
cavern. Men and women went frantic, shrieking their exultation to the
deity, performing abandoned dance sequences. Sinister plots and furtive
machinations also formed part of the aftermath of these tenebrous rites,
malefic in their intentions, often fatal in their effects.

* * * * *

In addition to Priapus as the supreme generative deity, the Romans were
dedicated to a number of other divinities endowed with analogous
properties. Venus herself was worshipped at Rome in four temples.

A late Latin poem, entitled Pervigilium Veneris, _The Vigil of Venus_,
the date and authorship of which are unknown, is dedicated to Venus and
her spring festival. The poem itself is full of vernal descriptions. The
theme is a paean to erotic passion. Its amatory refrain, the sense of
which pervades the entire poem, runs:

Cras amet qui numquam amavit,
Quique amavit cras amet.

He who has never loved will love tomorrow.
And he who has loved will love tomorrow.

A still older deity was Flora, associated with the blossoming of plants
and hence with cosmic generation. At her festival, held during the month
of April, lewd farces were performed, all implicitly generative and
genesiac in intent.

* * * * *

One of the most mysterious and libidinous cults in Rome was that of the
Bona Dea, the Good Goddess, to which women only had access. An annual
ceremonial was held in her honor, when a sow was sacrificed to her.

Juvenal, the satiric poet, describes the excesses of the initiates.
Frenzied with intoxication, overwhelmed with deafening and clamorous
music, these women practiced the most salacious dances. In their
lubricity they were athirst for erotic conflict, and were even willing,
adds the poet, to submit to bestial caresses.

* * * * *

Among the Roman deities associated with marriage rites and connubial
consummations were: Stimula, who aroused the male erotic urges: Strenia,
who furnished vigor: Virginiensis, who detached the bride’s zona or
girdle: Volupia, who excited voluptuous sensations: Iugatinus, who
united the marital partners. Also Domiducus, who conducted the bride to
her new home: Munturnae, who presided over her settlement in her new
position: and, more intimately involved in the physiological
performance, Liber and Libera, Pertunda, Prema, and Subigus.

* * * * *

The Romans represented the male and female genitalia in the shapes of
their wheaten-flour loaves. The epigrammatist Martial, in Book 9, 2,
alludes to this priapic custom:

Illa siligineis pinguescit adultera cunnis.

* * * * *

The Roman poet Ovid (32 B.C.–17 A.D.) presents the ancient witch Medea
in action. She invokes aid in concocting a potion to refurbish old age
and induce youthful vigor:

Ye spells and arts that the wise men use; and thou, O Earth, who
dost provide the wise men with thy potent herbs; ye breezes and
winds, ye mountains and streams and pools; all ye gods of the
groves, all ye gods of the night; be with me now. With your help
I stir up the calm seas by my spell; I break the jaws of
serpents with my incantations. I bid ghosts to come forth from
their tombs. Now I have need of juices by whose aid old age may
be renewed and may turn back to the bloom of youth and regain
its earthly years.

* * * * *

The Roman elegiac poet Tibullus (c. 48 B.C.–19 B.C.) addresses Delia,
the girl who scorned him. He has employed magic means to regain her
love:

Thrice I with Sulphur purified you round,
And thrice the Rite, with Songs th’Enchantress bound:
The Cake, by me thrice sprinkled, put to flight
The death-denouncing Phantoms of the Night,
And I next have, in linen Garb array’d,
In silent Night, nine Times to Trivia pray’d.

* * * * *

In one of the Eclogues of the Roman poet Nemesianus, who flourished in
the third century A.D., there is a dialogue between two shepherds who
discuss their amatory affairs and love spells:

Mopsus: What does it benefit me that the mother of rustic Amyntas has
purified me thrice with fillets, thrice with a sacred bough,
thrice with the vapour of frankincense, burning the crackling
laurels with live sulphur, and pours the ashes out into the stream
with averted face, when thus wretched I am every way inflamed for
Meroë?

Lycidas: These same things the many-colored threads have done for me,
and Mycale has carried round me a thousand unknown herbs. She has
chanted the charm, by which the moon swells, by which the snake is
burst, the rocks run and standing corn removes, and a tree is
plucked up. Lo! My handsome Iollas is nevertheless more, is more
to me.

* * * * *

Horace, the Roman poet (65 B.C.–8 B.C.) depicts, in his _Satires_, a
scene in which a love philtre is prepared.

As thus the boy in wild distress
Bewail’d, of bulla stripp’d and dress,
So fair, that ruthless breasts of Thrace
Had melted to behold his face,
Canidia, with dishevell’d hair
And short crisp vipers coiling there,
Beside a fire of Colchos stands,
And her attendant hag commands
To feed the flames with fig-trees torn
From dead men’s sepulchres forlorn,
With dismal cypress, eggs rubb’d o’er
With filthy toads’ unvenom’d gore,
With screech-owl’s plumes, and herbs of bane,
From far Iolchos fetch’d and Spain,
And fleshless bones by beldam witch
Snatch’d from the jaws of famish’d bitch.
And Sagana, the while, with gown
Tucked to the knees, stalks up and down,
Sprinkling in room and hall and stair
Her magic hell-drops, with her hair
Bristling on end, like furious boar,
Or some sea-urchins wash’d on shore;
Whilst Veia, by remorse unstay’d,
Groans at her toil, as she with spade
That flags not digs a pit, wherein
The boy imbedded to his chin,
With nothing seen save head and throat,
Like those who in the water float,
Shall dainties see before him set,
A maddening appetite to whet,
Then snatch’d away before his eyes,
Till famish’d in despair he dies;
That when his glazing eyeballs should
Have closed on the untasted food,
His sapless marrow and dry spleen
May drug a philtre-draught obscene.
Nor were these all the hideous crew,
But Ariminian Folia, too,
Who with unsatiate lewdness swells,
And drags by her Thessalian spells
The moon and stars down from the sky,
Ease-loving Naples’ vows, was by;
And every hamlet round about
Declares she was, beyond a doubt.
Now forth the fierce Canidia sprang,
And still she gnawed with rotten fang
Her long sharp unpared thumb-nail. What
Then said she? Yea, what said she not?
“O Night and Dian, who with true
And friendly eyes my purpose view,
And guardian silence keep, whilst I
My secret orgies safely ply,
Assist me now, now on my foes
With all your wrath celestial close!
Whilst, stretch’d in soothing sleep, amid
Their forests grim the beasts lie hid,
May all Suburra’s mongrels bark
At yon old wretch, who through the dark
Doth to his lewd encounters crawl,
And on him draw the jeers of all!
He’s with an ointment smear’d, that is
My masterpiece. But what is this?
Why, why should poisons brew’d by me
Less potent than Medea’s be,
By which, for love betray’d, beguiled,
On mighty Creon’s haughty child
She wreaked her vengeance sure and swift,
And vanish’d, when the robe, her gift,
In deadliest venom steep’d and dyed,
Swept off in flames the new-made bride?
No herb there is, nor root in spot
However wild, that I have not;
Yet every common harlot’s bed
Seems with some rare Nepenthe spread,
For there he lives in swinish drowse,
Of me oblivious, and his vows!
He is, aha! protected well
By some more skilful witch’s spell!
But, Varus, thou (doom’d soon to know
The rack of many a pain and woe!)
By potions never used before
Shalt to my feet be brought once more.
And ’tis no Marsian charm shall be
The spell that brings thee back to me!
A draught I’ll brew more strong, more sure,
Thy wandering appetite to cure;
And sooner ’neath the sea the sky
Shall sink, and earth upon them lie,
Than thou not burn with fierce desire
For me, like pitch in sooty fire!”

On this the boy by gentle tones
No more essay’d to move the crones,
But wildly forth with frenzied tongue
These curses Thyestean flung.
“Your sorceries, and spells, and charms
To man may compass deadly harms,
But heaven’s great law of Wrong and Right
Will never bend before their might.
My curse shall haunt you, and my hate
No victim’s blood shall expiate.
But when at your behests I die,
Like the Fury of the Night will I
From Hades come, a phantom sprite—
Such is the Manes’ awful might.”

* * * * *

The Roman poet Vergil (70 B.C.–19 B.C.) depicts, in one of his pastoral
Eclogues, a love episode that involves magic rites for the purpose of
winning the love of Daphnis:

Scarce had night’s cold shade parted from the sky, just at the
time that the dew on the tender grass is sweetest to the cattle,
when leaning on his smooth olive wand Damon thus began:

Rise, Lucifer, and usher in the sky, the genial sky, while I,
deluded by a bridegroom’s unworthy passion for my Nisa, make my
complaint, and turning myself to the gods, little as their
witness has stood me in stead, address them nevertheless, a
dying man, at this very last hour. Take up with me, my pipe, the
song of Maenalus.

Maenalus it is whose forests are ever tuneful, and his pines
ever vocal; he is ever listening to the loves of shepherds, and
to Pan, the first who would not have the reeds left unemployed.
Take up with me, my pipe, the song of Maenalus.

Mopsus has Nisa given him; what may not we lovers expect to see?
Matches will be made by this between griffins and horses, and in
the age to come hounds will accompany timid does to their
draught. Mopsus, cut fresh brands for to-night; it is to you
they are bringing home a wife. Fling about nuts as a bridegroom
should; it is for you that Hesperus is leaving his rest on Oeta.
Take up with me, my pipe, the song of Maenalus.

O worthy mate of a worthy lord! There as you look down on all
the world, and are disgusted at my pipe and my goats, and my
shaggy brow, and this beard that I let grow, and do not believe
that any god cares aught for the things of men. Take up with me,
my pipe, the song of Maenalus.

It was in our enclosure I saw you gathering apples with the dew
on them. I myself showed you the way, in company with my
mother—my twelfth year had just bidden me enter on it. I could
just reach from the ground to the boughs that snapped so easily.
What a sight! what ruin to me! what a fatal frenzy swept me
away! Take up with me, my pipe, the song of Maenalus.

Now know I what love is; it is among savage rocks that he is
produced by Tmarus or Rhodope, or the Garamantes at earth’s end;
no child of lineage or blood like ours. Take up with me, my
pipe, the song of Maenalus.

Love, the cruel one, taught the mother to embrue her hands in
her children’s blood; hard too was thy heart, mother. Was the
mother’s heart harder, or the boy god’s malice more wanton?
Wanton was the boy god’s malice; hard too thy heart, mother.
Take up with me, my pipe, the song of Maenalus.

Aye, now let the wolf even run away from the sheep; let golden
apples grow out of the tough heart of oak; let narcissus blossom
on the alder; let the tamarisk’s bark sweat rich drops of amber;
rivalry let there be between swans and screech-owls; let Tityrus
become Orpheus—Orpheus in the woodland, Arion among the
dolphins. Take up with me, my pipe, the song of Maenalus.

Nay, let all be changed to the deep sea. Farewell, ye woods!
Headlong from the airy mountain’s watchtower I will plunge into
the waves; let this come to her as the last gift of the dying.
Cease, my pipe, cease at length the song of Maenalus.

Thus far Damon; for the reply of Alphesiboeus, do ye recite it,
Pierian maids; it is not for all of us to have command of all.

Bring out water and bind the altars here with a soft woolen
fillet, and burn twigs full of sap and male frankincense, that I
may try the effect of magic rites in turning my husband’s mind
from its soberness; there is nothing but charms wanting here.
Bring me home from the town, my charms, bring me my Daphnis.

Charms have power even to draw the moon down from heaven; by
charms Circe transformed the companions of Ulysses; the cold
snake as he lies in the fields is burst asunder by chanting
charms. Bring me home from the town, my charms, bring me my
Daphnis.

These three threads distinct with three colours I wind round the
first, and thrice draw the image round the altar thus; heaven
delights in an uneven number. Twine in three knots, Amaryllis,
the three colours; twine them, Amaryllis, do, and say, ‘I am
twining the bonds of Love.’ Bring me home from the town, my
charms, bring me my Daphnis.

Just as this clay is hardened, and this wax melted, by one and
the same fire, so may my love act doubly on Daphnis. Crumble the
salt cake, and kindle the crackling bay leaves with bitumen.
Daphnis, the wretch, is setting me on fire; I am setting this
bay on fire about Daphnis. Bring me home from the town, my
charms, bring me my Daphnis.

May such be Daphnis’ passion, like a heifer’s, when, weary of
looking for her mate through groves and tall forests, she throws
herself down by a stream of water on the green sedge, all
undone, and forgets to rise and make way for the fargone
night—may such be his enthralling passion, nor let me have a
mind to relieve it. Bring me home from the town, my charms,
bring me my Daphnis.

These cast-off relics that faithless one left me days ago,
precious pledges for himself, them I now entrust to thee, Earth,
burying them even on the threshold; they are bound as pledges to
give me back Daphnis. Bring me home from the town, my charms,
bring me my Daphnis.

These plants and these poisons culled from Pontus I had from
Moeris’ own hand. They grow in plenty at Pontus. By the strength
of these often I have seen Moeris turn to a wolf and plunge into
the forest, often call up spirits from the bottom of the tomb,
and remove standing crops from one field to another. Bring me
home from the town, my charms, bring me my Daphnis.

Carry the embers out of doors, Amaryllis, and fling them into
the running stream over your head, and do not look behind you.
This shall be my device against Daphnis. As for gods or charms,
he cares for none of them. Bring me home from the town, my
charms, bring me my Daphnis.

Look, look! the flickering flame has caught the altar of its own
accord, shot up from the embers, before I have had time to take
them up, all of themselves. Good luck, I trust! Can I trust
myself? Or is it that lovers make their own dreams? Stop, he is
coming from town; stop now, charms, my Daphnis!

* * * * *

A renewal of vigor by magic means is described in Ovid’s
_Metamorphoses_. The scene involves the witch Medea, her lover Jason,
and Jason’s aged father, Aeson:

Unaccompanied, she stepped uncertainly through the still silence
of midnight. Deep slumber had relaxed men and birds and wild
beasts. Without a sound, the hedges, the motionless branches lay
still. The dewy air was still. Lonely, the stars glimmered.
Thrice extending her arms, she turned toward them. Thrice,
taking some water, she copiously bedewed her locks. Thrice she
uttered howls from her lips. Then, on bent knee, touching the
hard ground, she said:

“O night, most propitious for mysteries, and you, golden stars,
that, along with the moon, follow the fiery day, and you, triple
Hecate, who, aware of our undertaking come forth to help in
incantation and magic art, and you, Earth, who teach magicians
the potency of herbs, and you, zephyrs and winds and hills and
streams and lakes, and all you gods of the groves, be my aid. By
your aid, when I so willed, the streams returned to their
springs to the astonishment of the river banks, and by your aid
I stay the upturned waters and upheave the stagnant straits by
spells, and I drive away the clouds and bring them back, and
banish and summon the winds and break the jaws of snakes with my
words and spells, and move natural rocks and trees uprooted from
the ground and forests and I bid the mountains tremble and the
ground rumble, and the spirits of the dead arise from the tomb.
You also, O Moon, I draw down, and Helios’ chariot too pales at
my incantation. The Dawn grows pale with my poisons. All of you
have quenched the flames of the oxen for me and pressed their
necks, reluctant for the task, under the crooked plough. You
brought wars upon the serpent-born warriors and sleep upon the
grim guardian.

Now there is need of juices whereby old age revived may bloom
once more, and regain its former years. And you deities will
grant this request—for not in vain is the chariot at hand, drawn
by winged dragons.”

There was the chariot, sent from high heaven. No sooner had she mounted
and soothed the frenzied necks of the dragons and shaken the reins
lightly with her hands than she was whisked off aloft, and beheld the
herbs growing on Mount Ossa and lofty Pelion and Othrys and Pindus and
Olympus greater than Pindus. She plucked out suitable herbs by the root,
and some she cut away with the curved blade of a bronze sickle. The
herbs that grew thick on the banks of the Apidanus caught her fancy too
and those on the banks of the Amphrysus. Nor were you overlooked,
Enipeus: and the Peneus and the waters of the Spercheus contributed
their quota, and the reedy banks of the Boebeis. Medea gathered too the
sturdy grasses in Euboean Anthedon. And now when the ninth day had seen
her traversing all the fields in her winged-dragon chariot, she
returned.

As she advanced, she halted at the threshold and the gate, and stood
under the sky. And she shunned contacts with men: and set up two altars
of turf, on the right of Hecate, on the left of Youth. After she had
wreathed them with vervain and wild foliage, close by she made a
sanctuary by means of two ditches, and pierced the throat of a black ram
with the sacrificial knife, and soaked the wide ditches in the blood.

Then she poured over it a beaker of flowing wine and a bronze beaker of
warm milk and at the same time murmured words over it, and called upon
the divinities of the earth, and begged the King of the Lower Regions
and his stolen wife not to hasten to rob the limbs of the aged soul.

When she had propitiated them with prayer and many a chant, she bade
that the exhausted body of Aeson be carried out of doors, and on the
strewn herbs she extended the lifeless shape, relaxed by incantation in
deep slumber. She bade Aeson’s son stand clear away, and the attendants
too, and she admonished them to withdraw their profane sight from the
mysteries. So bidden, they scattered in different directions. With
disheveled hair, like a Bacchante, Medea encircled the blazing altars.
She dipped finely split torches in the dark pool of gore, and lighted
the bloody brands on the two altars. Thrice she encircled the aged body
with fire, thrice with water, thrice with sulphur.

Meanwhile the potent drug boiled in the bronze kettle and leapt and
whitened in the swelling froth. She threw in roots cut in Thessalian
valley and seeds and blossoms and pungent spices. She added pebbles
secured from the remote East and sands washed by the refluent Ocean
stream. She added too the frost caught in the full moon and the baleful
wings of a screech-owl together with the flesh itself, and the entrails
of a werewolf wont to change its animal form into a man. Nor was there
lacking the scaly skin of a water-serpent, the liver of a living stag.
In addition, she threw in the head of a crow nine centuries old. By
these and a thousand other unspeakable means she planned to delay the
destined function of Tartarus. With a dry twig of long softened olive
she stirred all the ingredients together, turning them over from top to
bottom.

Behold now the old twig stirring in the boiling kettle first turned
green, and presently put forth leaves, and suddenly became loaded with
heavy olives. But wherever the fire belched out foam from the hollow
kettle and the drops fell hot on the ground, the soil grew fresh, and
flowers and soft grass sprang up.

As soon as she beheld this sight, with drawn sword Medea pierced the
aged man’s throat and, allowing the old blood to exude, filled the spot
with juices. After Aeson had drunk them, either with his lips or through
his wound, his beard and hair, shedding their greyness, quickly assumed
a dark color. The emaciation vanished, and the pallor and decay
disappeared, and the hollow wrinkles were filled up in the fresh body,
and the limbs grew rapidly.

Aeson stood amazed, recalling that this was how he was forty years back.

* * * * *

Petronius, who belongs in the first century A.D., produced a remarkable
novel entitled _The Satyricon_, in which he describes an instance of
renewed virility by means of witchcraft:

“This is the custom, Sir,” said she, “and chiefly of this City,
where the women are skill’d in Magick-charms, enough to make the
Moon confess their power, therefore the recovery of any useful
Instrument of Love becomes their care; ’tis only writing some
soft tender things to my Lady, and you make her happy in a kind
return. For ’tis confest, since her Disappointment, she has not
been her self.”

I readily consented, and calling for Paper, thus addrest myself:

“’Tis confest, Madam, I have often sinned, for I’m not only a
Man, but a very young one, yet never left the Field so
dishonorably before. You have at your Feet a confessing
Criminal, that deserves whatever you inflict: I have cut a
Throat, betray’d my Country, committed Sacrilege; if a
punishment for any of these will serve, I am ready to receive
sentence. If you fancy my death, I wait you with my Sword; but
if a beating will content you, I fly naked to your Arms. Only
remember, that ’twas not the Workman, but his Instruments that
fail’d: I was ready to engage, but wanted Arms. Who rob’d me of
them I know not; perhaps my eager mind outrun my body; or while
with an unhappy haste I aim’d at all; I was cheated with
Abortive joys. I only know I don’t know what I’ve done: You bid
me fear a Palsie, as if the Disease cou’d do greater that has
already rob’d me of that, by which I shou’d have purchas’d you.
All I have to say for my self, is this, that I will certainly
pay with interest the Arrears of Love, if you allow me time to
repair my misfortune.”

Having sent back Chrysis with this Answer, to encourage my jaded
Body, after the Bath and Strengthening Oyles, had a little
rais’d me, I apply’d my self to strong meats, such as strong
Broths and Eggs, using Wine very moderately; upon which to
settle my self, I took a little Walk, and returning to my
Chamber, slept that night without Gito; so great was my care to
acquit my self honourably with my Mistress, that I was afraid he
might have tempted my constancy, by tickling my Side.

The next day rising without prejudice, either to my body or
spirits, I went, tho’ I fear’d the place was ominous, to the
same Walk, and expected Chrysis to conduct me to her Mistress; I
had not been long there, e’re she came to me, and with her a
little Old Woman. After she had saluted me, “What, my nice Sir
Courtly,” said she, “does your Stomach begin to come to you?”

At what time, the Old Woman, drawing from her bosome, a wreath
of many colours, bound my Neck; and having mixt spittle and
dust, she dipt her finger in’t, and markt my Fore-head, whether
I wou’d or not.

* * * * *

In Rome the inns—the tabernae, the popinae, and the ganea—were
virtually, in addition to their primary purpose in serving drink, houses
of prostitution and assignation.

* * * * *

In wedding celebrations among the Romans, ribald and licentious songs
played no mean part. These songs were known as Fescennini Versus, and
were believed to have apotropaic significance, while they also recalled
the primary purpose of the nuptial union.

At harvest festivals similar lewd verses were exchanged between masked
performers.

* * * * *

As visual guides to the lupanaria in ancient Rome, there were lighted
lamps, of phallic shape, near the doors. Seneca the philosopher refers
to this custom. Also the poet Juvenal in the sixth satire:

fumoque lucernae
Foeda lupanaris

An old commentator adds: Prostabant autem meretrices ad lucernas.

* * * * *

Acca Larentia was a Roman goddess whose festival—the Larentalia or
Larentinalia—fell on December 23. The tradition was that she herself had
been a prostitute. Her festival was a fertility ritual, as in the case
of Lupa and Flora.

* * * * *

There was a tradition that the Emperor Heliogabalus sponsored a brothel
in Rome called Senatulus Mulierum: The Little Senate of Women.

* * * * *

Nonariae were public prostitutes in Rome who were not allowed to appear
before the ninth hour. The satirist Persius refers to this custom:

Si Cynico barbam petulans Nonaria vellat.

* * * * *

The ancients believed that the feminine lips had some relation to the
genitalia: and likewise that a prominent nose indicated a corresponding
membrum virile. There is evidence of this view in a short epigram by the
Roman poet Martial:

Mentula tam magna est quantus tibi, Papyle,
nasus, ut possis, quotiens arrigis, olfacere.

* * * * *

_Ovid_

One of the richest sources of eroticism is the Roman poet Publius
Ovidius Naso, commonly called in English Ovid. Born in 43 B.C., he
reached the greatest literary and social heights of his time, but,
falling under imperial disfavor, he ended his life in bleak and desolate
banishment.

At Rome he acquired a deep knowledge of rhetoric, both academic and
applied, and then continued his studies in Athens. As was then usual, he
subsequently made the grand tour of the East. Although he was destined,
by his family’s wishes, for a career in law, Ovid dedicated himself to
his supreme and exclusive love, the poetic Muse.

His output was tremendous. He addressed a certain Corinna in a series of
love elegies. He wrote fictional poetic letters of enamoured women. His
_Metamorphoses_ describes strange changes undergone by mortals and
divinities in pursuit of love. His Love Letters of Heroines, Directions
for a Lady’s Cosmetic Preparations, the Art of Love, and the Remedies
for Love belong in a common category.

The principal climactic situation in his life was his banishment, by the
imperial mandate of the Emperor Augustus, to the desolation of Tomis, on
the Black Sea. He had to abandon his wife and home—he had been married
three times—, his literary friends, and his social circle. It was a kind
of living death, a spiritual and intellectual cataclysm. At Tomis, a
wild, barbaric, inhospitable spot, Ovid spent the remaining years of his
life, in regret and supplications fruitlessly addressed to the Emperor,
and in writing, particularly his _Tristia_, Sad Themes.

The reason for the banishment is still obscure, although Ovid himself
hints at a ‘poem and a blunder.’ The poem was his Art of Love, which was
frowned upon imperially and excluded from the public libraries in the
Roman capital. The blunder of which Ovid was apparently guilty was
associated, as he declares, with his possession of eyes—that is, he may
have been a spectator or observer of some adulterous act involving the
imperial family. Whatever the factual reason, the Emperor remained
obdurate to the poet’s pleas, and Ovid died in exile.

In the voluminous corpus of poetic accomplishment, Ovid produced many
major contributions to erotic literature. His _Ars Amatoria_ is a
universal handbook to love and its manifestations. His _Amores_ is a
sequence of amorous vignettes. His _Remedia Amoris_, Remedies for Love,
constitutes a body of amatory expiations that in spite of their negative
tone are as voluptuously and cynically libidinous as his forthright
prescriptions. In all, here is a body of themes, views, techniques that
expound the most intimate secrets of the boudoir and the salon, of the
entire range of erotic manifestations. Among his known contemporaries
Ovid became a kind of arch-consultant in love, the ultimate arbiter of
dalliance, the poetic confessor of sensual delights. And continuously
through the ages his poetic presentations, descriptions, enumerations,
his almost legalized counsel in debauchery, translated into most
European languages, have served as a final, authoritative, cynical and
libidinous source book.

Ovid probes into both normal and perverted forms of amatory experience,
and reveals in vivid and not infrequently lurid detail, the
sophisticated gallantries, the urbane wantonness, the suave and polished
salaciousness, and the cultivated prurience of the Roman capital during
the first century before the Christian era.

In respect of the means of inspiring and promoting amatory activity,
both in men and women, Ovid has many pointed things to say about
potions. In Latin, the _poculum amatorium_ is the common expression used
to designate the potion, that is, the love-goblet.

Ovid’s primary theme, in these exciting productions of his, is: Love is
a campaign, long and ruthless. It requires skill, training, equipment,
strategy, vision. So, in his pleas to Corinna his poetic offerings are
in the nature of addresses to Woman, tantalizing, shameless, an epitome
of feminine wiles and graces.

As stimuli toward erotic diversions, Ovid generously and without
resentment recommends, in addition to his own poetic manuals, his Roman
contemporaries Propertius and Tibullus, the elegiac poets, as well as
Vergil: and, among the Greeks, the erotic lyrics and occasional pieces
of Callimachus and Philetas, Anacreon and Sappho.

In Book 3 of the _Metamorphoses_ we have the story of Narcissus,
enamoured aphrodisiacally by his own image reflected in a pool. The
image of himself is so clearly defined, the lips move so appealingly in
response to his own pleas, that he is ready to succumb amorously. Then
he realizes the truth, that he and his reflection are one, his own self,
his very identity. And he longs to free himself from himself, to escape
the duplication. By this imaginative and symbolical mythological design,
Ovid is unquestionably stressing the erotic passion itself, the frenzied
ecstasy to detach oneself from one’s own being, the clamor of man
against his fettered self and his erotic agonies.

A potion may appear in various guises. A vision of beauty can itself act
like an enriched, stimulating philtre. The enraptured glance sends its
erotic pronouncement to the enraptured heart, and the potion is
virtually consummated. So, it seemed to Ovid, was the strange episode
involving the sculptor Pygmalion:

Pygmalion loathing their lascivious life,
Abhorr’d all womanhood, but most a wife:
So single chose to live, and shunn’d to wed,
Well pleas’d to want a consort of his bed.
Yet fearing idleness, the nurse of ill,
In sculpture exercis’d his happy skill;
And carv’d in iv’ry such a maid, so fair,
As nature could not with his art compare,
Were she to work; but in her own defence,
Must take her patterns here, and copy hence.
Pleas’d with his idol, he commends, admires,
Adores; and last, the thing ador’d, desires.
A very virgin in her face was seen,
And had she mov’d, a living maid had been:
One wou’d have thought she could have stirr’d; but strove
With modesty, and was asham’d to move.
Art hid with art, so well perform’d the cheat,
It caught the carver with his own deceit:
He knows ’tis madness, yet he must adore,
And still the more he knows it, loves the more:
The flesh, or what so seems, he touches oft,
Which feels so smooth, that he believes it soft.
Fir’d with this thought, at once he strain’d the breast,
And on the lips a burning kiss impress’d.
’Tis true, the harden’d breast resists the gripe,
And the cold lips return a kiss unripe:
But when, retiring back, he look’d again,
To think it iv’ry, was a thought too mean:
So wou’d believe she kiss’d, and courting more,
Again embrac’d her naked body o’er;
And straining hard the statue, was afraid
His hands had made a dint, and hurt his maid:
Explor’d her, limb by limb, and fear’d to find
So rude a gripe had left a livid mark behind:
With flatt’ry now he seeks her mind to move,
And now with gifts, (the pow’rful bribes of love:)
He furnishes her closet first; and fills
The crowded shelves with rarities of shells;
Adds orient pearls, which from the conch he drew,
And all the sparkling stones of various hue:
And parrots, imitating human tongue,
And singing-birds in silver cages hung;
And ev’ry fragrant flow’r, and od’rous green,
Were sorted well, with lumps of amber laid between:
Rich, fashionable robes her person deck:
Pendants her ears, and pearls adorn her neck:
Her taper’d fingers too with rings are grac’d,
And an embroider’d zone surrounds her slender waist.
Thus like a queen array’d, so richly dress’d,
Beauteous she shew’d, but naked shew’d the best.
Then, from the floor, he rais’d a royal bed,
With cov’rings of Sidonian purple spread:
The solemn rites perform’d, he calls her bride,
With blandishments invites her to his side,
And as she were with vital sense possess’d,
Her head did on a plumy pillow rest.
The feast of Venus came, a solemn day,
To which the Cypriots due devotion pay;
With gilded horns the milk-white heifers led,
Slaughter’d before the sacred altars, bled:
Pygmalion off’ring, first approach’d the shrine,
And then with pray’rs implor’d the pow’rs divine:
“Almighty gods, if all we mortals want,
If all we can require, be yours to grant;
Make this fair statue mine,” he would have said,
But chang’d his words for shame; and only pray’d,
“Give me the likeness of my iv’ry maid.”
The golden goddess, present at the pray’r,
Well knew he meant th’inanimated fair,
And gave the sign of granting his desire;
For thrice in cheerful flames ascends the fire.
The youth, returning to his mistress, hies,
And, impudent in hope, with ardent eyes,
And beating breast, by the dear statue lies.
He kisses her white lips, renews the bliss,
And looks and thinks they redden at the kiss:
He thought them warm before: nor longer stays,
But next his hand on her hard bosom lays:
Hard as it was, beginning to relent,
It seem’d, the breast beneath his fingers bent;
He felt again, his fingers made a print,
’Twas flesh, but flesh so firm, it rose against the dint:
The pleasing task he fails not to renew;
Soft, and more soft at ev’ry touch it grew;
Like pliant wax, when chafing hands reduce
The former mass to form, and frame for use
He would believe, but yet is still in pain,
And tries his argument of sense again,
Presses the pulse, and feels the leaping vein.
Convinc’d, o’erjoy’d, his studied thanks and praise,
To her who made the miracle, he pays:
Then lips to lips he join’d; now freed from fear,
He found the savor of the kiss sincere:
At this the waken’d image op’d her eyes,
And view’d at once the light and lover, with surprise.
The goddess present at the match she made,
So bless’d the bed, such fruitfulness convey’d,
That e’er ten moons had sharpen’d either horn,
To crown their bliss, a lovely boy was born;
Paphos his name, who, grown to manhood, wall’d
The city Paphos, from the founder call’d.

The realism of the sculptured figure, together with the aroused passion
of the artist, produced a kind of symbiotic philtre, a flaming, kinetic
periapt.

In Book 1 of the _Ars Amatoria_ Ovid introduces his basic subject: love
unrestrained, Aphrodite Pandemos, patroness of free love, of passion
unconfined:

Far hence, ye Vestals, be, who bind your hair;
And wives, who gowns below your ankles wear.
I sing the brothels loose and unconfin’d,
Th’unpunishable pleasures of the kind;
Which all alike, for love, or money find.

And, in a brief preface, he offers an epitome of early Roman history,
which is equated succinctly with military prowess and sexual prowess:

Thus Romulus became so popular;
This was the way to thrive in peace and war;
To pay his army, and fresh whores to bring:
Who wou’d not fight for such a gracious king!

Now Ovid dwells on wine as an amatory stimulant, a virtual flaming
potion:

But thou, when flowing cups in triumph ride,
And the lov’d nymph is seated by thy side;
Invoke the God, and all the mighty pow’rs,
That wine may not defraud thy genial hours.
Then in ambiguous words thy suit prefer;
Which she may know were all addrest to her.

Practice all the variations conceivable in winning your designated
conquest, Ovid advises recurrently. Your wit and suavity will prevail:
far more, in fact, than artificial aids, such as philtres. Philtres,
Ovid asserts from the richness of his erotic experience, are futile in
the contests of love:

Pallid philtres given to girls were of no avail. Philtres harm
the mind and produce an impact of madness.

He enumerates many items that were popularly reputed to possess
aphrodisiac properties. But you should shun them, he reiterates, for
their effect is minimal. Hippomanes, the excrescence on a new-born colt,
is ineffectual: similarly with the traditional magic herbs purchased
furtively from some wizened old hag. Reject, equally, formulas for
exorcism and similar enchantments. The best love philtre, in short, is
the lover’s own passion. Even the ancient enchantress Circe, whom Homer
describes so vividly, could not, by the aid of her occult devices,
prevent the unfaithfulness of Ulysses: nor could the tumultuous Medea,
practiced in the lore of the sorceress, combat the waywardness of Jason.

It is true, the poet acknowledges, that in the popular mind many
objects, grasses, roots are associated with the virtues of the love
potion: but erroneously so, he adds. He lists the items as follows:

Some teach that herbs will efficacious prove,
But in my judgment such things poison love.
Pepper with biting nettle-seed they bruise,
With yellow pellitory wine infuse.
Venus with such as this no love compels,
Who on the shady hill of Eryx dwells.
Eat the white shallots sent from Megara
Or garden herbs that aphrodisiac are,
Or eggs, or honey on Hymettus flowing,
Or nuts upon the sharp-leaved pine-trees growing.

* * * * *

Morality, especially sexual morality, descended to its most degenerative
nadir in the period of the Roman Empire. The poets and satirists, the
historians and the moralists all uniformly fulminate against the
profligacies of Roman matrons, particularly in the upper social levels
and in the court circles, and blast and condemn the utter
licentiousness, lewdness, and abandonment of all restraints.

Seneca the philosopher asserts:

Anything assailed by countless desires is insecure. And the
young and even more mature matrons, descendants of distinguished
figures in the tumultuous sequence of Roman history, were
exposed to every kind of inducement to laxity, every urgent
temptation, domestically, publicly, and politically. There was a
vogue of indiscriminate flirtation, highly skilled, ingeniously
practiced, that led into violent passion and into adultery, into
incest and multiple perversions. Lust became the primary
satisfaction, and its consummation was the most common, the most
clamant factor in the social frame.

Even the earlier days of the Roman Republic were, as the poet Horace
declares—and he was the Augustan Poet Laureate—‘rich in sin.’ Propertius
too confirms this view, and goes one step further. The sea, he suggests,
will be dried up and the stars torn from heaven before women reform
their immoral ways.

The entire nation, rich and prosperous, masters of the universe,
overwhelmed and sated with exotic luxuries, attended, for their every
whim, by hordes of slaves, had lost all human modesty, all human
virtues. Yet all was not entirely lost, for voices cried out, however
feebly and helplessly, in the midst of their successions of wantonness
and orgies.

The poet Ovid wryly says:

Only those women are chaste who are unsolicited, and a man who
is enraged at his wife’s amours is merely a boor.

Seneca says again, in respect of married women: A woman who is content
to have two lovers only is a paragon.

For adultery and divorce were the usual recreations of many Roman
matrons in Imperial times. Marriage itself was often a mere formality,
and it implied no loyalties, no honor. Some women, declares Seneca,
counted the years not by the consuls, but by the number of husbands they
had.

And the Church Father, Tertullian, added later, in the same vein: Women
marry, only to divorce. Ovid himself, the archpoet of love, was married
three times. Caesar had four wives in succession. Mark Antony also had
four. Sulla the statesman and Pompey each had five wives. Pliny the
Younger had three wives. Martial the epigrammatist mentions a certain
Phileros who had seven wives.

Women were no better, no less restless. Tullia, Cicero’s daughter, had
three husbands. The Emperor Nero was the third husband of Poppaea, and
the fifth of Messalina. The poet Martial refers to a woman who had eight
husbands, and to another who was suspected of murdering her seven
husbands, one after the other.

Every passion, every illicit amour, was a provocation to the Roman
women. They had intrigues with their slaves, with actors and
pantomimists, with jockeys, charioteers, gladiators, and flute-players.

Roman temples were rendez-vous, and prostitution and adultery were
practiced among the altars and in the cells that were heavy with
incense. In a striking passage, Tertullian personifies Idolatry, who
confesses: My sacred groves of pilgrimage, my mountains and springs, my
city temples, all know how I corrupt chastity.

Astrological and magic techniques contributed to the already degenerate
Romans of the Empire. Old hags practiced procuring and other dubious
trades. They prepared drugs and potions and salves for beauty and
passion and poisoning. In time, these practices assumed a mysterious
aura. They absorbed the secret cults of the Nile and the Ganges and the
Euphrates. Some of the practitioners were actually reputable, dignified,
eagerly sought after by women. Lucian describes a certain Alexander of
Abonuteichos—stately, with well-trimmed beard, penetrating look,
modulated voice. He wore a wig of flowing locks. He was dressed in a
white and purple tunic, and a white cloak, and in his hand he carried a
scythe.

CHAPTER IV
ORIENT

Ancient Hindu literature treats in startling detail every conceivable
aspect of erotic manifestations. There are guides and manuals and
elaborate treatises and monographs devoted to particular topics: to
coital procedures, to male and female characteristics and tendencies, to
strange stimuli, and to amatory potions and philtres. Of all these
manuals possibly the Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana Malanaga, who is presumed
to belong in the fourth century A.D., is the best known. It is, in fact,
the most widely disseminated treatise on all phases of erotic practices.

The Kama Sutra furnishes specific information on the techniques of
sexual relationships, the virtues and defects of women, the degrees of
sensuality among both men and women, the criteria of beauty and
attractiveness, the most effective devices in the matter of dress and
hair arrangement, foods and cosmetics, perfumes, and the symbolic
language of love.

It also stresses potions, their component elements, their preparation,
and the type of philtres that are most favorable to the erotic
sensibilities.

The Hindu manuals also make special classifications of women according
to the degree and durability of their erotic sensations, their physical
appearance, and the osphresiological conditions arising from the pudenda
muliebria. Nothing is secretive, nothing is taboo. The primary and
universal activity, it is assumed, necessitates wide and deep and exact
and revelatory knowledge, so that the man or woman may function to the
fullest and most complete extent.

The male is also subjected to analysis, in an amatory direction,
according to physiological and erotic categories. The most personal, the
most intimate, the most normally cryptic and unspoken matters are
subjected to forthright description and comment. For example, one
subject discussed with the utmost candor is the intensity of the male
erotic potential and his general reactions to sexual conjugation.

Embraces and their varieties of erotic significance, postures and
degrees of proximity and physiological contiguity come under observation
and exposition. Especially the thirteen types of kissing, each in its
own way symptomatic of the intensity of the passion. The art of kissing
was itself so important in both ancient classical and Asiatic eroticism
that, in the Middle Ages, it reached a literary climax. Johannes
Secundus, a Dutch scholar, wrote a passionate amatory sequence of Latin
poems entitled _Basia_, Kisses, in which he exceeded the lyrical surge
and sway and the pulsating exultation of the Roman poet Catullus.

* * * * *

In the course of his surgical and medical experiences in various
countries, notably in the Orient, Dr. Jacobus X, the French army surgeon
who is the author of a voluminous corpus of anthropological matter
entitled _Untrodden Fields of Anthropology_ (2 volumes. Paris: Published
by Charles Carrington: 2nd. edition, 1898), the author gathered a great
deal of unique and miscellaneous and little known information on sexual
practices. In discussing potions, he dwells on cubeb pepper, a popular
item in the love philtres of the East.

A drink in which the leaves of cubeb pepper have been steeped, according
to Dr. Jacobus, produces pronounced genital excitation.

* * * * *

The Arabs were astoundingly prolific in producing manuals on erotic
themes, ranging over the entire field of sexual practices, normal and
perverted, to which man is physiologically bound.

The attitude adopted in such handbooks, however, is free from the
contrived prurient or lascivious tone that might possibly have been
expected, particularly in relation to occidental erotic literature.
There is apparent, on the contrary, a certain reverential humility, as
of one who treats a sacred subject for which supreme gratitude is to be
accorded to the ultimate and beneficent Maker. In this sense, therefore,
erotic matters have inherently a sanctity that is acknowledged by the
Arab writers again and again. As in the case of the Sheikh Nefzawi’s
_The Perfumed Garden_. Or in the amorous episodes that pervade the
corpus of tales of the _Arabian Nights_. Or in the _Book of Exposition
in the Science of Coition_, attributed to a certain theologian and
historian named Jalal al-Din al-Siyuti. Many Arab erotic treatises
actually introduce the subject with a devout invocation to Allah as the
creator and dispenser of such beatific and voluptuous pleasures as are
detailed in the text.

* * * * *

In one specific instance the Sheikh Nefzawi, after describing a
preparation for correcting amatory impairment, adds: This preparation
will make the weakness disappear and effect a cure, with the permission
of God the Highest.

* * * * *

A Chinese amatory concoction, whose base was opium, was known as affion.
Reputedly, it had decided erotic effects: which, however, were of an
intensely violent nature accompanied by flagrant brutality. The fact of
opium as a major ingredient, however, was evidently an inducement to its
use.

* * * * *

Often small creatures, insects, reptiles, formed the base of amatory
philtres. In Africa, for example, the amphibious animal that belonged to
the lizard species and was named lacerta scincus was anciently ground
into powder and taken as a beverage.

This concoction was considered an aphrodisiac of remarkable potency.

* * * * *

A cogently recommended prescription in the famous Hindu manual, the
Ananga-Ranga, consists of the juice of the plant bhuya-Kokali, dried in
the sun, and mixed with ghee or clarified butter, honey, and candied
sugar. This potion, it is urged, is taken with great pleasurable
anticipation.

* * * * *

In Arabia, a highly recommended beverage, designed to strengthen and
maintain amatory energy, is camel’s milk in which honey has been poured.
The prescription requires consecutive and regular application.

Identical in intent, and somewhat similar in ingredients, is a kind of
broth prescribed by the Sheikh Nefzawi, the erotologist. It consists of
onion juices, together with purified honey. This mixture is heated until
only the consistency of the honey remains. Then it is cooled, water is
added, and finally pounded chick-peas. To be taken in a small dose,
advises Nefzawi, during cold spells of weather, and before retiring to
bed, and for one day only. The result, he promises, will be startlingly
successful.

* * * * *

A Turkish recipe recommends olibanum, which is frankincense, mixed with
rose water, along with camphor, myrrh, and musk, all pounded and
fricated together. The resultant mixture is sealed hermetically in a
glass. Then it is left for a day or two in the sun. Now the preparation
is ready for use: as a spray over the hands in washing, or on the body,
or on the clothing, with consequent impacts on the person and on the
erotogenic areas.

* * * * *

In the Orient, honey normally and regularly takes the place occupied by
sugar in Western countries. Hence honey is a common ingredient in many
foods, pastries and drinks. Basically, it appears repeatedly in
prescriptions designed as love-potions. It is, to take an instance,
frequently mentioned by Avicenna, the eleventh century Arab philosopher,
physician, and libertine, as well as by the erotologist the Sheikh
Nefzawi. Honey, compounded with pepper, or with ginger, or with cubebs,
in various proportions and variously formed into a consistent brew, is a
standard recipe in the amatory pharmacopoeia of the East.

* * * * *

Indian manuals on erotology contain many directions, suggestions, and
specific prescriptions relative to the increase of masculine potency.
Some of these prescriptions advise rare or unobtainable herbs. Others
are hazardous, and may occasion dangerous reactions. Some are merely
humorously and naively fantastic and impossible or futile of
realization: while occasional recommendations may be warranted and may
have some amatory validity.

A drink consisting of milk, with sugar added and the root of the
uchchata plant, piper chaba, which is a species of pepper, and liquorice
reputedly has strong support as an energizing agent.

Another milk concoction contains seeds of long pepper, seeds of
sanseviera roxburghiana, and the hedysarum gangeticum plant, pounded
together.

Still another recipe advocates milk and sugar, in which the testes of a
ram or goat have been boiled.

* * * * *

An Indian excitant, reputedly effective, is a kind of liquid paste
consisting of roots of the trapa bispinosa plant, tuscan jasmine, the
kasurika plant, liquorice, and kshirakapoli. All these ingredients, most
of them indigenous to India, are crushed together and the conglomerate
powder is put into a mixture of milk, sugar, and clarified butter, that
is, ghee. The entire concoction is then slowly boiled. This is
considered a potent amatory beverage, and is so recommended in the
manuals.

* * * * *

Ghee is commonly used in Indian culinary practice. It is also a frequent
ingredient in potions and compounds that are directed toward genital
excitations. A reputedly forceful agent of this sort is the following
recipe, in which ghee appears. Sesame seeds are soaked with sparrows’
eggs: then boiled in milk, to which ghee and sugar, the fruit of the
trapa bispinosa plant and the kasurika plant, as well as beans and wheat
flour, have been added.

* * * * *

Sparrows’ eggs and rice, boiled in milk with an admixture of honey and
ghee, provide what is considered an effective amatory stimulant.

A concoction of milk, honey, ghee, liquorice, sugar, and the juice of
the fennel plant is considered a provocative beverage.

* * * * *

Boiled ghee itself, taken as a morning drink in spring time, is
believed, in Hindu erotology, to form a positive excitant for amorous
practices.

* * * * *

Certain oriental plants that have special erotic virtues are mentioned
frequently in Hindu amatory treatises. Among such plants are: the
shvadaustra plant, asparagus racemosus, the guduchi plant, liquorice,
long pepper, and the premna spinosa. These are often used in compounds
to form a potion.

* * * * *

Among the diversified prescriptions, compounds, and philtres contained
in the Ananga-Ranga or in similar erotic manuals mentioned in this
survey, not a few are merely innocuous in action by virtue of their
innocuous ingredients. Others are merely ineffective, while still others
may be decidedly fraught with hazards and dangers in their reactions.
All potions and amatory concoctions, therefore, either alluded to or
described in greater detail in this present conspectus, are treated from
an academic or historical or solely informative viewpoint, not as ad hoc
specifics for any physiologically amatory condition whatever.

* * * * *

The Ananga-Ranga usually includes, among amatory items that form
energizing concoctions, plants, roots, blossoms, flowers that are
indigenous to India. Many of these plants have their modern botanical
designations in Latin terminology, while others still remain
unidentifiable or extremely rare.

Kuili powder, lechi, kanta-gokhru, kakri, and laghushatavari, compounded
as a mixture in milk, will, it is asserted, create manifest
physiological vigor.

* * * * *

An amatory drink concocted in the East is thus compounded: Pith of the
moh tree, well pounded and mixed with cow’s milk. It constitutes a
highly strengthening potion.

* * * * *

Among wealthy Chinese, lavish dining includes a special broth or soup.
This soup is particularly favored for its energizing and provocative
excitation. The soup is prepared from the nests of sea-swallows, highly
spiced. These nests are built from edible sea-weeds, to which cling
fish—spawn particles rich in phosphorus. As an erotic beverage, the soup
is reputed to be extremely efficacious.

* * * * *

Among Chinese in low economic levels, nuoc-man is used as a love
stimulant. It is an extraction of decomposed fish, prepared like
cod-liver oil.

* * * * *

The leaves of cubeb pepper, in an infusion, are considered in Chinese
erotology to produce marked amatory tendencies.

* * * * *

A very popular pill, whose composition, however, is not revealed to the
reader, appears again and again in the long picaresque, erotic Chinese
novel entitled _Chin P’ing Mei_. One of the characters, a monk,
recommends to the adventurous hero that a certain pill, to be taken in a
drop of spirits, has remarkable potency, which is specified numerically
and in the degree of its voluptuousness. The erotic effects, in fact,
are described by the monk in verse. The pill, yellow in hue, and ovoid
in shape, is of the utmost efficacy, over a long expanse of days, the
masculine vigor, described generously and enticingly, increasing with
each successive day and each amatory encounter.

* * * * *

From a genital gland of the musk-deer and also of a species of goat that
thrives in Tartary, a bitter, volatile substance is extracted, that is
termed musk. In the Orient, notably in Tibet and in Iran, musk has been
in use, in culinary preparations, for its assumed erotic virtues.

Musk, in fact, is pervasively associated with amatory sensations. To the
ideal woman, according to Hindu erotology, whose pulchritude and appeal
are beyond criticism, clings the aroma of musk, elusive, tantalizing.

Musk has long been involved in erotic practices, and its virtue in this
direction has been repeatedly emphasized in amatory manuals,
particularly among the Arabs. Even in tales and legends, in poetry and
in chronicles, the perfume of musk and its marked allure play no small
part in the creation of romantic episodes.

The tradition of musk as an amatory agent, arousing mental and sensual
erotic images and inclinations, lingers on into contemporary times. In a
popular mystery tale, _The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu_, by Sax Rohmer, the
plot centres around a sinister, super-intelligent Oriental operator
named Dr. Fu-Manchu. One of his hirelings is the woman called Kâramanèh.
Her nearness is sensed by the narrator, a certain Dr. Petrie. He detects
the perfume, which ‘like a breath of musk, spoke of the Orient.’ It
seemed to intoxicate the narrator, disturbing his rational faculties,
suggesting the beauty of the villainous Kâramanèh.

* * * * *

In the inexhaustible richness of world literature, in every country and
in every century, there are texts, memoirs, guides, novels, dramas,
poetry, sagas and legends that are devoted largely, occasionally
exclusively, to the amatory theme: from the Dialogues of Luisa Sigea to
Pietro Aretino’s lascivious sonnets, from the amatory epistles of
Alciphron to the lush and fantastic orgiastic extravagances of the
Marquis de Sade.

Among all this heterogeneous variety of treatment, viewpoint, and
exposition, there is the almost universally accepted standard text,
originally produced in Sanskrit by Vatsyayana, of the Kama Sutra, the
Apothegms on Love, the essence of amatory science, the distillations of
erotic precepts.

* * * * *

A certain plant named Pellitory of Spain, and, in Latin terminology,
Anacyclus Pyrethrum, has a traditionally credited amatory quality. The
plant is so considered in Arab erotological literature.

* * * * *

The Orient, knowledgeable in the virtues and characteristics of
numberless extracts and distillations, unguents and lotions, considered
ambergris, as a perfume, to be endowed with restorative, life-preserving
properties. Anciently, among the Persians, there was a tonic composed of
precious stones—pearls, and rubies, and gold, and powdered ambergris,
producing a pastille that was eaten with anticipatory amatory prospects.

In modern times, too, in the East, coffee is often drunk in which a
touch of ambergris has been intruded.

Very anciently, ambergris had reputedly amazing qualities, that would
produce, temporarily, a state of rejuvenescence in aged suppliants.

* * * * *

Almonds belong to the Orient. Their fragrance is entwined in Oriental
poetry, in Oriental legend, and in Oriental modes of living. It is
therefore not surprising that the almond, variously prepared, whether
powdered, or reduced to an oil, is associated with invigorating tonics.
_The Perfumed Garden_, the erotic handbook written by the Arab
erotologist the Sheikh Nefzawi, describes a number of preparations in
which the base is almond.

He recommends the eating of some twenty almonds, with a glassful of
honey, and one hundred pine-tree grains, just before retiring to bed. As
an alternate, there is chicken broth, with cream, yolk of eggs, and
powdered almonds.

* * * * *

In Eastern Asia there has always been, for untold ages, an awareness of
the stimulating effects of certain foods. So, among the Annamites, the
chief food was fish, which, according to certain anthropological studies
and investigations, gives an appreciably lascivious tendency to this
people.

Among other foods, they are addicted to garlic, which they consume in
large quantities, ginger, and onion, all of which have aphrodisiac
properties.

* * * * *

There are other erotogenic means, contrivances and manipulative devices,
mentioned in Hindu manuals, that are designed for ithyphallic
inducements.

* * * * *

The Orient has always been a rich source for erotic material. Formal
manuals, anthologies, poetry all stress amatory concepts, erotic
situations, amorous encounters. In 1907 the Mercure de France published
an Anthologie de L’Amour Asiatique, by a certain Thalasso. It ranges
over many countries of the Asiatic continent, describing the traits and
temperaments of the women of these countries from an amatory viewpoint.
The author quotes a Georgian popular song, that contains the essence of
the anthology. It is that the purpose of every man, every husband,
should be to devise varying amatory pleasures. He should know how to
renew the enjoyments of Aphrodite. He should be skilled in avoiding
monotony and satiety. Every woman of every country has her own
peculiarities, her own coyness, her own aggressiveness. The women of
Egypt, he says, are promiscuous, though beautiful. All the coquettish
arts are known to Persian women. The Abyssinians are slim and
well-formed and appealing in looks. The women of the Hedjaz are apart;
they maintain their honor and their modesty, and there are no harlots
among them. In Constantinople all the women, in pulchritude, resemble
Venus, but they are of varying degrees of chastity. Circassian women are
like the moon. Georgian women are very tender-hearted, and persistent
pleas will win the day with them.

* * * * *

The Orient is always prepared to experiment with strange objects, unique
devices, complicated contraptions, protracted and difficult treatments,
all for the ultimate purpose of recovering the libido, or protracting
the amatory span, or maintaining full and effectual vigor.

Take, for instance, a man’s molar tooth: and the bone of a lapwing’s
left wing. Place in a purse, under the woman’s pillow. Tell her of your
action. The result, presumably by means of the implied sympathetic
magic, will be very favorable.

* * * * *

A plant belonging in the satyrion species, called Orchis Morio, that is
native to the South East of Europe, particularly in the area near
Istanbul, is used in Turkey as an excitant.

* * * * *

The juice of the roots of the mandayantaka plant, the clitoria
ternateea, the anjanika plant, the shlakshnaparni plant and the yellow
amaranth, compounded into a lotion, constituted an Oriental invigorating
recipe.

* * * * *

Among the Japanese, a root highly esteemed for its amatory potential is
ninjin, which has properties analogous to those of the mandrake.

* * * * *

The Chinese are fond of a sauce called nuoc-man. Spiced with garlic and
pimento, this fish extract, similar to the Roman garum, is treated as a
stimulant, containing, as it does, genesiac elements: salt and
phosphorus.

* * * * *

As the West inherited and absorbed many cultural phases, views,
concepts, practices, mores from the East, it likewise acquired some of
the amatory and medicinal knowledge relating to electuaries and healing
methods, herbs and plants that might be contributory to health and
well-being, and, as an antique encyclopedic work suggests, an exciter to
venery. Thus Zacutus Lusitanus, Zacutus the Portuguese, a medieval
physician, author of a medical text entitled _Praxis Medica Admiranda_,
enumerates the ingredients of an amatory preparation. The composition is
as follows: Musk and ambergris, pterocarpus santalinus, both red and
yellow, calamus aromaticus, cinnamon, bole Tuccinum, galanga,
aloes-wood, rhubarb, absinthe, Indian myrobalon: all pounded together.

* * * * *

The most remarkable literary erotic production of China may reasonably
be considered to be the picaresque novel Chin P’ing Mei, the adventurous
history of Hsi Men and his six wives. It has been styled the Chinese
Decameron, but it transcends the scope, the contents, the variousness of
incident and characterization and sense of vivid reality manifested in
Boccaccio’s Decameron. The Chinese tale is full of a variety of scenes
and episodes, in the manner of the European large-scaled, spacious
novel. It is also permeated by a tone of ribaldry, a vein of salacious
eroticism, and a large number of episodes describing amatory
experiences. One particular scene deals with a species of pill, the
composition of which is not revealed, that has unique functional
effects.

* * * * *

In China erotic perversions were as numerous as in ancient Rome. The
cinaedus, the Gito who is prominent in Petronius’ _Satyricon_, is termed
in China _amasi_. Dr. Jacobus X, the French anthropologist, has a great
deal to say on this subject.

* * * * *

The Islamic concept of erotic practice is associated with devoutness. It
implies the transmission to man of the divine creative force. Thus the
erotic never becomes lewd or lascivious or prurient for the mere purpose
of lubricity. The Koran counsels physiological intimacy as a sacred
function, an ordained and enjoined rite. Omar Haleby ibn Othman, the
Arab erotologist, likewise chants the erotic act as an expression, a
manifestation derived from sacred sources. The erotic consummation has
lost its fleshly, earthy connotation. It has assumed a venerable and
venerated sanctity.

* * * * *

In the ancient Orient and even in much later ages, the phallus was an
object of veneration not in a prurient or lustful sense, but as the
source of procreation, the emblem of maternity. For sterility was the
major, the primary curse. Hence any means might be exercised to
counteract this catastrophic condition, this mark of divine disfavor,
this racial blight. Hence too among certain ethnic communities as well
as in Biblical literature the stranger, or the occasional traveler, or
the concubine, was offered conjugal status, for the sole purpose of
effecting generation.

Horror of sterility drove women to ceaseless supplications, to priapic
invocations, to priapic contacts, to secret devices, and to magic aid.
In the East, there was the belief that to walk over certain stones was a
remedy for such sterility. In Madagascar a stone was held in reverence
as promoting both agricultural and human fertility. In obscure regions
of the Pyrenees Mountains, as well as in France, similar stones were
believed conducive to amatory excitation and also to fertility. And
these stones were merely worn and weather-beaten vestiges of the
original phallic shapes or other analogous forms.

In India, too, the lingam and the yoni were pervasively revered
throughout the continent. There were temples lined with hundreds of
lingams, garlanded with flowers, anointed with ghee in continuous
adoration.

* * * * *

A mixture of rose water, powdered almonds, and sugar is an old Arab
drink that was commonly considered to correct incapacity. So too with a
mixture, cooked together, of cloves, ginger, nuts, wild lavender, and
nutmeg.

* * * * *

The Koran contains prescriptions that govern the daily life, material
and spiritual, of Moslems. For amatory purposes, which in themselves
imply a sacred function, certain perfumes are recommended as stimulants.
Musk is most frequently mentioned and used. Also camphor, essence of
rose, olibanum, and cascarilla.

* * * * *

The erotic theme in general is always associated, in Arab texts, with
reverence and sanctity, never with prurience. The Arab erotologist Omar
Haleby asserts that the Prophet himself advised recourse to invocations
in the case of physiological incapacity.

The erotic consummation, repeats Omar Haleby, must be considered as an
act inspired by the divinity. It is the why and the wherefore of the
entire cosmos, the divine law of the conservation of the human species.

* * * * *

To promote physiological vigor, Moslem tradition recommends frequent
cold ablutions. Nourishment also holds an important position, and
specific suggestions of food are made. Fish caught in the sea are
helpful. Also: lentils and truffles, mutton boiled in fennel, cumin, and
anise: eggs, especially the yolk, and saffron. Dried dates have a value
in this respect, as well as honey and pigeon’s blood. Effective
electuaries may be compounded with these ingredients.

* * * * *

An old Oriental manual, putatively basing many of its assertions on the
secrets of the Kabbala, classifies various types of love: Lust and
passion and the rarer, ultimate, absolute spiritual love. Amatory
emotions are enumerated and guidance is offered in several directions.
Women are placed in various categories, according to their physical
traits, their personal attractions, their sensibilities.

As a general counsel of perfection, particularly for celibates,
corporeal hygiene is enjoined at all times. The routine of Nature
itself, it is suggested, is an exemplary mentor, involving alternations
of rest and work in due moderation. In the matter of consumption of
food, too, restraint is advised. Food should be taken in silence,
slowly, and while facing the East. Adherence to such prescriptions, it
is stressed, will produce a corporeal and spiritual balance free from
violent entanglements.

In the case of the woman, there are thirty-two points that, in their
totality, produce perfection and beauty for the allurement of men. These
points include whiteness of skin, dark hair, pink tongue, small ears,
and moderate height.

Other Oriental handbooks elaborate, on the other hand, on all the
possible permutations conducive to amatory consummations. These almost
exclusively follow Hindu, Arab, and Turkish tradition.

CHAPTER V
INDIA

India is a spacious land of astounding contrasts and variations. It is a
land of mystery and mysticism, and at the same time it investigates
reality with infinite patience. It is a land of diversified, age-old
cultures, and its ancient university at Taxila in the Punjab ante-dated
the Hellenic Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum by long centuries. Yet it
has had and still has illiterate villages, where legends and sagas of
antique doings are still transmitted orally. It is a continent of
abundant wealth, and its maharajas and princelings and emperors have
been resplendent in golden raiment, exultant in their treasure houses
where lakhs of rupees lie heaped alongside rubies and emeralds, diamonds
and pearls, and a dozen other varieties of precious stones, almost
beyond human reckoning and evaluation. Yet, within this very century,
children have stood at lonely wayside stations, from Bombay to
Rawalpindi, in the Punjab and in Bengal, in the North West Frontier and
in Madras Presidency, clamoring for roti and pani, bread and water. It
is a land of lavish fertility, and a land of recurrent famine and
devastation. A land of hieratic formalities and a land of innovation.

India is a country of artistic achievements of the highest order, of
profound philosophical speculation, of monumental poetic and literary
production. It is dedicated to things of the spirit, yet its Kali craves
blood. It clings adhesively to remote traditions, to ethnic and
religious mores, to indurated social ways. Yet it forges ahead, eager to
maintain itself in the forefront of industrial expansion. It maintains
old domestic and communal demarcations and rigidities, yet it welcomes
the novelties, the mutations of this restless age. It is dedicated to
intellectual, cosmological meditation, yet it probes into sexual
manners, into the characteristics of lust and passion, and all the
secretive unspoken intimacies of carnality. It has practically made a
monopoly of texts and treatises on the subject of love and all its
darker and more intricate and subtle manifestations. It is a country
that has produced, in this field, six of the major manuals, poetic
eulogies or expositions, dealing with the forms and practices of
Aphrodite Pandemos.

The Ratirahasya, variously called the Koka Shastra, was the work of the
poet Kukkoka. It consists of some eight hundred verses on love
techniques.

The Ananga-Ranga, also called Kamaledhiplava, was written by the poet
Kullianmull, and belongs in the fifteenth or sixteenth century A.D. The
contents describe factually and realistically the physical
characteristics of various types of women, their deportment, dress,
facial and bodily traits, their amatory responsiveness, together with
certain principles that establish objective amatory criteria.

The Rasmanjari was the work of the poet Bhanudatta. It classifies men
and women according to personal behavior, age, physical type.

The Smara Pradipa, consisting of some four hundred verses, expounds
amatory laws or tendencies. It was the work of the poet Gunakara.

The Ratimanjari is a brief poetic exposition on love, whose author was
the poet Jayadeva.

The Panchasakya is considerably longer, and is divided into five Arrows.
The author was Jyotirisha.

Woman, in these treatises and poetic elaborations and expositions, is
the central theme, and her physical traits, ideally considered, and the
elements that, cumulatively, constitute her dominant attraction, are
minutely and imaginatively depicted: the texture of the skin, the shape
of the moon face, the coloring of the hair, the brightness of eye are
measured and defined in relation to cosmic phenomena, to flowers, to the
lotus, to the mustard blossom, to the lily and the fawn, and, above all,
her devoutness is stressed, and her impassioned worship of the Hindu
pantheon, the totality of the deities.

The Kama Sutra is an extended exposition of love and its procedures and
manipulations, in some 1200 verses divided into sections in which
various aspects and techniques in amatory mores are treated.

And, like The Perfumed Garden and similar Oriental excursions into
sexual activities, it diffuses an aura of religiosity, a solemn sense of
reverence, a divine acknowledgment. The tone is frank without prurience:
the elaborate classifications and injunctions are minute and lucid
without introducing an undercurrent, however unobtrusive, of deliberate
and gross scurrilities. It is not libidinous, then, in intent, for the
author himself, a profoundly contemplative religious devotee, adumbrated
his work, not as a salacious and lewd inducement to debauchery, but as
an exposition of the physiological man who, while making concessions in
conformity with certain established amatory principles, may yet
transcend his carnal desires and, instead of being enslaved by his
erotic lusts, may become master of them and use them under due control,
but never without restraint and a kind of Hellenic and Aristotelian
moderation, a physiological aurea mediocritas.

The floruit of the author of the Kama Sutra has not been determined
definitively. It has been variously assigned between the first and the
sixth century A.D.

The entire work is pervaded by the three Hindu concepts of Dharma,
goodness or virtue, in the Greek sense, Artha, which is wealth, and
Kama, sensual pleasure.

The range of topics covers normal and abnormal conditions and practices:
wedded love and fellatio, public harlotry and transvestism, courtship
and the frenzies of passion, the behavior of wives during a husband’s
absence, the artifices of feminine conquest, osculation and amatory
permutations, the employment of an intermediary, the ways of the
courtesan, and, finally, personal adornment, tonic medicines, methods of
exciting desire.

In respect of the latter, there are various recipes involving oils,
unguents, and juices. One unguent that has amatory appeal is composed of
tabernamontana coronaria, costus speciosus, and flacourtia cataphracta.

Another aid is oil of hogweed, echites putrescens, the sarina plant,
yellow amaranth, and leaf of nymphae. This salve is applied to the body.

Let the man eat the powder of the nelumbrium speciosum, the blue lotus,
the mesna roxburghii, together with clarified butter, which is ghee, and
honey.

The bone of a peacock, or of a hyena, covered with gold and fastened on
the right hand, has an exciting effect.

Similarly with a bead made from the seed of the jujube or a conch shell,
that is enchanted by magic spells and then fastened on the hand.

A mixture of powders of white thorn apple, black pepper, long pepper,
and honey is reputedly a means of female subjugation.

So with an ointment made of the emblica myrabolens plant.

A drink of milk and sugar, the pipar chaba, liquorice, and the root of
the uchchata plant is an invigorating agent.

A liquid consisting of milk mixed with juice of the kuili plant, the
hedysarum gangeticum, and the kshirika plant is likewise a stimulant.

A drink of a paste consisting of asparagus racemosus, the guduchi plant,
the shvadaushtra plant, long pepper, liquorice: boiled in milk, ghee,
and honey, and taken in the spring time.

A man who plays on a reed pipe smeared with juices of the bahupadika
plant the costus arabicus, the euphorbia antiquorum, the tabernamontana
coronaria, the pinus deodora, the kantaka plant, and the vajfa plant
will effect female subjugation.

A camel bone, dipped into the juice of the eclipta prostata, then
burned, and pigment from the ashes placed in a box made of camel bone,
and applied to the eyelashes with a camel bone pencil are also a means
of subjugation.

A drink of boiled clarified butter, in the morning, in the spring time,
is equally effective.

A drink of asparagus racemosus and the shvadaushtra plant, with pounded
fruit of premna spinosa, in water.

A drink composed as follows: The covering of sesame seeds, soaked in
sparrows’ eggs: boiled in milk, with ghee and sugar, with fruit of the
trapa bispinosa and the kasuriki plant: with the addition of flour of
beans and wheat.

Vigor is increased by a brew consisting of rice, with sparrows’ eggs:
boiled in milk, together with honey and ghee.

The Kama Sutra suggests that the means of arousing vigor may also be
learned from medicine, from the Vedas, and from adepts in Magic. Nothing
that may be injurious in its effects, however, should be employed, only
such means as are holy and recognized as good.

* * * * *

Other stimulants that are known to the Hindu manuals of erotology
include the following:

The anvalli nut is stripped of its outer shell. The juice is then
extracted. It is dried in the sun and subsequently mixed with powdered
anvalli nut. The paste is eaten with ghee, honey, and candied sugar.

* * * * *

A compound of hog plum, eugenia jambreana, and flowers of the nauclia
cadamba. These items are all indigenous to India, as are so many of the
ingredients mentioned in the Indian treatises. In many cases, however,
the plants and fruits, herbs and extracts are not unknown and are
available in the Occident.

To gain amatory acquiescence and supremacy over the person desired, the
following Hindu preparation is recommended: A few pieces of arris root
are mixed with mango oil. They are then placed in an aperture in the
trunk of the sisu tree. The pieces are left thus for some six months, at
which time an ointment is compounded, reputedly effective in a genital
sense.

* * * * *

The lotus, jasmine, and the asoka plant are in the opinion of Hindu
erotologists provocative of venery. With respect to the lotus, this
plant is associated with the ideal feminine personality, supreme
pulchritude and perfection symbolized by the Lotus Woman.

Hemp contains elements productive of sexual stimuli. In Hindu erotology,
the leaves and seeds of the plant are chewed in this expectation. On
occasion, the seeds are mixed with other ingredients: ambergris, sugar,
and musk: all of which are credibly of aphrodisiac quality.

An infusion of hemp leaves and seed capsules is drunk as a liquor.

An extract of hemp, much used in India, is charas, which is both smoked
and eaten. Botanically, hemp is the plant Cannabis Indica, from which
are produced over 150 drug preparations.

* * * * *

An Indian plant named bhuya—kokali and, in botanical terminology,
solanum Jacquini, is credited with erotic properties. The juice is
extracted and dried in the sun. This is then mixed with ghee, candied
sugar, and honey, and taken as a potion.

* * * * *

Calamint, an aromatic herb, was used in India as an amatory excitant.

* * * * *

Chutney, a characteristically Indian relish, is compounded of fruits,
herbs, and seasonings. Apart from its culinary use, chutney is
considered a sensual stimulant.

* * * * *

Erotic ingenuities have devised variations in physiological relations.
The Arab erotologist the Sheikh Nefzawi, in his _The Perfumed Garden_,
alludes to this ingenuity in the case of Indian practices, where
twenty-nine possible forms of intimacy were in vogue.

* * * * *

An eye-salve called collyrium was known among the Romans as, apart from
its ophthalmological virtue, a sexual aid. Collyrium was so considered
in India too, where it was also credited with possessing magic qualities
that were applicable to erotic manifestations.

* * * * *

Macabre concoctions have been the stock in trade of the dispensers of
philtres and excitants in all ages among all races. A prescription that
is urged in Hindu erotological literature runs as follows: A compound
consisting of flowers thrown on a corpse that is being carried to a
burning ghat for disposal: along with a mixture compounded of the
powdered bones of the peacock and of the jiwanjiva bird, and the leaf of
the plant vatodbhranta. A genital application promises, in the opinion
of the Hindu manuals, marked physiological vigor.

* * * * *

Many Oriental treatises on erotology deal with the physiological
characteristics of men and women, temperamental differences, erotic
postures in multiple varieties, and recommendations regarding local
inguinal applications. The topic of potions as such is far less
extensively treated, largely for the reason that the love-potion,
innocuous and effectual, is actually rare. Yet each manual is hopeful
and anticipatory in this respect.

The Ananga-Ranga, of which a French translation appeared in Paris in
1920, in the Bibliothèque des Curieux, was originally composed in
Sanskrit in the sixteenth century by the poet Kalyanamalla. It covers
cosmetic hints and amatory devices, hygienic suggestions, periapts and
incantations designed to attract and retain affection. It discusses the
four major types of women, their personal characteristics, the hours and
days most propitious for intimacy. There are tables and statistics that
go into minute detail on these points. There is a table classifying and
differentiating the seats of passion, the erotogenic areas. There are
several pages of tables that expound different types of embrace with
different types of partners. Nothing is left to chance. Nothing is
omitted. The text marches forward, with confidence and a sense of
authority, from the uprising of the libido to the ultimate consummation.

The characteristics of men, their physiological frame, their capacities
are evaluated, with a remarkable substantiation of tables and statistics
and measurements. The temperaments of women are reviewed with equal
thoroughness, and the regions of India are considered geographically and
erotically in relation to this topic.

Aphrodisiacs, both external and internal, are treated: drugs and charms,
magic unguents, fascinating incense, incantations and invocations.

An external application runs thus: Shopa or anise seed, that is, anethum
sowa, reduced to a powder. An electuary is made with honey. This
application, according to the Ananga-Ranga, promises effective results.

* * * * *

Or, Take Asclepias gigantea. Crush and beat in a mortar with leaves of
jai, until the juice has been extracted. This too is an external
application.

* * * * *

Again: The fruit of the Tamarinda Indica; crush in a mortar, with honey
and Sindura.

* * * * *

The seeds of Urid, in milk and sugar. Expose for three consecutive days
to the sun. Then crush to a powder. Knead into cake form. Fry in ghee.
Eat this concoction every morning.

* * * * *

One hundred and fifty seeds of the inner bark of the Moh tree. Heap in a
mortar and beat. Drink it in cow’s milk.

* * * * *

On a Tuesday, extract the entrails of a blue jay—coracias indica—and put
into the body a little kama-salila. Place the bird in an earthen pot and
cover it with a second pot moistened with mud: keep it in an uncluttered
spot for seven days. At the end of that time take out the contents and
reduce them to a powder. Make pills, and dry them. One pill to be taken
by a man or a woman: that will be sufficient to promote vigor and
libido.

* * * * *

Magic verses will be equally effective: also the chanting of a mantra,
for the efficacy resides in the Devata, the deity therein. Or pronounce
formulas and utter invocations, such as:

Oh Kameshwar, submit this person to my will!

Utter the hallowed and mystic term Om! Mention the name of the woman who
is the object of the passion. Then conclude with Anaya! Anaya!

Pulverize kasturi, which is common musk, and wood of yellow tetu. Mix
with old honey, two months old, and apply genitally.

Sandalwood and red powder of curcuma and alum and costus and black
sandalwood, together with white Vala and the bark of the Deodaru.
Powder, and mix with honey: then allow to dry. This is now Chinta—mani
Dupha: an incense that will promote your efficiency, dominate all
thought, and, according to the promise of the manual, make you master of
the entire universe.

* * * * *

To prepare a powerful and alluring incense, mix equal quantities of
cardamom seeds, oliba, and the plant Garurwel, sandalwood, the flower of
jasmine, and Bengal madder.

* * * * *

Pulverize bombax heptaphyllum: macerate in milk. Then apply the paste to
the face. This will produce amatory reactions.

* * * * *

Take bibva nuts and black salt, leaves of lotus. Reduce to ashes and
soak in solanum Jacquini. Apply with buffalo excrement and the result
will be most favorable.

* * * * *

Mix equal parts of the juice of rosa glanduifera, expressed from the
leaves, and ghee or clarified butter. Boil with ten parts of milk,
sugar, and honey. Drink this concoction regularly. The result will be a
state of active vigor.

* * * * *

Take saptaparna on a Sunday by mouth, with a prospect of renewed vigor.

* * * * *

Soak the seeds of Urid in milk and sugar: dry in the sun for three days.
Reduce the whole to a powder. Knead into cake consistency. Fry in ghee.
Eat this every morning. However old the patient may be, he will acquire
great vigor.

* * * * *

The seeds of white Tal-makhana, macerated in the juice of the banyan
tree. Mix with seeds of karanj and put into the mouth.

* * * * *

Vajikarana. This agent restores strength and physical vigor.

* * * * *

The Ananga-Ranga, like other Oriental erotic manuals, concludes
devoutly: May this treatise, Ananga-Ranga, be dear to men and women, so
long as the sacred River Ganges flows from Siva’s breast with his wife
Gauri by his left side: so long as Lakhmi shall love Vishnu: so long as
Brahma shall be engaged in the study of the Vedas, and so long as the
earth shall endure, and the moon, and the sun.

* * * * *

Curry is especially associated with Indian culinary preparations. It is
a sauce compounded of a variety of spices in varying proportions:
coriander seeds, cumin, ginger, cardamom seeds, turmeric, garlic,
vinegar, and mustard seeds. In addition to its use as a condiment, curry
has been held to possess a stimulative quality.

* * * * *

As a rule when physiological vigor is defective or ineffectual in some
respect, stimulants are advised to remedy the condition. In a contrary
sense, however, when the libido is too intense and too active, a Hindu
recommendation, designed to modify the urgency, consists of a special
application. This application is compounded of the juice of the fruits
of the cassia fistula, eugenia jambolana, in a mixture of powder of
vernonia anthelmentica, the soma plant, the lohopa—jihirka, and the
eclipta prostata: all of these plants being native to India.

* * * * *

The plant botanically designated Emblica Myrabolens, states the Hindu
manual Kama Sutra, is conducive to the vita sexualis, when the plant is
compounded into an ointment.

* * * * *

The same manual, adding a goetic touch to a prescription, asserts the
stimulative value of a bead formed from jujube seed or conch shell, over
which an incantation had been uttered. The bead is attached to the hand.

* * * * *

For a diminution of physiological vigor, or for its total elimination in
an amatory direction, Indian manuals suggested a long, rigid treatment.
It consisted of the daily consumption of young leaves of mairkousi.
Fakirs and other holy men were subjected to this regimen until full
manhood was reached at the age of twenty-five.

* * * * *

Fennel, an aromatic plant, has long been in use in culinary
preparations. It has also a reputation for inspiring energy in an
aphrodisiac sense. In India, it is used for this purpose in the
following form: The juice of the fennel plant is mixed with honey, milk,
sugar, liquorice, and ghee or clarified butter.

This concoction is viewed with a certain religious respect and is
associated with a drink fit for the gods.

* * * * *

Perfumes have at all times been included in the amatory pharmacopoeia.
Among Indian erotologists, perfumed fumigation is considered a powerful
excitant.

* * * * *

In India, ghee, which is clarified butter, is normally used in cookery.
At the same time it is credited with amatory properties. A drink of
boiled ghee, taken in the morning, in the spring time, is among the
erotic recipes of the Hindu treatises.

* * * * *

As a frequent base for love recipes, ginger, which is also commonly used
in the Orient for dietary purposes, is generally present as an amatory
item, and is taken by mouth with pepper, honey, and other spices.

* * * * *

Every natural phenomenon, every product of the fields, whatever dwells
on sea or is hidden underground: all such items have at some time or
other been tested and recommended for their potential contribution to
amatory functions. So even the breeze in spring time has had its
eulogists in Hindu erotology as an amorous inspiration: also the flowers
that are in bud, the songs and twitterings of birds, and the humming
sibilance of bees. Similarly, music was recommended as promotive of
desire. Even, on occasion, the touch of a person, an aroma, a taste, a
sound, a form may stir longings. In a more earthy and domestic sense,
leeks and garlic, beans and onions have been found useful as stimulants.
Some concoctions are merely hinted at, without being given a
nomenclature. Thus an ancient Greek historian is cited by the Greek
encyclopedist Athenaeus himself, in his _Banquet of the Philosophers_,
as authority for a certain Hindu preparation.

When applied to the soles of the feet, it created an immediate and
powerful amatory reaction. But this specific, as so many others, has
faded into oblivion.

* * * * *

The Kama Sutra recommends an ointment compounded thus: Xanthochymus
pichorius, honey, ghee, tabernamontana coronaria, mesna roxburghii,
nelumbrium speciosum, and blue lotus.

Another compound, to be taken by mouth, is blue lotus and powder of the
nelumbrium speciosum, mixed with honey and ghee.

* * * * *

Amatory provocation may be induced by certain powders and ointments made
from the following plants: Costus speciosus, tabernamontana coronaria,
and flacourtia cataphracta, compounded together.

* * * * *

For genital potency, preparations, mechanical devices, electuaries,
unguents, incantations, and brews have been urged in Hindu manuals. In
addition to the variety of ointments herbs, spices, and animal
secretions, surgical operations, hazardous both physiologically and
emotionally, have been gravely prescribed.

* * * * *

An unusual procedure for strengthening vigor involves a mixture that is
to be thrown at the person desired. The mixture is composed of powder of
milk, kantaka plant, and the hedge plant, with the powdered root of the
lanjalika plant and the excrement of a monkey.

* * * * *

A mixture of cowach and honey, along with the pulverized remains of a
dead kite and the prickly hairs of a tropical plant. This is a means of
amatory supremacy.

* * * * *

An application of Lechi, costus arabicus, kanher root, chikana,
gajapimpali, and askhand, pulverized and mixed with ghee.

* * * * *

To strengthen and recover vigor, a drink is prepared as follows: Lechi,
kuili powder, asparagus racemosus, cucumber, and kanta-gokhru: mixed
with milk.

* * * * *

Applications that, in the estimation of the Ananga-Ranga, are of value
as phallic stimulants, include leaves of the jai, rui seed, honey, lotus
flower pollen, Hungarian grass, and anise.

* * * * *

Loha-Bhasma is a preparation of ferrous oxide and is used, according to
Hindu erotologists, as a priapic stimulant.

* * * * *

An herb indigenous to India, known botanically as maerua arenaria, is
considered beneficial in inducing amatory inclination.

* * * * *

Despite Hindu proscriptions against the consumption of meat, meat is
frequently mentioned in Hindu texts as an erotic agent, particularly
red, lean meat.

* * * * *

Arrack is an Indian liquor prepared from the flowers of the Moh tree,
that are rich in sugar content. The Moh tree, botanically Bassia
latifolia, is used in a recipe for physiological renewal. The pith is
pounded and, with cow’s milk, taken as a drink.

* * * * *

In India, opium, that is, papaver somniferum, has been used as a phallic
excitation, although a sixteenth century Dutch traveler, Linschoten, who
was familiar with the East and the West Indies, asserted that it
diminishes the libido.

* * * * *

A phallic application is costus arabicus, powdered raktabol, which is
myrrh, borax, aniseed, and manishil, mixed with oil of sesame.

* * * * *

A lotion of juice of the roots of the madayanlika plant, the anjanika
plant, yellow amaranth, the shlakshnaparni plant, and the clitoria
ternateea.

* * * * *

A help in amatory experimentation is the following: The sprouts of the
vajnasunhi plant are cut into small strips. They are then dipped in a
mixture of sulphur and red arsenic, and dried seven times. The resultant
powder is now burned at night; when the smoke rises, if a golden moon is
observed behind the fumes, success will attend the erotic encounter.

* * * * *

A composition of long pepper, seeds of the plant sanseviera
roxburghiana, and seeds of the plant hedysarum gangeticum, pounded and
mixed with milk.

* * * * *

Various soups are advised, in Hindu erotology, as strengthing
ministrants. Particularly so, soups in which the ingredients are cheese,
or fish, or celery, or mushrooms, or lentils, or onions.

* * * * *

Dill, which botanically is anthum graveolens, is an Eastern ingredient
for furthering the libido.

* * * * *

To Hindu erotologists, all amatory acts, the cult of the phallus, and
erotic performances, are under the aegis of the triune god Trimurti.

* * * * *

Trapa bispinosa, which is a nut belonging in the water chestnut species,
is frequently used in amatory composition. The paste is prepared from
the seeds or roots of the trapa bispinosa, kasurika, tuscan jasmine, and
liquorice, and a bulb called kshirakapoli. The whole is mixed with milk,
ghee, and sugar: then boiled into a consistency.

* * * * *

Wine, in India, is considered conducive to priapic performance. But
only, as among the Greeks and the Romans and the ancient Hebrews, when
taken in moderation. Otherwise, excessive drinking of wine is an object
of condemnation. A rule in Hindu ritual establishes the criterion of
sufficiency:

So long as the mind’s light flickers not,
For so long drink! Shun the rest!
Whoso drinks still more is a beast.

* * * * *

As a defensive measure against erotic aggressiveness, Hindu erotology
suggests the following procedure. The woman who is the prospective
object of an amatory approach should bathe in the buttermilk of a male
buffalo. The milk is mixed with powder of yellow amaranth, the
banu-padika plant, and the gopalika plant.

* * * * *

Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of an East Indian tree. In addition to
its use as a condiment, cinnamon has been credited with amatory
implications.

* * * * *

The _Atharva Veda_ is a Sanskrit text dealing with thaumaturgic
procedures, magic formulas, incantations, and prescriptions affecting
various emotional circumstances. A magic invocation, intended to excite
feminine passion in a particular woman, runs this:

With the all-powerful arrow of Love do I pierce thy heart, O
woman! Love, love that causes unease, that will overcome thee,
love for me! That arrow, flying true and straight, will cause in
thee burning desire. It has the point of my love, its shaft is
my determination to possess thee!

Yea, thy heart is pierced. The arrow has struck home. I have
overcome by these arts thy reluctance, thou art changed! Come to
me, submissive, without pride, but only longing! Thy mother will
be powerless to prevent thy coming, neither shall thy father be
able to prevent thee! Thou art completely in my power.

O Mitra, O Varuna, strip her of will power! I, I alone, wield
power over the heart and mind of my beloved!

A woman, on the other hand, may secure a man’s love by the following
supplication:

I am possessed by burning love for this man: and this love comes
to me from Apsaras, who is victorious ever. Let the man yearn
for me, desire me, let his desire burn for me! Let this love
come forth from the spirit, and enter him.

Let him desire me as nothing has been desired before! I love
him, want him: he must feel this same desire for me!

O Maruts, let him become filled with love. O Spirit of the Air,
fill him with love. O Agni, let him burn with love for me!

A variant supplication directed toward a similar purpose is the
following, from the same source as the two previous invocations:

By the power and Laws of Varuna I invoke the burning force of
love, in thee, for thee. The desire, the potent love-spirit
which all the gods have created in the waters, this I invoke,
this I employ, to secure thy love for me!

Indrani has magnetized the waters with this love-force.

And it is that, by Varuna’s Laws, that I cause to burn!

Thou wilt love me, with a burning desire.

* * * * *

In its religious traditions, India has affinities with the earliest
known forms of sacred rites, concepts, and views. In Hindu religious
mythology, the cosmic power of creation, of the generative capacity, is
symbolized by the duality of the hermaphrodite, the male and female
intertwined, sharing the properties of each other, representing the
passive and active principles that pervade all Nature.

* * * * *

From the testimony furnished by bas-reliefs in caves such as the Ajanta
caverns, by temple carvings, paintings, and sculptural adornments, the
cult of the lingam, throughout India, appears to date back to a very
remote and undetermined antiquity.

Among certain sects, the supreme power is worshipped in the phallic
form. In wayside lodges, on facades and shrines, the genital figure of
masculine dominance is everywhere on view. In many instances this
omnipresence and insistence of the symbolic phallus assume monstrously
obscene forms and positions, writhing and contorted in erotic frenzy, or
entwined in serpentine coils and performing abominations of the utmost
lubricity in the name and under the aegis of the cosmic creative force.

A remoter but still valid corollary is that the amatory urge derives
from this universal generative process and strives to merge with it and
hence seeks whatever erotic measures and manipulations may be favorable
to such a consummation.

* * * * *

At Benares, Jagannath, and elsewhere in India, the deities of generation
were held in great reverence, and were worshipped, notably by women, who
symbolically, and more frequently actually, consorted with, for
instance, Vishnu, at a nocturnal ceremony during the annual celebrations
held in his honor.

* * * * *

The _Atharva Veda_, the Sanskrit magic text, contains an invocation
whereby a woman appeals for a husband:

I seek a husband. Sitting here, my hair flowing loose, I am like
one positioned before a giant procession, searching for a
husband for this woman without a spouse.

O Aryaman! This woman cannot longer bear to attend the marriages
of other women. Now, having performed this rite, other women
will come to the wedding-feast of hers!

The Creator holds up the Earth, the planets, the Heavens.

O Creator, produce for me a suitor, a husband.

* * * * *

The _Atharva Veda_ also recommends a talisman made from sraktya wood, to
be used in supplication to all the divinities of the Hindu pantheon,
with these words:

And this great and powerful talisman does strike to victory
wherever it is used. It produces children, fecundity, security,
fortunes!

* * * * *

Another Hindu invocation, in the text of the _Atharva Veda_, contains an
amatory appeal for a wife:

I take upon myself strength, strength of a hundred men. I take
up this power in the name of the spirit that comes here, that is
coming, that has come. O Indra, give me that strength!

As the Asvins took Surya, the child of Savitar, to be a bride,
so has destiny said that here shall come a wife for this man!
Indra, with that hook of gold, of power, bring here a wife for
him that desires a wife.

CHAPTER VI
VARIETIES AND OCCASIONS OF POTIONS

Alciphron, an Athenian writer who flourished during the second century
A.D., composed a number of light, unpretentious letters dealing with
simple daily occupations and subjects and characters of everyday life:
farmers, courtesans, barbers, fishermen, parasites.

They deal with all sorts of intimate and personal matters, and are a
marvelous reflection of the lower strata of antiquity. In one of these
letters the girl Myrrhina writes to her friend Nikippe. Myrrhina
complains that her lover Diphilus has abandoned her. He has been on a
drinking spree for four days. To make matters worse, he has fallen for
the jade Thessala.

Hence Myrrhina pleads with Nikippe to aid her in her perplexity.
Nikippe, it appears, has a love-potion, that she has often used
successfully on young but hesitant lovers. That is what Myrrhina now
wants. It will banish Diphilus’ interest in drink and rid him of his
infatuation with Thessala.

Myrrhina is going to write an endearing, enticing letter to Diphilus.
When, as a result, he comes to visit her, she will use the love-potion
on him. She admits, however, that these love philtres are uncertain in
their effects. Sometimes, she adds, they cause sudden death. But what
does Myrrhina care? Diphilus must either live for Myrrhina or die for
his Thessala.

* * * * *

Gestures and action, lascivious and lewd in intent, may be virtual
potions in their immediate provocations. So Ovid, the arch-counsellor in
amatory diversions, suggests in Book 3 of the _Amores_. Archness
assumed, prudery, coyness, and an air of hesitation in acquiescence will
prove all the greater stimulants:

Be more advised, walk as a puritan,
And I shall think you chaste, do what you can.
Slip still, only deny it when ’tis done,
And, before folk, immodest speeches shun.
The bed is for lascivious toyings meet,
There use all tricks, and tread shame under feet.
When you are up and dressed, be sage and grave,
And in the bed hide all the faults you have.
Be not ashamed to strip you, being there,
And mingle thighs, yours ever mine to bear.
There in your rosy lips my tongue entomb,
Practice a thousand sports when there you come.
Forbear no wanton words you there would speak,
And with your pastime let the bedstead creak;
But with your robes put on an honest face,
And blush, and seem as you were full of grace.
Deceive all; let me err; and think I’m right,
And like a wittol think thee void of slight.
Why see I lines so oft received and given?
This bed and that by tumbling made uneven?
Like one start up your hair tost and displaced,
And with a wantons tooth your neck new-rased.
Grant this, that what you do I may not see;
If you weigh not ill speeches, yet weigh me.

* * * * *

The erotic power, the essential property that possessed the virtue of
enflaming desire and exciting sensual emotions, was believed, anciently
and in later ages, to reside in growing things, in the produce of the
earth, in the teeming abundance of the ocean, in metals, in essences,
and in intricate and cunningly contrived combinations, mixtures, and
amalgams of such matter.

The common onion, that normally was a part of a simple daily meal,
acquired, among the Greeks, amatory virtues. The onion, in fact, rose
from its lowly status as a gastronomic item to a mystically-endowed
root, that could inspire and direct erotic sensations. Alexis, a writer
of comedies who flourished in the third century B.C., dwells on its
highly effective nature.

Another Greek comic writer, Diphilus, of the third century B.C.,
likewise says of onions: They are hard to digest, though nourishing and
strengthening to the stomach. They are cleansing also, but they have a
weakening effect on the sight. In addition, they stimulate sexual
desire.

The pungency of pepper is relished gastronomically. But pepper had
another use apart from its function as a condiment. It was pounded, then
mixed with nettle-seed, and in this form it was regularly taken by the
Greeks as a means of promoting intercourse.

Wine has for ages been lauded poetically and convivially, and a vintage
meant, as a rule, a matter for gastronomic appreciation. But old wine,
with the addition of ground pyrethron—which is botanically feverfew or
pellitory, was known to the Hellenic people as a particularly powerful
erotic potion.

Such draughts, however, had then more sinister applications as well, and
not infrequently they were considered injurious physiologically. This
was, in fact, the considered view of the Roman poet Ovid, of the first
century B.C. In contrast to such a potion, he asserts, there are quite
innocuous aphrodisiac stimulants, among them: eggs, wild cabbage,
stone-pine apples, and honey.

To discover a plant that, unexpectedly and arousingly, ‘kindles the
flame of love,’ must have been a revelation to the ancient Greeks. Such
a plant was pyrethron, so named because it was such an inflammatory
stimulant.

It was also known as pyrethrum parthenium, and was largely used for
medicinal purposes.

In modern terminology, this plant is identified with pellitory.

In Arab countries pyrethrum was pounded and mixed with lilac ointment
and ginger: and the resultant compound served to produce erotic
stimulation in the genital area.

* * * * *

In his determined search for amatory satisfactions, man has probed
deeply into the material world and also into conceptual zones. Thus
erotic stimulation may be produced by an inspired dream. This is the
situation in a comedy by the Greek poet Aristophanes, who flourished in
the fifth century B.C. The play has survived in fragments only, but may
be pieced together into some degree of cohesion, the theme being the
problem of an old man who has a young wife. The aged husband makes a
pilgrimage to the oracle of Amphiaraus. As a result of his visit, the
solution of the marital perplexity is revealed in a dream, and the
virility of the elder is restored. In the scattered fragments, there is
a suggestion of the means adopted by the husband. It took the form of a
dish of lentils.

* * * * *

A visual spectacle may virtually act as a potion. This is the view of a
physician named Theodorus Priscianus. He flourished in the fourth
century A.D., and was the author of a medical handbook, still extant, in
which he gives realistic advice for a cure of incapacity. Let the
patient, he counsels, in Book 2, be surrounded by beautiful girls or
boys. Also, give him books to read that arouse lust and in which love
stories are insinuatingly treated.

Virtually, such treatment approximates a visual love-potion.

* * * * *

Physical therapy may be as affective as a potion. Hence local massage,
in the inguinal area, was often performed as an aid in inducing
virility. This was a highly popular manipulation. It is alluded to in
ancient writers, and particularly so in the Greek comic poet
Aristophanes. Petronius, too, the author of the Latin novel entitled the
_Satyricon_, describes such an operation performed by an old beldam on
one of the characters, named Encolpius.

* * * * *

Blood has sinister and calamitous implications: yet it is also
associated with erotic deviations. Blood, the mere visual presentation
of it, may produce strong amatory symptoms. The public brothels in
ancient Rome, for instance, were established over the Circus in which
gladiatorial contests were on view. The sight of the violent scenes
enacted in these conflicts manifestly bestirred the blood lust, and
equally the sexual urge of the masses of spectators, who subsequently
thronged the lupanaria. Similarly, in Spain, brothels were built in
close proximity to the bull-rings. There was, here too, a manifest
association between the frenzy of the tauromachia and the resultant
lustful esurgence among the spectators.

Again, the perversion of flagellation involves blood. The resultant flow
of blood, after whippings and lashings had been inflicted upon more or
less willing victims by perverts and sadists, produced extraordinary
erotic excitations. Scenes of this type are the stock in trade of the
novelists the Marquis de Sade and Sacher-Masoch.

* * * * *

Describing an amorous intrigue with the maid Fotis, Lucius, the
protagonist of the _Metamorphoses_, Apuleius’ Roman novel, adds, in
respect of the effect of wine;

We would eftsoones refresh our wearinesse and provoke our
pleasure, and renew our venery by drinking of wine.

* * * * *

The primary, uncomplicated fact of life is its continuity through
physiological relationships. But on this basis man has erected and
developed ponderous and multiple ramifications of such functional
associations, involving more than the primary purpose and activity of
procreation. He has, in addition, an instinctual urge toward affection,
love, desire, and lust. And these emotional manifestations have, in the
course of time, become refined or coarsened or diverted into abnormal
channels. In his efforts to achieve love or desire or lust and its
consummations, he has exposed himself to the natural progressive
degradation and impairment of his physiological capacities: and he has
no less abused, weakened, or destroyed this force or energy.

Hence his febrile search for some undefined amelioration of his
condition or some method or contrivance, however insecure, unwarranted,
or barbaric, for recovering his instinctual erotic sensuality.

Gullibly and trustingly man has proceeded in this quest to restore the
erosions and defects consequent on time and excess. What direction does
this quest take? It is ubiquitous. It leaves no stone unturned, no faint
possibility untested. It is prepared to make a trial of every novel
fantasy, or any inspired scheme, any exploded myth, or every remote and
fragile clue. In temples dedicated for the purpose he will repeat
cryptic supplications to unknown, foreign, forbidding gods. Or he
assumes on his person, in constant hope, periapts and amulets, inscribed
with awesome symbols, gateways to the Mysteries. There arise occasions
when he urgently consults aged and knowledgeable enchantresses, who
reputedly possess the secrets of life and love. Or he is encouraged to
drink certain fertilizing waters, drawn from mystic founts, from
underground rivers. He may make silent prayers at wishing wells. Appeals
to the deities associated with love or frantic lust, with prostitution
and sexual deviations are his constant practices, in all countries, in
Boeotia as well as in Bactria, in Egypt no less than in Mesopotamia.

Erotic stimuli sometimes sprang from the human figure itself, without
the intrusion of contrived philtres or other adventitious aids. The
Greeks, in particular, in drama and comedy, in poetry and sculpture,
lavished endless praise on the seductiveness of various areas of the
feminine person. The callipygian Greek girl was the subject of exultant
erotic paeans. Contests were held in which callipygian rivals vied for
public recognition and acclamation. There was no sense of shamefulness,
no prudish primness, and, equally, there was no stimulated prurience,
for beauty per se had no restrictions, no taboos, no amorality attached
to it.

The theme of callipygia, in fact, runs through Greek life. The
encyclopedist Athenaeus mentions two young country girls whose
attractions in marriage rested with their callipygian forms. The
citizens actually called these women _callipygoi_. Even Aphrodite, in
her temple at Syracuse, was called Aphrodite Kallipygos. In one of the
lively, revealing letters of Alciphron, two girls, Myrrhine and
Thryallis, dispute over their own personal charms in this respect, while
a number of poems, including one in the Greek anthology, laud the same
area.

Sculptors and poets dwelt with an appreciative eye, free from personal
lustfulness, on the rhythmic flow and alluring harmony of hip and thigh,
of neck and ankles. The female breasts were figuratively described as
apples, or the fruit of the strawberry tree. In the pastoral poet
Theocritus, who belongs in the third century B.C. a young lover,
Daphnis, speaks of the heaving apples of his girl friend.

There is the story of the famous Athenian courtesan Phryne, who was
condemned to death in a court of law. Her life was saved, however, when
her counsel, who was also her lover, Hyperides, exposed her beautiful
bosom before the overwhelmed judges.

The term potion was in itself so closely associated with amatory
proficiency or, on occasion, as a medicinal remedy for some other
physiological condition, that its use was rarely questioned. The potion,
however, might be deadly and might be concocted as a rapid means for the
elimination of a rival, or a husband, or some enemy. Such a situation
occurs in Book 10 of Apuleius’ _Metamorphoses_:

The woman having lost the name of wife together with her faith,
went to a traiterous Physitian, who had killed a great many
persons in his dayes, and promised him fifty peeces of Gold, if
he would give her a present poyson to kill her Husband out of
hand, but in presence of her husband, she feined that it was
necessary for him to receive a certaine kind of drink, which the
Maisters and Doctours of Physicke doe call a sacred potion, to
the intent he might purge Choller and scoure the interiour parts
of his body. But the Physitian in stead of that drinke prepared
a mortall and deadly poyson, and when he had tempered it
accordingly, he tooke the pot in the presence of the family, and
other neighbors and friends of the sick young man, and offered
it to his patient.

* * * * *

To further the efficacy of potions, and also to act as indirect yet
acknowledged reinforcements, aischrological and scatological allusions
and references were frequent accompaniments of the actual act of
imbibing the philtre.

* * * * *

Omar Khayyam, the wise old tentmaker, eulogized, in the Rubaiyat, food
and love and wine in the memorable lines:

A loaf of bread,
A jug of wine
And thou, beneath the bough,
Were paradise enow.

The medieval Latin songs of the Goliards, the wandering students of the
European universities, are full of paeans to drink and its amatory
effects. Love and wine are inextricably mixed together in riotous and
rollicking friendship. Everyone, exclaims one chant, is drinking: man
and maid, master and serf, the sick and the healthy, young and old:

Bibit hera, bibit herus,
Bibit miles, bibit clerus,
Bibit ille, bibit illa,
Bibit servus cum ancilla,
Bibit velox, bibit piger,
Bibit albus, bibit niger,
Bibit constans, bibit vagus,
Bibit rudis, bibit magus,
Bibit pauper et aegrotus,
Bibit exsul et ignotus,
Bibit puer, bibit canus,
Bibit praesul, et decanus,
Bibit soror, bibit frater,
Bibit anus, bibit mater,
Bibit ista, bibit ille,
Bibunt centum, bibunt mille.

The intimate association between wine and love, as if by a chain of
causality, has been established since proto-historical times. All
ancient records, chronicles, supplications, ceremonials abundantly
exemplify this thematic synthesis. Especially so in poetry, of all
nations, and at all times.

Drink to me only with thine eyes
and I will pledge with mine

is merely a transposed symbolic formula for the same theme.

* * * * *

All kinds of foods have in the course of history been subjected to
scrutiny and experiment for the purpose of extracting therefrom any
indications of amatory incitements. Thus, out of the welter of magic
undercurrents and legendary beliefs, superstitious rites and alchemical
offerings, there arose a body of miscellaneous knowledge, largely orally
transmitted but in time consolidated into a permanently durable form,
dealing with periapts and panaceas that would bring back or conserve
manly vigor and genesiac capacities.

Among such potential means were anchovies, credited with provoking lust,
onion soup and herring roe, milk pudding. Angel water also was so
considered. It was shaken together with rose water, myrtle water, orange
flower water, distilled spirit of musk, and spirit of ambergris. To the
genitalia of the stag were attributed amatory qualities. Rockets, cakes
and pastries of phallic and genital design, chocolate and ices, pills
compounded of vegetable extracts, burgundy and richly garnished game
came under the same energizing category.

* * * * *

In South East Asia, particularly in what was formerly Cambodia, annual
spring festivals were held during which a gigantic lingam was carried
processionally through the streets. At the ghats in the holy cities of
India, notably at Benares, the sacred lingam was displayed publicly by
the Brahmin priests. Around these symbols clustered Hindu women on
pilgrimage, wreathing the phallic shape in flowers, smearing it with
ghee. And among the throngs strode the priests, bearing phallic forms
for the adoration and prostration of the people. Temple girls, bedecked
with tinkling anklets, and with beringed fingers, advanced, swaying and
writhing voluptuously. In similar ceremonies there was food to be
consumed, and drink flowed; followed, on the part of the initiates, by a
general indiscriminate promiscuity that was intended to represent
spiritual identification with the Hindu deities. The erotic urgencies
never rested, never rest: and the act becomes a sublimation.

* * * * *

The phallic cult, as the basic recognition of the creative potency, is
pervasively manifest, in every continent, throughout all distinctions of
society. In New Guinea, huts are adorned with a phallus. In the South
Sea Islands huge monolithic columns testify to the indigenous worship of
the generative force. In some areas of Arabia tombs are adorned with the
phallus and are treated with sacrosanct adoration by the women. The
Druses, in ceremonial chants at night, pay honor and homage to the yoni,
and particularly to the consummation on the sacred Friday, as enjoined
by Islam. In Tahiti, secret rites are held, in a corresponding sense, in
honor of the physiological act.

Greece had its processional mystai, male and female votaries of Bacchus,
leading asses or goats, while young maids carried baskets of
first-fruits and genital-shaped cakes. And a sequence of men, their
heads wreathed in ivy or acanthus, bore a fig-wood triple phallus of the
god.

From Phrygia the cult had anciently spread to Etruria, where the obscene
deity, according to Augustine and Arnobius, was the phallic Mutunus with
his consort Mutuna.

From Etruria the cult extended riotously to Rome and its far-flung
frontiers, from Lambaesis to Dacia, from Bithynia to Pannonia.

CHAPTER VII
POTENCY OF PHILTRES

The potion is primarily the instrument of lust. Lust is the universal
driving force, the cosmic mainspring. The pudenda muliebria, states the
Bible, are among the insatiable things on this earth. Plato, the Greek
philosopher, in his dialogue entitled _Timaeus_, confirms this eternally
unappeased genital passion:

In men the organ of generation, becoming rebellious and
masterful, like an animal disobedient to reason, and maddened
with the sting of lust, seeks to gain absolute sway; and the
same is the case with the so-called womb or matrix of women; the
animal within them is desirous of procreating children, and when
remaining unfruitful long beyond the proper time, gets
discontented and angry, and wandering in every direction through
the body, closes up the passages of breath, and, by obstructing
respiration, drives them to extremity, causing all varieties of
disease, until at length the desire and love of the man and the
woman bringing them together and as it were plucking the fruit
from the trees, sow in the womb, as in a field, animals unseen
by reason of their smallness and without form; these again are
separated and matured within; they are then finally brought out
into the light, and thus the generation of animals is completed.

* * * * *

Of all potions, satyrion is associated, in legend and mythology, with
the most numerous and consecutive effects. There was a story of an
oriental king. It is related in Book 9 of the _Enquiry into Plants_, by
Theophrastus, who flourished in the third century B.C. The king had sent
a gift of satyrion to Antiochus, ruler of Syria. The slave-messenger who
carried the plant was himself so affected by it that he performed
seventy coital operations in succession.

In respect of this same root there was another anecdote about a certain
Proculus. After drinking a satyrion concoction, Proculus performed on
one hundred women in fifteen days.

* * * * *

Wines, liqueurs, and in general all kinds of spirits are, both in
fictional contexts and in the chronicles of the eighteenth century,
considered as salacious tonics, and were so used specifically. Even an
occasional drink of wine had an erotic repute.

* * * * *

In the salacious and scatological novels of the Marquis de Sade,
especially in Justine and in Les 120 Journées de Sodome, food is
repeatedly stressed as immediately contributory to high amatory potency.
Repletion, it appears, corresponds directly to amatory responses. De
Sade describes, in lavish and appreciative detail, with a kind of
personal gusto and even participation, dinner after dinner, in which
courses follow each other in almost numberless and uninterrupted
sequence: roasts of all varieties, game in season, and also out of
season, hors d’oeuvre, pastries of fantastic shape and ingredients, ices
and chocolates. Each course is accompanied with appropriate wines and
brandies. Rhenish and Greek and Italian vintages, burgundy and
champagne, tokay and madeira.

* * * * *

And, both synchronously with the meal, and as an aftermath of the
banquets, the plenitude of food and drink and the total satiety of the
diners produce an enormously exciting, urgent, and effective erotic
reaction, in which not only the guests but the maidservants as well are
involved.

A soup compounded of celery and truffles was a favorite and popular dish
in eighteenth century France, when every possible aphrodisiac aid was
eagerly sought and tested.

No less so was lentil soup in great demand for the same purpose. Bean
soup, also, pea soup, and other vegetable assortments were regularly
employed in culinary ways, but with a decided erotic suggestiveness.

* * * * *

Eighteenth century France, in fact, experimented in both amatory and
gastronomic directions, for one practice was manifestly associated with
the other. All manner of compounds, then, prepared for amatory vigor,
were produced on a large scale. These concoctions invariably included
vinegars, perfumed lotions, electuaries, and strengthening elixirs.

* * * * *

A Portuguese potion, that was in frequent use in the eighteenth century,
consisted of a pint of rose water, shaken together with a pint of orange
flower water and a half pint of myrtle water. To this were added two
thirds of spirit of ambergris and two thirds of distilled spirit of
musk. The result was reputedly a potent concoction.

Asiatic races were long known for their sexual prowess. Hence the West,
through travelers and explorers and adventurers, was eager to acquire
such knowledge in its own interests. In the case of the Asiatic Tartars,
there were accounts of their strange practices. In one instance, they
used the membrum of the wild horse for its reputed high content of vital
fluid. The genitalia of the stag, itself considered an extremely
libidinous animal, were similarly regarded.

* * * * *

In the case of highly responsive natures, a mere inhalation of a
particular perfume, or the sight of a desired person, may produce
extreme erotic symptoms. This was so with Antiochus, son of King
Seleucus, who reigned in the third century B.C. Merely hearing the name
of his mistress uttered aloud was sufficient to induce in him the
ultimate amatory reactions.

The amatory urge has been, in the history of man, of such forceful and
uninterrupted universality that, in special cases and in specific areas
of activity, there have been devised anti-aphrodisiac means, formal
prescriptions, herbal and other concoctions, and well-meant counsel.
Verbena in a drink was formerly recommended as a specific preventive.
Also dried mint and vinegar and the juice of hemlock. Cucumbers, too,
and water melon have at various times been considered effective in
diminishing or allaying sensual interests. In a general sense, whatever
exhausts the body physiologically or mentally has been considered as a
feasible amatory restriction. In this category are included laborious
and persistent work that occupies all the waking energies: a minimum of
sleep, or fasting, or a restricted diet, or exercise of the body: even
castigation.

The problem was equally well known to the ancients, who advised, to
counteract the heat engendered by passionate excitation, a prescription
involving cold. Hence the cold bath was a common and recognized
procedure and was adopted, centuries later, as a regular feature in
Anglo-Saxon mores. Other Greeks, among them the philosophers Plato and
his successor Aristotle, suggested that going barefoot would diminish
the heat-producing physiological desire. Another suggestion was to wear
sheets of lead, beaten out thin, near the kidneys or on the legs. Pliny
the Elder, the Roman encyclopedist and author of the monumental
_Historia Naturalis_, and the eminent Greek physician Galen, both
coincided in this view.

A more difficult procedure, but one commended by the seventeenth century
Sir Thomas Browne, was self-restraint in the ‘flaming days,’ as he calls
them. Otherwise, there remains one other remedy, that was adopted by
Origen, the third century A.D. Father of the Church. He cut the Gordian
knot, freeing himself from all carnal inducements: Seeds genitalibus
membris, eunuchum se facit.

Ingenious inventions, activities, devices for escaping from or
suppressing compulsive amatory inclinations have been proposed in every
age, from the arch poet of love Ovid himself to the knowledgeable Dr.
Nicolas Venette.

Shun idleness, for idleness tends to amatory thoughts, warns the
erotological poet. Be active, and you will not be endangered. Occupy
yourself constantly: with agricultural pursuits, or fishing, or hunting.
Or even take up the study of law.

Avoid food that tends to stimulate: and, in general, live an ascetic
life removed from crowds, from visual provocations, from social parties
and clamorous public spectacles and dramatic performances, from
pictorial or sculptural objects that induce amatory images.

Snuff taking is suggested, as well as concentrated mental study, in
later centuries. Or drink a concoction of the roots and seeds of the
water lily. That is soothing and cooling, as the Turks seemed to have
found it.

* * * * *

Aromatic herbs were, in ancient Rome, usually a preliminary to more
active amatory adventures. The osphresiological sensitivity of men and
women is such that in many cases particular aromas, strong unguents and
cosmetics, arouse venereal impulses. In perverted and aberrational
situations, in fact, even repellent but powerful effluvia and vapors,
corporeal and genital, may create or induce erotic susceptibility. The
Oriental manuals of erotology and certain anthropological studies
confirm this view.

A strange personality who was himself European in origin but merged with
the East was the writer Lafcadio Hearn. In the course of his essays,
translations, and interpretations he produced a brief thesis on feminine
osphresiological influence.

The Roman novelist Apuleius, who belongs in the second century A.D., was
accused of marrying a wealthy widow named Pudentilla, by magic rites. He
thus answered his accuser:

He said that I was the only one found capable of defiling her
widowhood, as if it were virginity, by my incantations and love
philtres.

* * * * *

Woman became so masterful, so pervasively dominant in her relations with
her masculine counterpart, that she came to reflect man’s primary
physiological desire. She became equated with erotic passion and
fulfillment, and her urgency grew so intense that all roads were
directed toward her as the ultimate pleasure, the sensual summum bonum.
She was in the medieval dialectical sense, matter in actu. And when the
physiological and amatory capacities of the male became, through
excessive practice or through incidental incapacities or aberrations and
indiscretions, markedly weakened and deficient, there was instant and
frantic resort to any means, to all means, whereby this defect or
incapacity might be corrected or possibly completely remedied. Hence the
febrile, the universal quest, in every land and at all cultural levels,
for aids and persuasive spells and secret incantations, thaumaturgic
formulas and brews, elixirs and anticipated panaceas.

* * * * *

Springs, rivers, lakes, wells, and fountains have had at various times a
kind of miraculous or thaumaturgic repute as an efficacious amatory
stimulant. The Khirgiz of Central Asia, for instance, have a legend that
a princess, after bathing in a sacred lake, became enceinte. Waters may
thus be fruitful and fecundating. Aristotle himself relates that a pool
had the same effect on a bathing woman.

In the Middle Ages, the philosopher and occultist Albertus Magnus
describes similar instances and similar potencies.

In India, barren women bathed in a sacred well. Similarly with the
waters of Sinuessa in Greece. Springs in Germany and Morocco and in
France were likewise venerated for their traditional erotic efficacy.

In Hindu mythology, there are instances of women bathing in the holy
River Ganges and losing their sterility. So in the aboriginal myths of
Australia. In the Fiji islands barren women bathe in the river and then
take a drink of saffron and carob bean.

A similar tradition lingers in China, in the history of the Manchus. The
lotus often appeared in their legends as a kind of confirmatory aid. In
Egypt, in fact, the lotus was known as the wife of the Nile.

In both the West and the Orient, the personal will to be admired or
loved is believed to be instrumental, in a perceptible degree, in
producing a corresponding impact on the object of the desire. Various
procedures are specified, each having its own effective possibilities.
An offering of a bouquet of red flowers, breathed upon three times by
the amorous giver, may prove highly favorable to his pursuit. Or a
musical serenade, equally in vogue in the Latin countries, in medieval
Europe, and in the Middle East.

CHAPTER VIII
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.

CHAPTER IX
MIDDLE AGES AND LATER

In the earlier Christian centuries, misogynistic attitudes were markedly
prevalent, especially among the dogmatizing Church Fathers, and despite
the traditions of the _agape_. Clemens and Ambrose, Tertullian and
Athanasius were impassioned and vociferous, both in their oral
denunciations, and in their written invectives against the essentially
evil and malefic nature of woman.

Hence sexual love was anathema to them: and even marriage, grudgingly
conceded but rarely accepted, was an object of horrified scorn. In
consequence, it was not surprising that sexual interests and activities
should go underground, as it were, and that amatory aids and
encouragements likewise developed their secretive hiding places, their
esoteric emporia, their identifiable but undisclosed havens.

The result was that, as the Middle Ages advanced, two basic views
appeared to come into force. Laws that governed the marriage ceremonial
and its consequent domestic involvements and possessive obligations. And
laws that related to love as such, to the _amor naturalis_, as defined
by St. Thomas Aquinas, both in its romantic sense as a kind of amatory
but undefined ideal, and in its sexual implications that reached as far
as adultery, under certain subdued, well-controlled, and unpublicized
circumstances.

All these occasions created a hungry, frantic demand for philtres and
phials and nostrums of all varieties, of all degrees of efficacy. They
bloomed upon the markets, and gave employment and a vast impetus to
quacks and adventurers, to alchemists and beldams, in furnishing the
tantalizing apparatus of love.

* * * * *

One of the most dominant humanists during the Middle Ages was Albertus
Magnus (1193–1280). Of Germanic birth, he was educated in Padua and
Bologna. On account of his encyclopedic knowledge, he was generally
known as the Doctor Universalis.

Professor of theology, scientist, teacher, he achieved, both by his
voluminous writings and his lectures, an almost legendary reputation. In
one of his treatises, _De Secretis Mulierum_, he expounds on feminine
matters and then proceeds to discuss, in his _De Virtutibus Lapidum
Quorundam Libellus_, the virtues and properties of certain precious and
semi-precious stones. In an amatory direction, Albertus Magnus gives
suggestions, as if they were prescriptive and categorically assertive,
on how to win the favor and affection of a person:

Take the stone called Chalcedony. It may be black or red, and is
extracted from the stomach of swallows. Wrap the red stone in a
linen cloth or in calf skin and place it under the left armpit.

Although the philtre that is intended to inspire erotic excitations is
normally a drink, a fluid, Albertus Magnus’ recipe is virtually and in
its ultimate sense a potion. He adds, on a later occasion in the same
text:

If you want to promote love between two people, take the stone
called Echites, by some termed Aquileus—because eagles place it
in their nests. It is purple in color and is found on the sea
shore: sometimes, too, in Persia. And it always contains within
itself another stone that makes a sound when moved. The ancient
philosophers say that this stone, worn suspended on the left
arm, effects love between a man and a woman.

In the thirteenth century, a certain Arnold of Villanova, a physician
who traveled widely throughout Europe and in Africa, was reputed to be a
powerful karcist, believed to have occult contacts and interests. He
dabbled, also, in alchemy, and, as legend rumored, was proficient in
actual transmutations. In his medical practice he relied largely on
herbal concoctions, on magic formulas, on amatory potions prepared
according to traditional prescriptions.

Potions and love philtres pervaded all life, at all levels, throughout
the middle centuries. Peasant and pilgrim resorted to aged creatures who
were reputed to possess cryptic formulas, hidden resources transmitted
to them orally by their forbears. Even in the Eucharistic rite the
_poculum amatorium_ made its contorted intrusion. In the Eucharistic
rite, the wafer often became an ingredient in love potions and acquired
a particularly efficacious renown.

Most dealings in love devices, secret formulas, erotic phials, were
nameless, both the client and the practitioners remaining unknown by
name to each other. Until the practitioner became so assertive, so
prosperous and so much in demand that people flocked from remote
regions, from distant cities, from foreign countries, to acquire the
ultimate elixir. Count Alessandro Cagliostro was shrewd and unscrupulous
enough to profit by such conditions. He was an Italian alchemist,
magician, and hermetic, but basically his qualifications and capacities
were at least dubious. What was not at all dubious was his facility in
outwitting all Europe, in amassing great wealth from gullible clients,
in escaping, on all but the ultimate occasion, from merited penalties.
His original name was Giuseppe Balsamo, and his restless life extended
from 1745 to 1795.

In the heyday of his quackery he became both known and notorious
throughout Europe. He was _persona gratissima_ among the most
distinguished social circles and families. With the aid of his wife
Lorenza Feliccani he amassed enormous wealth by the sale of alchemical
compounds, magic elixirs, and love potions. Scandals followed his
movements and implicated him in fantastic incidents, salacious episodes.
Hence, for security or secrecy, he was constantly changing his abode. In
his last years, he suffered imprisonment, in the fortress of San Leo.
And with his death, the legends proliferated and multiplied. Strange
feats were recorded of him. Mystic phenomena appeared at his potent
will. According to such traditions, he was a necromancer, having
exorcised a dead woman. At a public banquet he invoked the dead spirits
of Diderot and Voltaire. And he was the founder of a secret organization
known as The Egyptian Lodge, where goetic practices and sorcery were
attempted and consummated.

Cagliostro had a kind of counterpart in the arcane arts. Catherine La
Voisin was a notorious French fortune-teller, as well as a reputed
witch. For the most part, she was a dispenser of love philtres, and
plied her sinister trade in low and high circles. In this capacity she
was intimately associated with the obscene and erotic operations of
Madame de Montespan. Madame de Montespan, mistress of King Louis XIV of
France, reached a point where her amatory offerings no longer aroused
the King. Steps had to be taken, urgently and effectively, to recover
that affection. With the aid of Catherine La Voisin, she concocted love
philtres. She participated in magical rites, in amatory Masses, and even
in child sacrifice, to gain her passionate purpose. In this sinister
machination she enlisted the support of a notorious Abbé Guibourg. His
scatological and lascivious activities in this respect brought about his
arrest, and his summary execution.

The love-potion, then, could be, potentially, a tremendously evil force,
a malefic and fatal weapon, an instrument of ruin and death. But usually
the potion was associated with soft and luxurious dalliance, with
amorous whisperings, with marital exchanges and sophisticated deceits.
So it was in Italy in particular. In the sixteenth century, many
Jewesses dabbled in love potions and amatory charms. They practiced
their skill in Rome itself, and acquired an established reputation as
purveyors of these physiological stimuli. Ferdinand Gregorovius, who
produced a monumental history of Rome, declares that Jewish women brewed
love philtres in the dark of the night, for their languishing customers,
the ladies of Rome.

Lippold, a Jewish financier of the Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg,
who also belongs in the sixteenth century, was accused, among other
charges based on magic practices, of dispensing recipes for the
concoction of love philtres. He was brutally tortured: then executed in
Berlin.

The medieval era was a period of absorption of the past, with occasional
tentative gropings and some experimentation in new directions. In the
erotic sphere, the Middle Ages adopted this antique heritage, at times
moulded and modified it, and sometimes made use of it in new contexts.
Thus there was in use an aromatic herb called popularly Sweet Flag. This
was the plant known anciently as acorus calamus, that the Romans
believed to be endowed with erotic stimulus. It was appropriately known
to them by the alternate name of the plant of Venus.

* * * * *

In their tenebrous laboratories, equipped with weird paraphernalia, lit
by the glow of furnace fire, the experimenting alchemists busied
themselves with their apparatus. On tables and benches stood, in
confused array, retorts of fantastic shape, flasks and tubes, alembics
and phials containing strange viscous multi-colored fluids, fungus
growths, particles of obscene matter, unnameable secretions. Some
liquids, under the influence of tiny flames, hissed and spluttered with
cunning animation. All these brews were undergoing action by fire and
intermingling of chemicals, were being forced into mutations and
directions for horrendous ends: and, dominantly among these objectives,
was the illusive mutation into gold, but also the discovery of the
source of being, the elixir of life, the rejuvenating creative essence
that would promote youthfulness and vigor, passion and potency.

* * * * *

The medieval occultist and the alchemist did not always remain, as
tradition believed, secluded in their own ivory tower, or rather in
their laboratories. In many senses, they were decided realists, and they
made profitable use of their knowledge and experimentations in the
direction of astrological horoscopes, fortune-telling, and the
preparation of philtres. There was, particularly, a potion in great
demand among amorous but disappointed swains of every degree and rank.
It was, according to general hearsay, a beverage whose basic ingredient
was gold. The preparation was consumed daily, over a space of time, as a
kind of amatory potable gold.

Many types of potions were resorted to in the Middle Ages. Some acted as
physiological excitants, but involved great circumspection in securing
the ingredients. These ingredients were often organic fragments: hair of
the beloved one obtained surreptitiously. Or nail parings. Or a shred
torn from an intimately worn garment. Such items were then burned, and,
when reduced to ashes, mixed with wine and used as a philtre.

In other cases, all sorts of putatively effective concoctions, never of
course analyzed as to the contents by the passionate pursuer, were
involved. They were freely sold in the market towns of medieval Europe,
in battlemented castles, in remote hamlets. They were brought as elixirs
by returning travelers from distant countries, and were eagerly
purchased in the ports and capitals of the continent. Especially when
these travelers reinforced their importations with tales and anecdotes
that testified to the amazing virtues of their brews.

* * * * *

The Elizabethan Age is noted for its tremendous intellectual
productivity, for its relish in living, its adventurous ways on the high
seas, in exploration, in colonization, in discovery. In the drama, in
the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, of Marlowe and Ford and Ben Jonson
and Thomas Dekker, the social and erotic phases of this tumultuous era
play no mean or insignificant role. In palace and hut, in court and
manor, the primary motif was love, in all its tantalizing
manifestations. Love pervaded all. And the instruments for promoting
love were all important, transcending domesticity and tranquillity,
honor and ethics. The secretive drug, the rare pill, the poculum
amatorium, the brew distilled by the wizened alchemist, the imported
philtre, the dramatic potion are all made contributory to the
furtherance of love and lust, to erotic subjugation, conquest, and
mastery.

The corpus of Shakespearean plays, as an instance, contains a number of
allusions to concoctions relating to amorous experiences. In _A
Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act 3, Scene 2, Oberon, King of the Fairies,
addresses Puck:

This falls out better than I could devise.
But hast thou yet latched the Athenian’s eyes
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

Puck: I took him sleeping—that is finished too— And the Athenian
woman by his side; That, when he waked, of force she must be
eyed.

Later, in the same play, another reference of the same kind appears:

Oberon: What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite,
and laid the love-juice on some true-love’s sight.
Of thy misprision must perforce ensue
Some true love turned, and not a false-turned true.

Further on, in the same act, Lysander, in love with Hermia, addresses
her thus:

Lysander: Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!
Out, loathed med’cine! O, hated potion, hence!

In _The Winters Tale_, Act 1, Scene 2, Camillo, Lord of Sicilia,
addresses Leontes, King of Sicilia:

Camillo: Say, my lord,
I could do this, and that with no rash potion,
But with a ling’ring dram, that should not work
Maliciously like poison: but I cannot
Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress
(So sovereignly being honorable!)
T’have loved the ...

In _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act 3, Scene 1, the Host says to Caius:

Shall I lose my doctor? no; he gives me the potions and the
motions.

In _Pericles_, Act 1, Scene 2, Pericles addresses Helicanus:

Thou speak’st like a physician, Helicanus,
That ministers a potion unto me
That thou would’st tremble to receive thyself.

In Part 1, Henry IV, Act 5, Scene 3, the Prince of Wales speaks:

The insulting hand of Douglas over you,
Which would have been as speedy in your end
As all the poisonous potions in the world.

And again, in Part 2, Act 1, Scene 1, Morton declares:

And they did fight with queasiness, constrain’d,
As men drink potions.

In these previously cited instances, in the Shakespearean contexts, it
is evident that the term potion had often a malefic connotation,
implying venom and destruction in its use. But it was equally a term of
amatory and sensual significance, associated largely with physiological
refreshment.

In _Dr. Faustus_, Christopher Marlowe’s drama, the protagonist,
passionately eager to embrace all knowledge that offers power, that is,
the thaumaturgic and necromantic skills, exclaims:

’Tis magic, magic that hath ravished me.

He then proceeds, after his pact with Mephistopheles, to demand the
implementation of the conditions. He is aroused erotically, and
commands:

let me have a wife,
The fairest maid in Germany;
For I am wanton and lascivious,
And cannot live without a wife

Mephistopheles, virtually a pander, suggesting provocative amatory
delights, promises:

Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed;
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
And as wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.

In a later scene, Robin the Ostler appears with one of Dr. Faustus’
grimoires:

Robin: Oh, this is admirable! here I ha’ stolen one of Doctor
Faustus’ conjuring books, and i’ faith I mean to search some
circles for my own use. Now will I make all the maidens in our
parish dance at my pleasure, stark-naked before me; and so by
that means I shall see more than e’er I felt or saw yet.

Enter Rafe calling Robin.

Rafe: Robin, prithee, come away; there’s a gentleman tarries to
have his horse, and he would have his things rubbed and made
clean: he keeps such a chafing with my mistress about it; and
she has sent me to look thee out. Prithee, come away.

Robin: Keep out, keep out, or else you are blown up; you are
dismembered, Rafe: keep out, for I am about a roaring piece of
work.

Rafe: Come, what dost thou with that same book? Thou cans’t not
read.

Robin: Yes, my master and mistress shall find that I can read,
he for his forehead, she for her private study; she’s born to
bear with me, or else my art fails.

Rafe: Why, Robin, what book is that?

Robin: What book! Why, the most intolerable book for conjuring
that e’er was invented by any brimstone devil.

Rafe: Can’st thou conjure with it?

Robin: I can do all these things easily with it; first, I can
make thee drunk with ippocras at any tavern in Europe for
nothing; that’s one of my conjuring works.

Rafe: Our Master Parson says that’s nothing.

Robin: True, Rafe; and more, Rafe, if thou hast any mind to Nan
Spit, our kitchenmaid, then turn her and wind her to thy own use
as often as thou wilt, and at midnight.

Rafe: O brave Robin, shall I have Nan Spit, and to mine own use?

* * * * *

Frequently consulted on erotic difficulties were the ubiquitous witches
who flourished in the Middle Ages throughout the European continent. In
the literature of these middle centuries their amatory brews are used in
a variety of passionate situations, to inspire love, to divert it into
strange channels, and, sometimes, to crush it. On occasion the repulsive
and abhorrent ingredients, both animal and human, are noted with a land
of macabre relish. But the urgent suppliant, bent on his lustful
self-appointed mission, rarely hesitated on that account. On the
contrary, the rare or obscene nature of the brew was like an added spurt
to his frantic libido: and the more distasteful the composition, the
more intense the lustfulness that was so inspired.

It was not unusual for the philtres and preparations to contain animal
testes, genitalia, human excremental matter, even fragments and shreds
of human corpses, torn from graveyards and charnel-houses.

An extreme type of potion, administered in febrile cases, was actual
blood, drunk by both man and woman.

* * * * *

The Middle Ages, particularly the eleventh century, was noted for its
loose morality, its amorous diversions, its disregard of the old rigid
domestic or social prohibitions and restraints. Achievement followed on
desire, and sensuous and sensual whims met with ready acquiescence.
Returning warriors, home from the Crusades in Palestine, or the
campaigns in Spain, had, during the course of their embattled
activities, come in contact with disturbing exotic women, so different,
in both physical appearance and temperament, from the wives and women
they had left in the châteaux and manors. These exotic women were
brought back by the returning victors as captives. Once returned, the
warriors looked back with something of nostalgia to their colorful days
in foreign regions and in novel circumstances. Hence the captive women
became a kind of live substitute for such meditations. The women
consoled the warriors with murmurous love songs of their own country,
sorrowful and prideful and exotic. And often the wives of these lords of
the manor were unpleasantly surprised when these strange women were
invited to domesticity as concubines. So that the medieval nobility
became, in the course of time, a complicated series of relationships,
tainted with harlotries and illegitimacies.

In these libidinous and licentious conditions, when exhaustion or age
began to make perceptible appearance, amatory aids were sought, and
philtres and brews were hopefully measured out by the furtive creatures,
male and female, peripatetic vendors, sorceresses, quacks and
occultists, who were always equipped, always prepared, to supply the
passionate clamor.

* * * * *

The medieval passion for love aroused complications. Particularly, it
aroused jealousy in the husband himself, however gallant or wayward he
might be. Lovers or husbands, discovering the indiscretions and
sportiveness of a mistress, a concubine, or a wife, exacted the utmost
and not rarely the most barbaric penalties. A wife was compelled to eat
her dead lover’s heart. Another wife was forced to congregate with
lepers because her conduct enraged her lawful spouse. One husband served
up the heart of the slain adulterer in the form of a stew for his wife.

Yet the husband appeared to be exempt from any penalties inflicted for
divergent amorous experiences in which he himself might be involved. For
the man was dominant. The husband was equated with the ineluctable law.
And the husband imposed that law upon his womankind. The male might
consequently indulge with more than a fair chance of impunity in
adultery, fornication, excessive lust.

And when these excitements seemed ultimately to approach physiological
impairment, there was always the nostrum, and the extended hand of the
aged crone, offering her mystic potion, her amatory panacea.

* * * * *

The permutations of amatory complications in the social frame of the
Middle Ages, involving peasant and noble, troubadour and harlot,
occasional damsels, poets, mistresses and concubines, resulted sometimes
in a frantic movement toward chastity. Renunciation of carnal delights,
of the amor naturalis that implied physical and sensual love only,
became a pose, then a principle, then a habit, however, at times, it
might be infringed or dishonored.

Chastity belts were devised by departing warriors to enforce continence
upon their wives. Chastity tests, ingeniously contrived, became popular
experiments in sexual restraints. It was the vogue, and the vogue became
mores. Just as Tristan and Yseult slept with a naked sword between them.

And in excessive cases there was the weird but apparently effective
device, for propagation purposes only, of the chemise cagoule.

And always, in the wake of these temporary waves of contrition or
repentance, there followed, as a consequence of plague, violence,
political unrest, banditry and war, a terrifying unleashing of all human
inhibitions, a bacchanalian orgy of prolonged lechery and debauchery,
reminiscent of Thucydides’ dramatic account of the Athenian plague
during the Peloponnesian War.

In the aftermath of these lecheries there arose perplexities,
complications in erotic directions, incapacity through perversions and
excesses: and a consequent hungry, voracious quest for remedial
measures: drugs and drinks devised by itinerant traders, nostrums
compounded by wily serfs and jongleurs, alchemical elixirs distilled in
secret dens by putative adepts.

* * * * *

Women, in an amatory sense, were far from neglected in the Middle Ages.
Many handbooks appeared that offered hints and guidance on dress,
deportment, osculation and its limitations, social behavior,
cleanliness, bathing and washing.

And if the object of the woman’s passion was preoccupied elsewhere, or
hesitant, or indifferent to her insistence or her personal charms, there
was always recourse to the potion, by means of which she could have her
way.

* * * * *

In France, in the Middle Ages, prostitution was so rampant and seeped
into the life of the people and the nobility to such an alarming extent
that the pious King Saint Louis, who flourished in the thirteenth
century, promulgated a series of stringent decrees against prostitutes.

Yet Paris was notoriously populated with prostitutes. They practiced
their occupation day and night, except on sacred days, in the most
obscure rendez-vous, in inns and bath houses and cellars. François
Villon, the poet of the brothel, and one of the chief sources for these
days, casts a lurid but realistic light on this phase of the medieval
scene.

Philtres were a common commodity in these circumstances, in spite of the
spread of disease. For le mal de Naples, as it was virtuously called in
France, but which the Italians as virtuously termed le mal français, was
ravaging Europe. The disease, to give it its modern name, was syphilis.

* * * * *

Although the Middle Ages were intimately familiar with love and lust in
all its lawful as well as its secretive phases, the amatory state itself
occasioned such temperamental and physiological and characterial changes
in the aspirant or the postulant that the question arose: Was love
itself worth while?

This question was specifically asked by Andreas Capellanus, who belongs
in the thirteenth century. He produced a handbook on the Art of Courtly
Love, in which he listed rules, and gave directions, in connection with
the conduct of the lover who is involved in a spiritual passion for the
knight’s wife, the queen, or a mistress of a manor.

Yet Andreas Capellanus also gives a sober, solemn warning against the
ill effects of love, for of all disastrous results, it makes men old
with untimely rapidity. Women, then, the source of this malefic
consequence, should be shunned. They are avaricious. They are ruthless.
They are faithless. They are dishonorable. This invective recalls a
remarkably similar assault on women and their ways, the thunderous,
condemnatory, bitter satire on women by the Roman satirist Juvenal.

* * * * *

In the Middle Ages amatory broths were in such demand that the most
obscure, the most nauseating, and sometimes actually venomous items were
indiscriminately compounded into philtres. Intimate human secretions,
blood, animal semen and other discharges, formed the fluid basis for the
incorporation of genitalia of animals, macerated sparrow brains, and
analogous animal matter.

Such concoctions were designed to correct physiological disorders and
natural weaknesses and defects in the person so affected.

* * * * *

One of the most significant treatises on love, applicable in its
essential features to every age, although produced in the Middle Ages,
is _Le Roman de la Rose_. It is an erotic allegory, begun in 1240 by
Guillaume de Lorris, and completed in 1280 by Jean de Meun: a remote
partnership that was nevertheless so effective as to make the book
continuously popular for several centuries.

There are numberless precepts and suggestions regarding the material
phases of love: personal appearance, social accomplishments, and in a
more general way the requisite mode of behavior for the amatory
suppliant. Above all, insistence is on giving free rein to passion and
on indulging in every conceivable variety of erotic voluptuousness and
sensual pleasure. And women, the treatise reminds one, are essentially
as free as men in this respect. So that, when the passions subside and
require increased fuel, the potion could be sought equally by men and
women.

* * * * *

The philtre appears in imaginative literature no less than in actuality.
The Wagnerian opera based on the Tristan and Yseult legend presents a
heroine who is far from the submissive and dutiful medieval female,
subservient to her amorous lord and master. She is highly selfish in her
ways, and her love for Tristan is conditioned by the administration of a
love-potion.

* * * * *

Medieval mortality distinguished between conjugal love and sexual love
that extended, on the part of both husband and wife, beyond the domestic
frontiers. Hence in many instances an insistent lover would resort to
some provocative potion in order to bring the amatory objective into
submission.

* * * * *

One of the most ravishing women in all history was Diane de Poitiers,
who for some three decades was the mistress of the French king Henri II.
Her beauty remained untarnished far beyond the usually allotted span.
She was imitated by every woman: in her manner of walking, her hair
styles, her general behavior. All society, all France was at her feet as
the unattainable ideal woman. And she remained so long after her death.

Those who were particularly inquisitive about Diane de Poitiers’ method
of prolonged beauty, whispered, and general gossip supported the belief,
that the continuance of her appealing and attractive charms was due to
certain potent love philtres that she had regularly used.

Before her death, Diane de Poitiers revealed what was evidently the
composition of the potion. Every morning, she declared, she had been in
the habit of drinking a liquid consisting of molten gold and certain
unrevealed drugs that had been recommended by alchemists.

* * * * *

It is curious to discover that sensual and sexual voluptuousness and
amorous contests, whether accepted according to traditional principles
or forbidden and experienced secretly, could find a vociferous,
articulate opponent. Yet in 1599 such an attack on loose morality and
licentious freedom was published under the title of _Antidote for Love,
with a lengthy Discourse on the Nature and Causes thereof, together with
the most singular Remedies for the Prevention and Cure of Amorous
Passions_. The author was a Frenchman, a certain Dr. Jean Aubery.

* * * * *

To stimulate genital vigor, the French in the Middle Ages advocated, as
a complement to physiological activity, verbal love making. Oral
caresses, endearing diminutives, the poetic battery of language that was
so familiar to the ancient poets, to Alciphron and Theocritus, to
Plautus, to Catullus, to Horace, came into popular use again. One
chronicler devotes himself to some extent to this phase of amorous
conquest. He recommends erotic murmurings, whisperings, coaxings,
endearments. And without question such recommendations were generally
reinforced with anatomical and sexual terms, obscene and scatological
references, that strengthened the lascivious gestures and contortions of
the participants. Similarly, in Spain and in Italy perfumes began to
acquire their amatory appeal and value, and added their subtle
allurements and insinuations to a potion, or to an erotic phial.

* * * * *

_Le Tableau de l’Amour Conjugal_ was a kind of amatory encyclopedia,
first published in 1696. The author was a Frenchman, a Dr. Nicolas
Venette. In addition to a great deal of matter on amatory subjects, the
effects of excesses, the causes of the validity of marriage, continence
and debauchery, there were also discussions on physiological conditions,
sexual relations, theories on the humors, on male and female
temperaments and peculiarities.

In respect of stimulants, Dr. Venette recommended, among other arousing
potions, crocodile kidneys. These were to be dried, then pounded into a
powder, to which was added sweet wine. The result, according to Dr.
Venette, was amazingly effective.

* * * * *

In eighteenth century France, _la vie galante_ had grown to such
proportions socially that many clubs were established, devoted
exclusively and fantastically to licentious erotic practices, to the
dissemination of amatory gossip and tales of well-known personalities,
prominent in contemporary life, who were addicted, orgiastically and
with abandonment, to amorous mores. There were even publications that
published spicy titbits about such characters, without disguise of name
or circumstance.

* * * * *

Among such clubs were La Société Joyeuse, Les Sunamites, La Paroisse,
and Les Aphrodites. One group, called Les Restauratrices, used the
methods and manipulations and stimulating potions and drugs that are so
vividly described in Petronius’ Roman novel of the _Satyricon_. It was
evident, then, that Les Restauratrices served men who had degenerated
physiologically through age or extreme excesses.

These clubs recognized no amatory restraints whatever. They indulged in
invented, ingenious permutations of amorous exercises, both privately
and publicly, and even held competitions to decide the superior potency
of members. The frequenters were ranked, in regard to prestige and
distinction, according to the numerical extent of their encounters.

* * * * *

Birds and game were commonly used in amatory tonics. The medieval
grimoires and manuals are packed with references to preparations that
involve all parts of the bird as ingredients for erotic compounds. The
philosopher and occultist Albertus Magnus, as an instance, who wrote on
a vast number of allied subjects, prescribes, in one of his treatises,
the brains of partridge, calcined into powder form, and steeped in red
wine, as a prospective aid to vigor.

* * * * *

The licentious courts of France often experimented and used whatever
lotion, concoction, or substance might prove effective in stimulating
waning or exhausted capacities in the members of the court, both male
and female. This quest grew to frantic and insidious proportions, for
the entire court was tainted with perversions, sexual excesses, and
exploratory monstrosities. For this purpose, then, ambergris, which is
an ash-colored substance secreted in the intestines of the sperm whale,
was used as a coating for chocolates, which were in the nature of
titbits designed to arouse the courtiers, lechers, and gallants. As a
perfume, ambergris was intended to provoke, through osphresiological
channels, sensual attraction. Madame du Barry notoriously used ambergris
as a means of ensuring Louis XV’s amatory interest.

* * * * *

Early chroniclers, herbalists, and compilers of miscellaneous knowledge
often refer to tonics, pastilles, and compounds as amatory specifics,
but provokingly do not name them. Thus in the Geneanthropoeia, virtually
a textbook on anatomy and sexology, produced in 1642 by an Italian
professor of medicine named Johannes Benedict Sinibaldus, there is
reference to a plant indigenous to the Atlas Mountains in North Africa.
This plant was reputedly of great erotic virtue. The difficulty lies in
its identification.

Allusion is similarly and frequently made to certain trees, shrubs, and
herbs of India that have analogous properties.

* * * * *

The eighteenth century in Europe became an age of debauchery and
gluttony. It was the age of licentious drama, of lewd poetry, of
unbridled lusts, of the overthrow of all moral and social restraints.
This was the situation notably in England, and in France.

It is known now, almost axiomatically, that foods, particularly meats
and game, stimulate sensual desires. Hence, when there was an excess of
sexual diversion, indiscriminate and pervasive through all classes of
society as a result of over indulgence in food and equally in drink,
there was correspondingly a resultant physiological reaction, a
weariness and incapacity and expenditure of energy that clamored for
renewal, for stimulants, brews and philtres to remedy this parlous
situation.

Similarly, in the Orient, from Arabia to Japan, in the South Seas no
less than in Africa, the basic sustenance is not animal flesh, but a
diet that is largely though not exclusively vegetarian.

Such a diet does not encourage erotic tendencies. In consequence, in the
East as well as in the West but for quite divergent reasons, there grew
up, through the centuries, corpora and manuals of prescriptions,
contrivances, suggestions, and a diversity of aids conducive to amatory
functions. In essence, the development was along the lines of an entire
aphrodisiac laboratory.

* * * * *

Every conceivable substance, every presumed juice or blossom or spice
was worthy of a trial, of being tested for its impact on procreative
activity. So with borax. Refined and compounded into a beverage, borax
was, in the seventeenth century, reputed to pervade the entire organic
frame, and to produce highly favorable physiological reactions in the
genital areas.

At the same time, borax was considered extremely dangerous in the view
of practicing physicians, and its use was urgently deprecated, on
account of its concomitant poisonous effects.

* * * * *

The seventeenth century was the century of the French King, Louis XIV,
Le Roi Soleil. And his reign and personal life, and the society that
encircled his court, were an incessant round of lavish gaiety, gross and
scatological obscenities, and the most flagrant immoralities. Among
other infamous episodes that marked this period were the machinations of
Louis’ mistress, Madame de Montespan. She was involved, according to
contemporary records, in poisoning one rival mistress and attempting the
elimination of another by the same means. But chiefly Madame de
Montespan is remembered for her febrile associations with sorceresses,
reputed witches, whom she consulted for help in retaining King Louis’
affection. The principal aide and accomplice in these furtive and
insidious operations was Catherine La Voison, a professed witch, a
poisoner, a dealer in love-potions. It was from La Voisin that Madame de
Montespan secured amatory charms and philtres.

In the issue, Madame de Montespan lost her intimate status with the
King, while La Voisin was burned alive in Paris.

* * * * *

In the seventeenth century there appears in France The Great Almanach of
Love. It contained directions for arousing sensual feelings. It
suggested music and songs, sonnets and madrigals. But it also
recommended, as more earthy enticements, meals that included a dish of
beans, turkey, and sweets. These items were virtually love philtres.

* * * * *

An old medieval custom, that lasted until well into this century in
Europe, was in the nature of a nuptial love-potion.

After a wedding feast, members of the village community set water to
boil in a pot. Into the pot were thrown, in addition to pepper, garlic,
and salt—which are essentially aphrodisiac in character—,less appetizing
contributions, such as spiders’ webs and soot. The entire compound was
stirred into an unsavory mixture, but both the bride and the groom were
required to take at least a mouthful.

In essence, this brew was designed to arouse excitations on the part of
the bridal pair, just as Plutarch refers to the bride nibbling fruit
before retiring to bed.

* * * * *

In place of actual potions, the Middle Ages at times used what were
essentially visual erotic stimulants. These were lewd pictures and
drawings that were in great vogue, extensively so in the reign of King
François I. Many among the French nobility made private collections of
such provocative and scatological sketches that produced, in some cases,
marked inflammatory erotic reactions. In certain country châteaux, also,
stained glass windows depicted salacious episodes, libidinous postures
and embraces, just as the caves of Ajanta in India portrayed amatory
contortions in which human and animal performers were involved.

* * * * *

The subject of erotic practices, including perversions, abnormalities,
flagellation, as well as philtres and amatory brews, was not limited to
professional physicians. Many demonographers, including Martin Delrio,
mentioned erotic techniques in their discussions and investigations of
witchcraft and the furtive operations of occultists. In 1520 there was
published a Latin text entitled _Fustigationes_, which involves
references to love philtres. The author was a certain Grillandus, a
Florentine and also a member of the Inquisition at Arezzo.

Through the centuries, there were sporadic appearances of pamphlets and
miscellaneous pieces that had reference to amatory aids. For instance,
_Le Jardin d’Amour_, published in 1798 by a certain Tansillo or
Tanzillo.

Every century, every country, every religious sect, had its own
monstrous obscenities, its peculiar orgiastic ceremonials, its gross and
bestial manifestations, and its most unhallowed erotic permutations.
Some of these phenomena were of a seclusive nature, confined to
initiates only. Others, more liberated or more daring, were associated
with royal courts, or temple worship, or even conventual life. Erotic
acts, bestial performances, tribadism and fellatio and every other
abnormality were all depicted in caves and church windows, woven in
tapestries, or represented in ornamental furniture, etched in books,
moulded in statuary.

The Middle Ages, in particular, were the milieu, but of course not
exclusively so, of political cataclysms and internecine wars, of plagues
and intrigues and famine, of splendor and tournaments, jousts and
crusades, and also of servitude and witchcraft, gluttony and debauchery,
monastic life and religious reforms, art and poetry and lewdness.

All through the ages, notably during these middle eras, this dichotomy
was prevalent and manifest. And pervading and transcending all civic
conditions, all national issues, was the erotic life of the teeming,
inarticulate populace and the highly literate and cultured minorities:
wanton prelates and easy princesses, libidinous serving maids and poetic
gallants, romantic crusaders, lechers, perverts.

The history of these times is packed with religious lusts, with worship
of the genitalia, with female devotees of Priapus, with amatory
flagellations and erotic feasts, with sexuality rampant in full public
view, with chastity belts and barbarous contraptions. The Latin
chronicles and the Latin satirical writings, the Wandering Scholars’
songs and the anecdotes and tales that amused these centuries are filled
with abhorrent nudist practices, with adultery and incest, with
prostitution and unholy commerce of holy devotees, with rape and sodomy.
We hear of the most unbridled, the most shameless doings from the
chronicles of Godefroy and of Froissart, of Benevente and Grecourt. We
read of obscene banquets under kingly sponsorship, of brothels under
royal patronage, of public gymnastic performances of harlots, of the
debaucheries of monks and canons and students, adventurers and
courtiers. We read of a monastery dedicated to prostitution, of parades
of harlots, of foul sexual privileges exercised by the lords of the
manor, of the ius primae noctis and the droit de cuisse, and, in short,
of an array, colossal in bulk and unspeakable in content, of every
conceivable erotic fact.

* * * * *

Through the ages, the knowledge of sexual and amatory artifices,
contraptions, inducements grew and multiplied in such variety, through
legend and experiment, through the accretions of poetic myths and
hearsay, that a voluminous corpus was achieved. It comprehended
incantations and fantasies, rare prescriptions, crude operative
techniques, formulas and incisions, superstitions and alchemical
products, astrological cryptograms and Satanic supplications that were
all assumed to be effective in guarding or in increasing amatory
potency.

* * * * *

Sexual procedures of all types and at varying levels were particularly
prevalent in the Middle Ages. In addition, the clergy, according to the
testimony of contemporary songs and monastic chronicles and incidental
references in drama and satire and history, were not altogether immune
to such diversions. To promote asceticism, therefore, to diminish carnal
lusts, various plants and drugs and other medicaments were employed in
monasteries to produce the desired anaphrodisiac condition. Agnus
castus, for example, which is now identified with the chaste-tree or
Abraham’s balm, was credited with having decided cooling effects and
eliminating physiological urgencies.

* * * * *

An ingenious device that resulted in stifling the amatory advances of a
king is related in Boccaccio’s _Decameron_: The Fifth Story of the First
Day. King Phillippe of France, learning of the beauty of the Marchioness
of Monferrato, journeys to her domain, in the absence of the Marquis. He
is invited to a banquet:

The ordinance of the repast and of the viands she reserved to
herself alone and having forthright caused collect as many hens
as were in the country, she bade her cooks dress various dishes
of these alone for the royal table.

The king came at the appointed time and was received by the lady
with great honor and rejoicing. When he beheld her, she seemed
to him fair and noble and well-bred beyond that which he had
conceived from the courtier’s words, whereat he marvelled
exceedingly and commended her amain, waxing so much the hotter
in his desire as he found the lady over-passing his foregone
conceit of her. After he had taken somewhat of rest in chambers
adorned to the utmost with all that pertaineth to the
entertainment of such a king, the dinner hour being come, the
king and the marchioness seated themselves at one table, whilst
the rest, according to their quality, were honorably entertained
at others. The king, being served with many dishes in
succession, as well as with wines of the best and costliest, and
to boot gazing with delight the while upon the lovely
marchioness, was mightily pleased with his entertainment; but,
after awhile, as the viands followed one upon another, he began
somewhat to marvel, perceiving that, for all the diversity of
the dishes, they were nevertheless of nought other than hens,
and this although he knew the part where he was to be such as
should abound in game of various kinds and although he had, by
advising the lady in advance of his coming, given her time to
send a-hunting. However, much as he might marvel at this, he
chose not to take occasion of engaging her in parley thereof,
otherwise than in the matter of her hens, and accordingly,
turning to her with a merry air, ‘Madam,’ quoth he, ‘are hens
only born in these parts, without ever a cock?’ The marchioness,
who understood the king’s question excellent well, herseeming
God had vouchsafed her, according to her wish, an oportune
occasion of discovering her mind, turned to him and answered
boldly, ‘Nay, my lord; but women, albeit in apparel and
dignities they may differ somewhat from others, are natheless
all of the same fashion here as elsewhere.’

The King, hearing this, right well apprehended the meaning of
the banquet of hens and the virtue hidden in her speech and
perceived that words would be wasted upon such a lady, and that
violence was out of the question; wherefore, even as he had
ill-advisedly taken fire for her, so now it behoved him sagely,
for his own honor’s sake, stifle his ill-conceived passion.

* * * * *

The medieval love poem, usually sung to an accompaniment on the lyre or
other musical instrument, was often, in spite of its superficially
innocuous tone, full of amatory innuendoes and erotic provocations. The
love song, in fact, was virtually an amatory philtre intended to set the
listener afire, or to inspire the object of the implicit passion with an
equal fervor, or to divert a passion in the direction of the songster.
The concluding story of the fifth day, in Boccaccio’s Decameron,
contains a song of this nature:

O Love, the amorous light
That beameth from yon fair one’s lovely eyes
Hath made me thine and hers in servant-guise.
The splendor of her lovely eyes, it wrought
That first thy flames were kindled in my breast,
Passing thereto through mine;
Yea, and thy virtue first unto my thought
Her visage fair it was made manifest,
Which picturing, I twine
And lay before her shrine
All virtues, that to her I sacrifice,
Become the new occasion of my sighs.
Thus, dear my lord, thy vassal am I grown
And of thy might obediently await
Grace for my lowliness;
Yet wot I not if wholly there be known
The high desire that in my breast thou’st set
And my sheer faith, no less,
Of her who doth possess
My heart so that from none beneath the skies,
Save her alone, peace would I take or prize.
Wherefore I pray thee, sweet my lord and sire,
Discover it to her and cause her taste
Some scantling of thy heat
To-me-ward,—for thou seest that in the fire,
Loving, I languish and for torment waste
By inches at her feet,—
And eke in season meet
Commend me to her favor on such wise
As I would plead for thee, should need arise.

A similar song, from the maiden’s viewpoint, appears at the close of the
last story on the sixth day:

Then Pamfilo having, at his commandment, set up a dance, the
king turned to Elisa and said courteously to her, “Fair damsel,
thou hast today done me the honor of the crown and I purpose
this evening to do thee that of the song; wherefore look thou
sing such an one as most liketh thee.” Elisa answered, smiling,
that she would well and with dulcet voice began on this wise:

Love, from thy clutches could I but win free,
Hardly, methinks, again
Shall any other hook take hold on me.
I entered in thy wars a youngling maid,
Thinking thy strife was utmost peace and sweet,
And all my weapons on the ground I laid,
As one secure, undoubting of defeat;
But thou, false tyrant, with rapacious heat,
Didst fall on me amain
With all the grapnels of thine armory.

Then, wound about and fettered with thy chains,
To him, who for my death in evil hour
Was born, thou gav’st me, bounden, full of pains
And bitter tears; and syne within his power
He hath me and his rule’s so harsh and dour
No sighs can move the swain
Nor all my wasting plaints to set me free.
My prayers, the wild winds bear them all away;
He hearkeneth unto none and none will hear;
Wherefore each hour my torment waxeth aye;
I cannot die, albeit life irks me drear.
Ah, Lord, have pity on my heavy cheer;
Do that I seek in vain
And give him bounden in thy chains to me.
An this thou wilt not, at the least undo
The bonds erewhen of hope that knitted were;
Alack, O Lord, thereof to thee I sue,
For, an thou do it, yet to waxen fair
Again I trust, as was my use whilere,
And being quit of pain
Myself with white flowers and with red besee.

Elisa ended her song with a very plaintive sigh, and albeit all
marvelled at the words thereof, yet was there none who might
conceive what it was that caused her sing thus. But the king,
who was in a merry mood, calling for Tindaro, bade him bring out
his bagpipes, to the sound whereof he let dance many dances.

Another song, sung by Pamfilo, who represents Boccaccio himself, refers
to the author’s amours with the Princess Maria of Naples—Fiammetta.

The song occurs at the end of the eighth day:

At last, the queen, to ensue the fashion of her predecessors,
commanded Pamfilo to sing a song, notwithstanding those which
sundry of the company had already sung of their free will; and
he readily began thus:

Such is thy pleasure, Love
And such the allegresse I feel thereby
That happy, burning in thy fire, am I.
The abounding gladness in my heart that glows,
For the high joy and dear
Whereto thou hast me led,
Unable to contain there, overflows
And in my face’s cheer
Displays my happihead: for being enamoured
In such a worship-worthy place and high
Makes eath to me the burning I aby.
I cannot with my finger what I feel
Limn, Love, nor do I know
By bliss in song to vent;
Nay, though I knew it, needs must I conceal,
For, once divulged, I trow
’Twould turn to dreariment.
Yet am I so content,
All speech were halt and feeble, did I try
The least thereof with words to signify.
Who might conceive it that these arms of mine
Should anywise attain
Whereas I’ve held them aye,
Or that my face should reach so fair a shrine
As that, of favor fain
And grace, I’ve won to? Nay,
Such fortune ne’er a day
Believed me were; whence all afire am I,
Hiding the source of my liesse thereby.

This was the end of Pamfilo’s song, whereto albeit it had been
completely responded of all, there was none but noted the words thereof
with more attent solicitude than pertained unto him, studying to divine
that which, as he sang, it behoved him to keep hidden from them; and
although sundry went imagining various things, nevertheless none
happened upon the truth of the case.

* * * * *

At the end of the ninth day, Neifile sings:

Supper at an end, they arose to the wonted dances, and after they had
sung a thousand canzonets, more diverting of words than masterly of
music, the king bade Neifile sing one in her own name; whereupon, with
clear and blithesome voice, she cheerfully and without delay began thus:

A youngling maid am I and full of glee,
Am fain to carol in the new-blown May,
Love and sweet thoughts-a-mercy, blithe and free.
I go about the meads, considering
The vermeil flowers and golden and the white,
Roses thorn-set and lilies snowy-bright,
And one and all I fare a-likening
Unto his face who hath with love-liking
Ta’en and will hold me ever, having aye
None other wish than as his pleasures be;
Whereof when one I find me that doth show,
Unto my seeming, likest him, full fain
I cull and kiss and talk with it amain
And all my heart to it, as best I know,
Discover, with its store of wish and woe;
Then it with others in a wreath I lay,
Bound with my hair so golden-bright of blee.
Ay, and that pleasure which the eye doth prove,
By nature, of the flower’s view, like delight
Doth give me as I saw the very wight
Who hath inflamed me of his dulcet love,
And what its scent thereover and above
Worketh in me, no words indeed can say;
But sighs thereof bear witness true for me,
The which from out my bosom day nor night
Ne’er, as with other ladies, fierce and wild,
Storm up; nay, thence they issue warm and mild
And straight betake them to my loved one’s sight,
Who, hearing, moveth of himself, delight
To give me; ay, and when I’m like to say
“Ah come, lest I despair,” still cometh he.
Again, on the tenth day, Fiammetta sings:
If love came but withouten jealousy,
I know no lady born
So blithe as I were, whosoe’er she be.
If gladsome youthfulness
In a fair lover might content a maid,
Virtue and worth discreet,
Valiance or gentilesse,
wit and sweet speech and fashions all arrayed
In pleasantness complete,
Certes. I’m she for whose behoof these meet
In one; for, love-o’erborne,
All these in him who is my hope I see.
But for that I perceive
That other women are as wise as I,
I tremble for affright
And tending to believe
The worst, in others the desire espy
Of him who steals my spright;

Thus this that is my good and chief delight
Enforceth me, forlorn,
Sigh sore and live in dole and misery.
If I knew fealty such
In him my lord as I know merit there,
I were not jealous, I;
But here is seen so much
Lovers to tempt, how true they be soe’er,
I hold all false; whereby
I’m all disconsolate and fain would die,
Of each with doubting torn
Who eyes him, lest she bear him off from me.
Be, then, each lady prayed
By God that she in this be not intent
’Gainst me to do amiss;
For sure, if any maid
Should or with words or becks or blandishment
My detriment in this
Seek or procure and if I know’t, ywis,
Be all my charms forsworn
But I will make her rue it bitterly.

Scattered throughout the Decameron, there are other erotic songs too. At
the end of the first day:

Emilia amorously warbled the following song:

I burn for mine own charms with such a fire,
Methinketh that I ne’er
Of other love shall reck or have desire

Whene’er I mirror me, I see therein
That good which still contenteth heart and spright;
Nor fortune new nor thought of old can win
To dispossess me of such dear delight.
What other object, then, could fill my sight,
Enough of pleasance e’er
To kindle in my breast a new desire?

This good flees not, what time soe’er I’m fain
Afresh to view it for my solacement;
Nay, at my pleasure, ever and again
With such a grace it doth itself present
Speech cannot tell it nor its full intent
Be known of mortal e’er,
Except indeed he burn with like desire.

And I, grown more enamoured every hour,
The straitlier fixed mine eyes upon it be,
Give all myself and yield me to its power,
E’en tasting now of that it promised me,
And greater joyance yet I hope to see,
Of such a strain as ne’er
Was proven here below of love-desire.

At the end of the second day, the ditty following was sung by Pampinea:

What lady aye should sing, and if not I,
Who’m blest with all for which a maid can sigh.
Come then, O love, thou source of all my weal,
All hope and every issue glad and bright
Sing ye awhile yfere
Of sighs nor bitter pains I erst did feel,
That now but sweeten to me thy delight,
Nay, but of that fire clear,
Wherein I, burning, live in joy and cheer,
And as my God, thy name do magnify.

Thou settest, Love, before these eyes of mine
Whenas thy fire I entered the first day,
A youngling so beseen
with valor, worth and loveliness divine,
That never might one find a goodlier, nay,
Nor yet his match, I ween.
So sore I burnt for him I still must e’en
Sing, blithe, of him with thee, my lord most high.

And that in him which crowneth my liesse
Is that I please him, as he pleaseth me,
Thanks to Love debonair;
Thus in this world my wish I do possess
And in the next I trust at peace to be,
Through that fast faith I bear
To him; sure God, who seeth this, will ne’er
The kingdom of His bliss to us deny.

At the end of the third day, Lauretta began thus:

No maid disconsolate hath cause as I, alack!
Who sigh for love in vain, to mourn her fate.

He who moves heaven and all the stars in air
made me for His delight
Lovesome and sprightly, kind and debonair,
E’en here below to give each lofty spright
Some inkling of that fair
That still in heaven abideth in His sight;
But erring men’s unright,
Ill knowing me, my worth
Accepted not, nay, with dispraise did bate.
Erst was there one who held me dear and fain
Took me, a youngling maid,
Into his arms and thought and heart and brain,
Caught fire at my sweet eyes; yea, time, unstayed
Of aught, that flits amain
And lightly, all to wooing me he laid.
I, courteous, nought gainsaid
And held him worthy me;
But now, woe’s me, of him
I’m desolate.
Then unto me there did himself present
A youngling proud and haught,
Renowning him for valorous and gent;
He took and holds me and with erring thought
To jealousy is bent;
Whence I, alack! nigh to despair am wrought,
As knowing myself,—brought
Into this world for good
Of many an one,—engrossed of one sole mate.

The luckless hour I curse, in very deed,
When I, alas! said yea,
Vesture to change,—so fair in that dusk wede
I was and glad, whereas in this more gay
A weary life I lead,
Far less than erst held honest, welaway!
Ah, dolorous bridal day,
Would God I had been dead
Or e’er I proved thee in such ill estate!
O lover dear, with whom well pleased was I
Whilere past all that be,—
Who now before Him sittest in the sky
Who fashioned us,—have pity upon me
Who cannot, though I die,
Forget thee for another; cause me see
The flame that kindled thee
For me lives yet unquenched
And my recall up thither impetrate.

At the end of the fourth day Filostrato sang:

Weeping, I demonstrate
How sore with reason doth my heart complain
Of love betrayed and plighted faith in vain.
Love, whenas first there was of thee imprest
Thereon her image for whose sake I sigh,
Sans hope of succour aye,
So full of virtue didst thou her pourtray,
That every torment light accounted I
That through thee to my breast,
Grown full of drear unrest
And dole, might come; but now, alack! I’m fain
To own my error, not withouten pain.
Yea, of the cheat first was I made aware,
Seeing myself of her forsaken sheer,
In whom I hoped alone;
For, when I deemed myself most fairly grown
Into her favor and her servant dear,
Without her thought or care
Of my to-come despair,
I found she had another’s merit ta’en
To heart and put me from her with disdain.

Whenas I knew me banished from my stead,
Straight in my heart a dolorous plaint there grew,
That yet therein hath power,
And oft I curse the day and eke the hour
When first her lovesome visage met my view,
Graced with high goodlihead;
And more enamoured
Than eye, my soul keeps up its dying strain,
Faith, ardor, hope, blaspheming still amain.
How void my misery is of all relief
Thou may’st e’en feel, so sore I call thee, sire,
With voice all full of woe;
Ay, and I tell thee that it irks me so
That death for lesser torment I desire.
Come, death, then; sheer the sheaf
Of this my life of grief
And with thy stroke my madness eke assain;
Go where I may, less dire will be my bane.

No other way than death is left my spright,
Ay, and none other solace for my dole;
Then give it me straightway,
Love; put an end withal to my dismay;
Ah, do it; since fate’s spite
Hath robbed me of delight;
Gladden thou her, lord, with my death, love-slain,
As thou hast cheered her with another swain.

My song, though none to learn thee lend an ear,
I reck the less thereof, indeed, that none
Could sing thee even as I;
One only charge I give thee, ere I die,
That thou find love and unto him alone
Show fully how undear
This bitter life and drear
Is to me, craving of his might he deign
Some better harborage I may attain.
Weeping I demonstrate
How sore with reason doth my heart complain
Of love betrayed and plighted faith in vain.

At the conclusion of the last story on the seventh day Filomena sings:

Alack, my life forlorn!
Will’t ever chance I may once more regain
Th’estate whence sorry fortune hath me torn?
Certes, I know not, such a wish of fire
I carry in my thought
To find me where, alas! I was whilere.
O dear my treasure, thou my sole desire,
That holdst my heart distraught,
Tell it me, thou; for whom I know nor dare
To ask it otherwhere.
Ah, dear my lord, oh, cause me hope again,
So I may comfort me my spright wayworn.
What was the charm I cannot rightly tell
That kindled in me such
A flame of love that rest nor day nor night
I find; for, by some strong unwonted spell,
Hearing and touch
And seeing each new fires in me did light,
Wherein I burn outright;
Nor other than thyself can soothe my pain
Nor call my senses back, by love o’erborne.

O tell me if and when, then, it shall be
That I shall find thee e’er
Whereas I kissed those eyes that did me slay.
O dear my good, my soul, ah, tell it me,
When thou wilt come back there,
And saying “Quickly,” comfort my dismay
Somedele. Short be the stay
until thou come, and long mayst thou remain!
I’m so love-struck, I reck not of men’s scorn.
If once again I chance to hold thee aye,
I will not be so fond
As erst I was to suffer thee to fly;
Nay, fast I’ll hold thee, hap of it what may,
And having thee in bond,
Of thy sweet mouth by lust I’ll satisfy.
Now of nought else will I
Discourse. Quick, to thy bosom come me strain;
The sheer thought bids me sing like lark at morn.

* * * * *

Rabelais (1490–1553), in his _Gargantua and Pantagruel_, incorporates
into his fantastic and satirical novel contemporary views and personal
attitudes on a large variety of subjects—religious and cosmological,
literary, metaphysical, and theological. Among the topics and
discussions propounded by some of his odd characters is the problem of
amatory stimuli:

When I say, quoth Rondibilis, that wine abateth lust, my meaning
is, wine immoderately taken; for by intemperance proceeding from
the excessive drinking of strong liquor, there is brought upon
the body of such a swill-down bouser, a chilliness in the blood,
a slackening in the sinews, a dissipation of the generative
seed, a numbness and hebetation of the senses, with a perversive
wryness and convulsion of the muscles; all of which are great
lets and impediments to the act of generation. Hence it is, that
Bacchus, the god of bibbers, tipplers, and drunkards, is most
commonly painted beardless, and clad in a woman’s habit, as a
person altogether effeminate, or like a libbed eunuch. Wine,
nevertheless, taken moderately, worketh quite contrary effects,
as is implied by the old proverb, which saith,—That Venus takes
cold, when not accompanied with Ceres and Bacchus.

On another point in erotic investigations, Rabelais continues:

The fervency of Lust is abated by certain drugs, plants, herbs,
and roots, which make the taker cold, maleficiated, unfit for,
and unable to perform the act of generation; as hath been often
experimented in the water-lily, Heraclea, Agnus Castus,
willow-twigs, hemp-stalks, wood-bine, honey-suckle, tamarisk,
chaste-tree, mandrake, bennet, keck-bugloss, the skin of a
hippopotamus, and many other such, which, by convenient doses
proportioned to the peccant humor and constitution of the
patient, being duly and seasonably received within the body,
what by their elementary virtues on the one side, and peculiar
properties on the other,—do either benumb, mortify, and
beclumpse with cold the prolific semence, or scatter and
disperse the spirits, which ought to have gone along with, and
conducted sperm to the places destinated and appointed for its
reception,—or lastly, shut up, stop, and obstruct the ways,
passages, and conduits through which the seed should have been
expelled, evacuated, and ejected. We have nevertheless of those
ingredients, which, being of a contrary operation, heat the
blood, bend the nerves, unite the spirits, quicken the senses,
strengthen the muscles, and thereby rouse up, provoke, excite,
and enable a man to the vigorous accomplishment of the feat of
amorous dalliance.

Obstructions to such dalliance are now discussed:

The ardor of lechery is very much subdued and check’d by
frequent labor and continual toiling. For by painful exercises
and laborious working, so great a dissolution is brought upon
the whole body, that the blood, which runneth alongst the
channels of the veins thereof, for the nourishment and
alimentation of each of its members, hath neither time, leisure,
nor power to afford the seminal resudation, or superfluity of
the third concoction, which nature most carefully reserves for
the conservation of the individual, whose preservation she more
heedfully regardeth than the propagation of the species, and the
multiplication of human land.

[Illustration:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

EVE

_by Rodin_
]

[Illustration:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

ETERNAL SPRINGTIME

_by Rodin_
]

On the other part, in opposition and repugnancy hereto, the
philosophers say, That idleness is the mother of luxury. When it
was asked Ovid, why Aegisthus became an adulterer? he made no
other answer but this, Because he was idle. Who were able to rid
the world of loitering and laziness might easily frustrate and
disappoint Cupid of all his designs, aims, engines, and devices,
and so disable and appal him that his bow, quiver, and darts
should from thenceforth be a mere needless load and burthen to
him, for that it could not lie in his power to strike, or wound
any of either sex, with all the arms he had.

Again:

The tickling pricks of incontinency are blunted by an eager
study; for from thence proceedeth an incredible resolution of
the spirits, that oftentimes there do not remain so many behind
as may suffice to push and thrust forwards the generative
resudation to the places thereto appropriated, and there withal
inflate the cavernous nerve, whose office is to ejaculate the
moisture for the propagation of human progeny.

* * * * *

The English herbalist John Gerarde, who wrote a Herbal that was
published in 1633, suggests a stimulating drink composed of juniper
berries steeped in water. The juniper shrub itself was used medicinally,
in cordials, and as an element in philtres.

* * * * *

The medieval writer Andreas Cisalpinus states that the tree called
gossypion produced a juice that aided amatory efforts.

* * * * *

Emblica honey was, in the opinion of the thirteenth century Arab
philosopher Avicenna, endowed with venereal virtues.

* * * * *

A plant that is native to both North and South Africa produces as an
exudation a gum resin called euphorbium, which was considered in the
thirteenth century an invigorating agent.

* * * * *

The medieval philosopher Albertus Magnus mentions a stone called
aquileus or echites, that is found near the Mediterranean littoral and
in Persia, in eagles’ nests. This stone contains a smaller one that has
an amatory character.

* * * * *

_Babio_, a twelfth century Latin comedy, presents the priest Babio
himself apostrophizing women: Oh! What a guilty thing is a woman! The
worst thing on earth. A seducer. There is no guile in the world that is
missing in her. There is no evil so wicked as a long sequence of evils.
Nobody considers the perils of a snake that has long been kept crushed.
My wife is a thief. My slave is my guard. It’s a case of trouble and
trickery. She is a she-wolf. He’s a lion. She holds me, while he fetters
me. She casts me to the ground, he crushes me. She presses on me, he
strikes me. She kills me, he crunches me.

* * * * *

In the medieval centuries the gum resin known as scammony, native to the
Middle East, was suggested as a stimulus when mixed with honey.

* * * * *

A medieval potion that had Oriental ingredients was the following
compound: Amber, aloes, musk, powdered together and soaked in spirits of
wine. Heated in sand, then filtered, distilled, and hermetically sealed.
The prescription required from three to five drops, taken in a broth.

* * * * *

In a number of twelfth century Latin comedies, particularly _De Nuntio
Sagaci_, The Wily Messenger, nubile age is presented as in itself a
strong amatory provocation. The messenger says.

Nubere tempus erat: iuveni tua forma placebat.

This was the theme of the medieval students, so vociferously and
consistently proclaimed in the Carmina Burana:

Iam aetas invaluit,
Iam umor incubuit,
Iam virgo maturuit,
Iam tumescunt ubera,
Iam frustra complacuit
Nisi fiant cetera.

Again, the same view is determinedly expressed:

Si puer cum puellula,
Moraretur in cellula,
Felix coniunctio.
Amore sucrescente,
Pariter et medio
Avulso procul taedio,
Fit ludus ineffabilis
Membris, lacertis, labiis.

* * * * *

_Baucis et Traso_, a Latin comedy belonging in the twelfth century,
presents the methods used in the Middle Ages for the amatory enticements
of the male. These methods, however, have never differed in essence:
whether in the fifth century in Athens, in the second B.C. in Rome, or
in contemporary days.

Baucis, who knows where her interests lie, urged by the hope of gain,
acts as a counsellor to the maiden Glycerium. She summons Glycerium,
adorns her, pays her little attentions. She shapes the girl’s lips,
draws her cheeks down, skilfully refreshes her beauty, gives her a wide
brow, spreads out her hair in flowing tresses, makes her neck glow,
makes shoulders narrow, lengthens her nails, makes her hands look
shorter. With a needle, she shapes her arms, puts a girdle on her to
produce an effect of slenderness. Baucis teaches her what she must do,
how, and with whom.

And so Glycerium strolls up and down the streets, glances around, looks
for lovers. In some cases, she encourages hope by her words, just as she
herself has confidence in her guile. She gives warnings, invitations,
asks them to observe her beautiful eyes. She promises them affection,
delights, wine, food. They will have with this maiden conversation and
intimacies, kisses and the final consummation itself.

Baucis gives the girl imaginary names. Sometimes she is called
Glycerium, and again Philomena, as the whim takes her. By means of such
changes of name she multiplies her gains.

Lovers come flocking in rivalry, some searching for Glycerium, others
for Philomena.

While she regales the young men with her words, while she gives them a
vain hope and meanwhile acquires monies, Thraso comes upon her.

Thraso’s glory is drink. His stomach is his god. Venus is his ever-ready
companion. Baucis catches sight of him and, overjoyed, she approaches:

Baucis: O soldier, nurseling of Cupid, love’s honor, what is it
you desire? Where are you off to? What fires inflame you? If you
need a maiden, I have one at home. A flower, the true fruit of
love. She has a maidenly glow, she shines with every adornment
of beauty.

Thraso: Baucis, let me see her.

Baucis: She is asleep and I can’t waken her. She is delicate and
a delicate girl needs much sleep. If she stays awake too long,
she is sick. If she sleeps badly, she suffers.

Thraso burns up with restrained passion. He groans and pleads. He gives
his gold ring to Baucis. Baucis relents. He buys provisions at the
market and follows her home.

Suddenly, Baucis vanishes. All her talk, all her manoeuvers have been
designed merely to tantalize his libidinous urgencies, to bring him
suppliantly into her clutches. Thraso is left lamenting:

Thraso: O woman, noxious flame, gnawing wound, enemy to
friendship. Woman, the sum of evil. Woman, deserving of death.
Woman, who produces the seeds of putrefaction, who produces
death. Foul procuress, monstrous in appearance, the image of the
Chimera.

Later on, Thraso approaches Glycerium herself, but she refuses his
advances. She is too young and inexperienced, she pleads:

Sum rudis in Venerem nec adhuc mea nubilis aetas:
Intemerata manet dos mea virginea.
Non novi quid amor, quid amoris sentiat ictus.
Officium Veneris horreo, siste preces.

* * * * *

In Jay Fletchers play _The Wild-Goose Chase_, there is mention of amber,
a reputed amatory provocative. Mirabel, one of the leading characters,
is offering a portrait of women:

Mirabel: Only the wenches are not for my diet;
They are too lean and thin, their embraces brawn-fallen.
Give me the plump Venetian, fat and lusty,
That meets me soft and supple; smiles upon me,
As if a cup of full wine leap’d to kiss me,
These slight things I affect not.

Pinac: They are ill-built;
Pin-buttocked, like your dainty Barbaries,
And weak i’ the pasterns; they’ll endure no hardness.

Mirabel: There’s nothing good or handsome bred amongst us;
Till we are travell’d, and live abroad, we are coxcombs.
Ye talk of France—a slight unseason’d country,
Abundance of gross food, which makes us blockheads.
We are fair set out indeed, and so are fore-horses:—
Men say, we are great courtiers,—men abuse us;
We are wise, and valiant too,—non credo, signor;
Our women the best linguists,—they are parrots;
O’ this side the Alps they are nothing but mere drolleries.
Ha! Roma la Santa, Italy for my money!
Their policies, their customs, their frugalities,
Their courtesies so open, yet so reserv’d too,
As, when you think y’are known best, ye are a stranger.
Their very pick-teeth speak more than we do.
And season of more salt.

Pinac: ’Tis a brave country;
Not pester’d with your stubborn precise puppies,
That turn all useful and allow’d contentments
To scabs and scruples—hang ’em, capon-worshippers.

Belleur: I like that freedom well, and like their women too,
And would fain do as others do; but I am so bashful,
So naturally an ass! Look ye, I can look upon ’em,
And very willingly I go to see ’em,
(There’s no man willinger), and I can kiss ’em,
And make a shift—

Mirabel: But, if they chance to flout ye,
Or say, “Ye are too bold! Fie, sir, remember!
I pray, sit farther off—”

Belleur:’Tis true—I am humbled,
I am gone; I confess ingenuously, I am silenced;
The spirit of amber cannot force me answer.

* * * * *

In Ben Jonson’s _The Alchemist_, there is reference to a means of
securing amatory and rejuvenating capacity. Sir Epicure Mammon tries to
impose his alchemical beliefs on Surly:

Mammon: I assure you,
He that has once the flower of the sun,
The perfect ruby, which we call elixir,
Not only can do that, but by its virtue,
Can confer honor, love, respect, long life;
Give safety, valor, yea, and victory,
To whom he will. In eight and twenty days,
I’ll make an old man of fourscore, a child.

Surly: No doubt; he’s that already.

Mammon: Nay, I mean,
Restore his years, renew him, like an eagle,
To the fifth age; make him get sons and daughters,
Young giants; as our philosophers have done,
The ancient patriarchs, afore the flood,
But taking, once a week, on a knife’s point,
The quantity of a grain of mustard of it;
Become stout Marses, and beget young Cupids.

Surly: The decay’d vestals of Pickt-hatch would thank you,
That keep the fire alive there.

Mammon: ’Tis the secret
Of nature naturiz’d ’gainst all infections,
Cures all diseases coming of all causes;
A month’s grief in a day, a year’s in twelve;
And, of what age soever, in a month.
Past all the doses of your drugging doctors.
I’ll undertake, withal, to fright the plague
Out o’ the kingdom in three months.

Surly: And I’ll
Be bound, the players shall sing your praises then,
Without their poets.

Mammon: Sir, I’ll do it. Meantime,
I’ll give away so much unto my man,
Shall serve th’ whole city with preservative
weekly; each house his dose, and at the rate—

Surly: As he that built the Water-work does with water?

Mammon: You are incredulous.

Surly: Faith, I have a humor,
I would not willingly be gull’d. Your stone
Cannot transmute me.

Mammon: Pertinax Surly,
Will you believe antiquity? Records?
I’ll show you a book where Moses, and his sister,
And Solomon have written of the art;
Ay, and a treatise penn’d by Adam—

Surly: How!

Mammon: Of the philosopher’s stone, and in High Dutch.

Surly: Did Adam write, sir, in High Dutch?

Mammon: He did;
Which proves it was the primitive tongue.

Surly: What paper?

Mammon: On cedar board.

Surly: O that, indeed, they say,
Will last ’gainst worms.

Mammon: ’Tis like your English wood
’Gainst cobwebs. I have a piece of Jason’s fleece too,
which was no other than a book of alchemy,
Writ in large sheepskin, a good fat ram-vellum.
Such was Pythagoras’ thigh, Pandora’s tub,
And all that fable of Medea’s charms,
The manner of our work; the bulls, our furnace,
Still breathing fire; our argent-vive, the dragon:
The dragon’s teeth, mercury sublimate,
That keeps the whiteness, hardness, and the biting;
And they are gather’d into Jason’s helm,
Th’alembic, and then sow’d in Mars his field.
And thence sublim’d so often, that they’re fix’d.
Both this, th’ Hesperian garden, Cadmus’ story,
Jove’s shower, the boom of Midas, Argus’ eyes,
Boccace his Demogorgon, thousands more,
All abstract riddles of our stone.—How now!

In another scene, amatory potency is expressed in lavish rhetorical
imagery:

Mammon: Do we succeed? Is our day come? And holds it?

Face: The evening will set red upon you, sir;
You have color for it, crimson: the red ferment
Has done his office; three hours hence prepare you
To see projection.

Mammon: Pertinax, my Surly,
Again I say to thee, aloud, BE RICH.
This day thou shalt have ingots; and tomorrow
Give lords th’affront.—Is it, my Zephyrus, right?
Blushes the bolt’s-head?

Face: Like a wench with child, sir,
That were but now discover’d to her master.

Mammon: Excellent witty Lungs!—My only care is
Where to get stuff enough now, to project on;
This town will not half serve me.

Face: No, sir? Buy the covering off o’ churches.

Mammon: That’s true.

Face: Yes.
Let ’em stand bare, as do their auditory;
Or cap ’em new with shingles.

Mammon: No, good thatch:
Thatch will lie upo’ the rafters, Lungs.
Lungs, I will manumit thee from the furnace;
I will restore thee thy complexion, Puff,
Lost in the embers; and repair this brain,
Hurt wi’ the fumes o’ the metals.

Face: I have blown, sir,
Hard, for your worship; thrown by many a coal,
When ’twas not beech; weigh’d those I put in, just
To keep your heat still even. These blear’d eyes
Have wak’d to read your several colors, sir,
Of the pale citron, the green lion, the crow,
The peacock’s tail, the plumed swan.

Mammon: And lastly,
Thou hast descried the flower, the sanguis agni?

Face: Yes, sir.

Mammon: Where’s master?

Face: At’s prayers, sir, he;
Good man, he’s doing his devotions
For the success.

Mammon: Lungs, I will set a period
To all thy labors; thou shalt be the master
Of my seraglio.

Face: Good, sir.

Mammon: But do you hear?
I’ll geld you, Lungs.

Face: Yes, sir.

Mammon: For I do mean
To have a list of wives and concubines
Equal with Solomon, who had the stone
Alike with me; and I will make me a back
with the elixir, that shall be as tough
As Hercules, to encounter fifty a night.—
Thou’rt sure thou saw’st it blood?

Face: Both blood and spirit, sir.

Mammon: I will have all my beds blown up, not stuft;
Down is too hard: and then, mine oval room
Fill’d with such pictures as Tiberius took
From Elephantis, and dull Aretine
But coldly imitated. Then, my glasses
Cut in more subtle angles, to disperse
And multiply the figures, as I walk
Named between my succubae. My mists
I’ll have of perfume, vapor’d ’bout the room,
To lose ourselves in; and my baths, like pits
To fall into; from whence we will come forth,
And roll us dry in gossamer and roses.—
Is it arrived at ruby?—Where I spy
A wealthy citizen, or a rich lawyer,
Have a sublim’d pure wife, unto that fellow
I’ll send a thousand pound to be my cuckold.

Face: And I shall carry it?

Mammon: No, I’ll ha’ no bawds
But fathers and mothers: they will do it best,
Best of all others. And my flatterers
Shall be the pure and gravest of divines,
That I can get for money. My mere fools,
Eloquent burgesses, and then my poets,
Whom I shall entertain still for that subject.
The few that would give out themselves to be
Court and town-stallions, and, each-where, bely
Ladies who are known most innocent, for them,—
Those will I beg, to make me eunuchs of:
And they shall fan me with ten ostrich tails
A-piece, made in a plume to gather wind.
We will be brave, Puff, now we ha’ the med’cine,
My meat shall all come in, in Indian shells,
Dishes of agate set in gold, and studded
with emeralds, sapphires, hyacinths, and rubies.
The tongues of carps, dormies, and camels’ heels,
Boil’d i’ the spirit of sol, and dissolv’d pearl
(Apicius’ diet, ’gainst the epilepsy):
And I will eat these broths with spoons of amber,
Headed with diamond and carbuncle.
My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calver’d salmons,
Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have
The beards of barbel serv’d, instead of salads;
Oil’d mushrooms; and the swelling unctuous paps
Of a fat pregnant sow, newly cut off,
Drest with an exquisite and poignant sauce;
For which, I’ll say unto my cook, There’s gold;
Go forth, and be a knight.

Face: Sir, I’ll go look
A little, how it heightens. (Exit)

Mammon: Do.—My shirts
I’ll have of taffeta-sarsnet, soft and light
As cobwebs; and for all my other raiment,
It shall be such as might provoke the Persian,
Were he to teach the world riot anew.
My gloves of fishes and birds’ skins, perfum’d
With gums of paradise, and Eastern air—

Surly: And do you think to have the stone with this?

Mammon: No, I do think t’have all this with the stone.

Surly: Why, I have heard he must be homo frugi,
A pious, holy, and religious man,
One free from mortal sin, a very virgin.

Mammon: That makes it, sir; he is so. But I buy it;
My venture brings it me. He, honest wretch,
A notable, superstitious, good soul,
Has worn his knees bare, and his slippers bald,
With prayer and fasting for it: and, sir, let him
Do it alone, for me, still. Here he comes,
Not a profane word afore him; ’tis poison.

Again, in the same play, there is an enumeration of alchemical items,
many of which were, both in ancient and in medieval times, used in
amatory brews:

Subtle: Sir?

Surly: What else are all your terms,
Whereon no one o’ your writers ’grees with other?
Of your elixir, your lac virginis,
Your stone, your med’cine, and your chrysosperm,
Your sal, your sulphur, and your mercury,
Your oil of height, your tree of life, your blood,
Your marchesite, your tutie, your magnesia,
Your toad, your crow, your dragon, and your panther;
Your sun, your moon, your firmament, your adrop,
Your lato, azoch, zernich, chilbrit, beautarit,
And then your red man, and your white woman,
With all your broths, your menstrues, and materials
Of piss and egg-shells, women’s terms, man’s blood,
Hair o’ the head, burnt clouts, chalk, merds, and clay,
Powder of bones, scalings of iron, glass,
And worlds of other strange ingredients,
Would burst a man to name?

* * * * *

A number of herbs, some of which were reputed to produce amatory
benefits, are mentioned in Ben Jonson’s _Volpone_:

Lady Politic Would-Be: Alas, good soul! the passion of the heart.
Seed-Pearl were good now, boil’d with syrup of apples,
Tincture of gold, and coral, citron-pills,
Your elecampane root, myrobalances—

Volpone: Ay me, I have ta’en a grasshopper by the wing!

Lady Politic Would-Be: Burnt silk and amber. You have muscadel
Good i’ the house—

Volpone: You will not drink, and part?

Lady Politic Would-Be: No, fear not that. I doubt we shall not get
Some English saffron, half a dram would serve;
Your sixteen cloves, a little musk, dried mints;
Bugloss and barley-meal—

* * * * *

In Ben Jonson’s _Volpone_ Nano the Dwarf sings some verses, in Act 2,
scene 2, extolling an elixir that has remarkable medicinal and amatory
properties:

You that would last long, list to my song,
Make no more coil, but buy of this oil.
Would you be ever fair and young?
Stout of teeth, and strong of tongue?
Tart of palate? quick of ear?
Sharp of sight? of nostril clear?
Moist of hand? and light of foot?
Or, I will come nearer to ’t,
Would you live free from all diseases?
Do the act your mistress pleases,
Yet fright all aches from your bones?
Here’s a med’cine for the nones.

* * * * *

An amatory appeal is made in a scene from _Bussy D’Ambois_, a drama by
the English playwright George Chapman (c. 1559–c. 1634). Monsieur,
brother of King Henry III of France, addresses the Countess Tamyra:

Monsieur: And wherefore do you this? To please your husband?
’Tis gross and fulsome: if your husband’s pleasure
Be all your object, and you aim at honor
In living close to him, get you from Court;
You may have him at home; these common put-offs
For common women serve: “My honor! Husband!”
Dames maritorious ne’er were meritorious.
Speak plain, and say, “I do not like you, sir,
Y’are an ill-favor’d fellow in my eye;”
And I am answer’d.

Tamyra: Then, I pray, be answer’d:
For in good faith, my lord, I do not like you
In that sort you like.

* * * * *

The love charm in the form of a spell was a belief current in the
Elizabethan age. In the drama _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, by Robert
Greene, Bacon, conceived as a thaumaturgist, declares:

Thou com’st in post from merry Fressingfield,
Fast-fancied to the Keeper’s bonny lass.

Fast-fancied is an Elizabethan expression meaning bound by love.

* * * * *

The Elizabethan Fair, and all such traditional occasions for barter,
commercial interchange, and public gossip were also and always an
opportunity for amorous interludes. This is the view expressed in _Friar
Bacon and Friar Bungay_, by Robert Greene (c. 1560–1592). Margaret, the
fair maid of Fressingfield, enters:

Margaret: Thomas, maids when they come to see the fair
Count not to make a cope for dearth of hay;
When we have turn’d our butter to the salt,
And set our cheese safely upon the racks,
Then let our fathers price it as they please.
We country sluts of merry Fressingfield
Come to buy needless naughts to make us fine,
And look that young men should be frank this day,
And court us with such fairings as they can.
Phoebus is blithe, and frolic looks from heaven.

* * * * *

In a scene from the Elizabethan dramatist George Peele’s _The Old Wives
Tale_, Zantippa is in search of a husband. She and her ugly sister
Celanta go to a well for water. A Head, speaking from the well, promises
her a love charm, ‘some cockell-bread’:

Zantippa: Now for a husband, house, and home: God send a good
one or none, I pray God! My father hath sent me to the well for
the water of life, and tells me, if I give fair words, I shall
have a husband. But here comes Celanta, my sweet sister. I’ll
stand by and hear what she says.

Enter Celanta, the foul wench, to the well for water with a pot
in her hand.

Celanta: My father hath sent me to the well for water, and he tells me,
if I speak fair, I shall have a husband and none of the worst. Well,
though I am black, I am sure all the world will not forsake me; and, as
the old proverb is, though I am black, I am not the devil.

Zantippa: Marry-gup with a murrain. I know wherefore thou speakest that:
but go thy ways home as wise as thou camest, or I’ll set thee home with
a wanion.

Here she strikes her pitcher against her sister’s, and breaks
them both, and then exit.

Celanta: I think this be the curstest quean in the world. You see what
she is, a little fair, but as proud as the devil, and the veriest vixen
that lives upon God’s earth. Well, I’ll let her alone, and go home and
get another pitcher, and, for all this, get me to the well for water.
Exit.

Enter two Furies out of the Conjurer’s cell and lay Huanebango
by the Well of Life and then exeunt.

Re-enter Zantippa with a pitcher to the well.

Zantippa: Once again for a husband; and, in faith, Celanta, I have got
the start of you; belike husbands grow by the well-side. Now my father
says I must rule my tongue. Why, alas, what am I, then? A woman without
a tongue is as a soldier without his weapon. But I’ll have my water, and
be gone.

Here she offers to dip her pitcher in, and a Head speaks in the
well.

Head: Gently dip, but not too deep,
For fear you make the golden beard to weep.
Fair maiden, white and red,
Stroke me smooth, and comb my head,
And thou shalt have some cockell-bread.

* * * * *

In an old Elizabethan play there is reference to lunary or moonwort as a
contributory factor in amatory thoughts:

I have heard of an herb called Lunary that being bound to the
pulse of the sick causes nothing but dreams of weddings and
dances.

* * * * *

In _Endymion_, a drama by the Elizabethan playwright John Lyly (c.
1554–c. 1606), Endymion soliloquizes:

As ebony, which no fire can scorch, is yet consumed with sweet
savors, so my heart which cannot be bent by the hardness of
fortune, may be bruised by amorous desires.

* * * * *

In the drama _The Old Wives Tale_, by George Peele, the Elizabethan
playwright, Frolic and Fantastic sing an erotic chant:

Whenas the rye reach to the chin,
And chopcherry, chopcherry ripe within,
Strawberries swimming in the cream,
And school-boys playing in the stream;
Then, O then, O then, O my true-love said,
Till that time come again
She could not live a maid.

* * * * *

In _Endymion_, the Elizabethan drama by John Lyly, Sir Tophas describes
a desirable woman:

Sir Tophas: I love no grissels; they are so brittle they will
crack like glass, or so dainty that if they be touched they are
straight of the fashion of wax: animus maioribus instat. I
desire old matrons. What a sight would it be to embrace one
whose hair were as orient as the pearl, whose teeth shall be so
pure a watchet that they shall stain the truest turquoise, whose
nose shall throw more beams from it than the fiery carbuncle,
whose eyes shall be environ’d about with redness exceeding the
deepest coral, and whose lips might compare with silver for the
paleness! Such a one if you can help me to, I will by piecemeal
curtail my affections towards Dipsas, and walk my swelling
thoughts till they be cold.

* * * * *

In _Philaster_, a drama by Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) and John
Fletcher (1579–1625), Megra, a Lascivious Lady, is thus described:

Dion: Faith, I think she is one whom the state keeps for the
agents of our confederate princes; she’ll cog and lie with a
whole army, before the league shall break. Her name is common
through the kingdom, and the trophies of her dishonor advanced
beyond Hercules’ Pillars. She loves to try the several
constitutions of men’s bodies; and, indeed, has destroyed the
worth of her own body by making experiment upon it for the good
of the commonwealth.

* * * * *

In _Endymion_, John Lyly’s drama, Epiton and Sir Tophas have a verbal
bout on love:

Epiton: Sir, will you give over wars and play with that bauble
called love?

Tophas: Give over wars? No, Epi, Militat omnis amans, et habet
sua castra Cupido.

Epiton: Love hate made you very eloquent, but your face is
nothing fair.

Tophas: Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulysses.

Epiton: Nay, I must seek a new master if you can speak nothing
but verses.

Tophas: Quicquid conabar dicere, versus erat. Epi, I feel all
Ovid De Arte Amandi lie as heavy at my heart as a load of logs.

* * * * *

In _The Lady of Pleasure_, a play by the English dramatist James
Shirley, Lady Bornwell is rebuked for her amorous diversions by her
husband Sir Thomas:

Another game you have, which consumes more
Your fame than purse; your revels in the night,
Your meetings called the “Ball,” to which repair
As to the Court of Pleasure, all your gallants
And ladies, whither bound by a subpoena
Of Venus, and small Cupid’s high displeasure;
’Tis but the Family of Love translated
Into more costly sin!

* * * * *

Amatory enticement is illustrated in a scene in _The Lady of Pleasure_,
by James Shirley:

Lord: Have you business, madam, with me?

Madam Decoy: And such, I hope, as will not be
Offensive to your lordship.

Lord: I pray speak it.

Madam Decoy: I would desire your lordship’s ear more private.

Lord: Wait i’ th’ next chamber till I call.—
Now, madam.

Exit Haircut.

Madam Decoy: Although I am a stranger to your lordship,
I would not lose a fair occasion offer’d
To show how much I honor, and would serve you.

Lord: Please you to give me the particular,
That I may know the extent of my engagement.
I am ignorant by what desert you should
Be encourag’d to have care of me.

Madam Decoy: My lord,
I will take boldness to be plain; beside
Your other excellent parts, you have much fame
For your sweet inclination to our sex.

Lord: How d’ye mean, madam?

Madam Decoy: I’ that way your lordship
Hath honorably practis’d upon some
Not to be nam’d. Your noble constancy
To a mistress hath deserv’d our general vote;
And I, a part of womankind, have thought
How to express my duty.

Lord: In what, madam?

Madam Decoy: Be not so strange, my lord. I know the beauty
And pleasures of your eyes; that handsome creature
With whose fair life all your delight took leave,
And to whose memory you have paid too much sad
Tribute.

Lord: What’s all this?

Madam Decoy: This: if your lordship
Accept my service, in pure zeal to cure
Your melancholy, I could point where you might
Repair your loss.

Lord: Your ladyship, I conceive,
Doth traffic in flesh merchandize.

Madam Decoy: To men
Of honor, like yourself. I am well known
To some in court, and come not with ambition
Now to supplant your officer.

Lord: What is
The lady of pleasure you prefer?

Madam Decoy: A lady
Of birth and fortune, one upon whose virtue
I may presume, the lady Aretina.

Lord: Wife to Sir Thomas Bornwell?

Madam Decoy: The same, sir.

Lord: Have you prepar’d her?

Madam Decoy: Not for your lordship, till I have found your pulse.
I am acquainted with her disposition,
She has a very appliable nature.

Lord: And, madam, when expect you to be whipt
For doing these fine favors?

Madam Decoy: How, my lord?
Your lordship does but jest, I hope; you make
A difference between a lady that
Does honorable offices, and one
They call a bawd. Your lordship was not wont
To have such coarse opinion of our practice.

Lord: The Lady Aretina is my kinswoman.

Madam Decoy: What if she be, my lord? The nearer blood
The nearer sympathy.

* * * * *

In _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, by the English dramatist Philip
Massinger (1583–1640), there appears a description of a love philtre:

Furnace: Here, drink it off; the ingredients are cordial,
And this the true elixir; it hath boil’d
Since midnight for you. ’Tis the quintessence
Of five cocks of the game, ten dozen of sparrows,
Knuckles of veal, potato-roots and marrow,
Coral and ambergris. Were you two years older
And I had a wife, or gamesome mistress,
I durst trust you with neither. You need not bait
After this, I warrant you, though your journey’s long;
You may ride on the strength of this till tomorrow morning.

Allworth: Your courtesies overwhelm me: I much grieve
To part from such good friends.

Later, in Act 3 of the same play, Allworth, the young page, describes
the amatory lure of Margaret:

Allworth: My much-lov’d lord, were Margaret only fair,
The cannon of her more than earthly form,
Though mounted high, commanding all beneath it,
And ramm’d with bullets of her sparkling eyes,
Of all the bulwarks that defend your senses
Could batter none, but that which guards your sight.
But when the well-tun’d accents of her tongue
Make music to you, and with numerous sounds
Assault your hearing, (such as if Ulysses
Now liv’d again, howe’er he stood the Syrens,
Could not resist,) the combat must grow doubtful
Between your reason and rebellious passions.
And this too; when you feel her touch, and breath
Like a swift western wind when it glides o’er
Arabia, creating gums and spices;
And, in the van, the nectar of her lips,
Which you must taste, bring the battalia on,
Well arm’d, and strongly lin’d with her discourse,
And knowing manners, to give entertainment;—
Hippolytus himself would leave Diana,
To follow such a Venus.

Lord Lovell: Love hath made you poetical, Allworth.

In another scene, between Sir Giles Overreach, an extortioner, and his
daughter Margaret, the father gives his daughter amatory but sinister
advice that is tantamount to the prescriptions of the _Kama Sutra_ and
similar manuals:

Margaret: There’s too much disparity
between his quality and mine, to hope it.

Overreach: I more than hope’t, and doubt not to effect it.
Be thou no enemy to thyself, my wealth
Shall weigh his titles down, and make you equals.
Now for the means to assure him thine, observe me:
Remember he’s a courtier and a soldier,
And not to be trifled with; and therefore, when
He comes to woo you, see you do not coy it:
This mincing modesty has spoil’d many a match
By a first refusal, in vain after hop’d for.

Margaret: You’ll have me, sir, preserve the distance that
Confines a virgin?

Overreach: Virgin me no virgins!
I must have you lose that name, or you lose me.
I will have you private—start not—I say, private;
If thou art my true daughter, not a bastard,
Thou wilt venture alone with one man, though he came
Like Jupiter to Semele, and come off, too;
And therefore, when he kisses you, kiss close.

Margaret: I have heard this is the strumpet’s fashion, sir,
Which I must never learn.

Overreach: Learn any thing,
And from any creature that may make thee great;
From the devil himself.

Margaret (aside): This is but devilish doctrine!

Overreach: Or, if his blood grows hot, suppose he offer
Beyond this, do not you stay till it cool,
But meet his ardor; if a couch be near,
Sit down on’t, and invite him.

Margaret: In your house,
Your own house, sir! For Heaven’s sake, what are you then?
Or what shall I be, sir?

Overreach: Stand not on form;
Words are no substances.

Margaret: Though you could dispense
With your own honor, cast aside religion,
The hopes of Heaven, or fear of hell, excuse me,
In worldly policy this is not the way
To make me his wife; his whore, I grant it may do.
My maiden honor so soon yielded up,
Nay, prostituted, cannot but assure him
I, that am light to him, will not hold weight
Whene’er tempted by others; so, in judgment,
When to his lust I have given up my honor,
He must and will forsake me.

Overreach: How! I forsake thee!
Do I wear a sword for fashion? or is this arm
Shrunk up or wither’d? Does there live a man
Of that large list I have encounter’d with
Can truly say I e’er gave inch of ground
Not purchas’d with his blood that did oppose me?
Forsake thee when the thing is done! He dares not.
Give me but proof he has enjoy’d thy person,
Though all his captains, echoes to his will,
Stood arm’d by his side to justify the wrong,
And he himself in the head of his bold troop,
Spite of his lordship, and his colonelship,
Or the judge’s favor, I will make him render
A bloody and a strict account, and force him,
By marrying thee, to cure thy wounded honor!
I have said it.

* * * * *

As late as the eighteenth century, in Italy, phallic amulets, in the
form of the fascinum itself and the obscene digital gesture called in
French _la figue_, were in common use. They were worn by children as
protective periapts. Chapels too were decorated with wax images of
phalli, dedicated by devout women worshippers.

* * * * *

An esoteric club existed in England in the eighteenth century that was
associated with the British Navy. It was called _The Very Ancient and
Very Powerful Order of Beggars Benison and Merryland_. On the seal of
this Society, among other and naval designs, was a phallic symbol. The
intent of the Society is still obscure, especially the relation between
naval matters and the phallus.

* * * * *

Amulets in the form of the male mandrake came into vogue in the Middle
Ages, especially in Central Europe, for apotropaic and amatory purposes.
These charms were associated with incantations and magic formulas and
recitatives.

The phallus or fascinum, too, especially in France, was used, as a
meaningful protective agent, on buildings and even on churches.

Phallic and other genital forms were also used for cakes and breads: and
are still so used, especially in Germany and France.

* * * * *

In the Middle Ages Priapus assumed Christian characteristics and in time
was even endowed with sanctity, although he still retained his
functional properties. In many cities of Southern France, for instance,
Saint Foutin was virtually a transferred Priapus. He aided sterile women
and renewed the amatory vigor of men. Images of genitalia were included
among the sacrificial objects dedicated to this saint.

* * * * *

In medieval France a certain Saint Greluchon was a cryptic Priapus,
venerated among the members of the saintly canon. When women made
supplication to this saint, they scraped off minute particles from the
stone genitalia and compounded these scrapings into an amatory potion,
and also as an aid to counteract sterility.

Other saints to whom were attributed the virtues and functions of
Priapus were: Saint Guignolet, Saint Regnaud, Saint Gilles.

In Belgium, Priapus became Ters, equally venerated by women. Ters, in
Antwerp, was actually a synonym for fascinum.

* * * * *

Among the gods of Northern Europe was Frikko, who may be equated with
Priapus, the phallic deity. The Saxons had a similar god, called Frisco,
endowed with the same functions. An analogous deity was Frigga, goddess
of voluptuousness. Before the worship of this symbolic or actual phallus
was the worship of the sun, represented by the phallus as the creator of
cosmic and human fecundity.

* * * * *

_Clauder_

A German medieval scholar presented for his doctoral thesis a brief
monograph on Philtres, their essential characteristics, the dangers
involved in their use, the contents, the purpose of their employment.
The thesis, in Latin, is entitled De Philtris, and was published in
Leipzig in 1661. The author is Johannes Clauder.

Although philtres were frequently used for erotic purposes, the author
asserts, the result rarely corresponded to the intention. The reason for
this was that the philtre was concocted under evil auspices, without
appeal to divine aid and protection. Another reason for the inefficacy
of the potions was improper and defective preparation. The result, he
declares categorically, was very often madness for the victim, or even
death itself.

Some philtres are associated with Satanic and magic practices, and are
essentially poisons. Whores and panders resort to such philtres,
although some use what might be termed natural remedies.

The best philtre, however, according to Clauder, is love itself. In this
regard, he quotes confirmatory statements from the Romans. Seneca the
philosopher, in one of his 124 Epistles, advises: I shall show you a
love philtre, without medicaments, without herbs, without a witch’s
incantations. It is this: If you want to be loved, love. Martial, the
Roman epigrammatist, has something similar to say: Marcus, in order to
be loved, love.

And Ovid had already advised: Banish every evil, be lovable, in order to
be loved.

Paracelsus, the medieval scholar and alchemist, is quoted in relation to
the philtre and its content. Or, as Clauder suggests, the amatory
inducement may take the form of a magic inscription on a key, or a ring,
or a necklace, or an armlet. As for herbs, the Romans preferred the
laurel and the olive, in infusions. Vegetable and mineral and organic
matter is also in use; perspiration, urine, spittle. But there is a
sinister and hazardous element in such practices. Prostitutes in
particular, Clauder threatens, use philtres that rob the victim of mind
and soul and leave him a shallow husk. So corroborates Paracelsus. There
is one potion, however, called Charisia, that may be innocuous. It has
not been identified. But possibly the name may have been invented
etymologically on the basis of the Greek _charis_, which means grace or
gratitude: and hence the nomenclature is wishfully proleptic in
significance.

With respect to a variety of lustful and amatory circumstances, the
Middle Ages were marked by strange social mores, by monstrous
obscenities and erotic barbarities. There were practices designed
primarily to preserve chastity and marital and domestic purity, but they
actually resulted in greater indecencies than the circumstances that
induced these inventive prophylaxes. There was, first of all, the girdle
of chastity, a mechanical device to prevent indiscriminate and unlawful
lustful consummations in the absence of the husband. The putative
inventor of the device was Francesco da Carrara, Provost of Padua, who
belongs in the latter part of the fourteenth century. He himself, it was
said, met with a miserable death, being strangled on the scaffold for
his many cruelties, in 1405, by order of the Senate of Venice.

There was, too, the Congress, a kind of judicial body that determined
marital questions, quarrels, incompatibility, by viewing the two
participants _in actu sexuali_.

Men and women taken in adultery were compelled to march through the
public streets naked, sometimes mounted on an ass, for centuries the
bestial symbol of lust.

There was the libidinous _ius primae noctis_, the _droit de cuisse_,
exercised by the lord of the manor, and on occasion by monks and
prelates, in the case of a newly wedded couple.

In France, in the city of Toulouse, there was a notorious brothel called
The Great Abbey. There were, dispersed through France, many such
pseudo-abbeys, the madame of which, in each case, was called Abbess.
Such terms and such practices, of course, heightened the lewd obscenity.
There was a similar type of dissolute haven that had an infamous
reputation in England.

This perversion, in which devout elements are linked with the extremes
of lust, to heighten the amatory impulse, is described in abundant and
salacious detail in the novels of the Marquis de Sade and in other
instances of erotic literature.

Prostitution reached such a social importance, and the practitioners
acquired such influence in various directions, that, in Paris, a kind of
trade union was formed, to which the practicing prostitutes prescribed.
They established their own procedures, their working hours, and similar
regulations.

At many royal banquets, public entertainments, and processional
ceremonials, in Italy and in France, prostitutes were prominent
participants, some half-naked, often entirely so.

There were, of course, fulminations against such and similar
indecencies, but without much immediate or effective results. Preachers
thundered, to no avail, against the erotic provocations to adultery and
fornication engendered by the sight of women who, by the subtlety of
their dress, exposed various parts of their person. There was public
debauchery. There were genesiac performances in the presence of the
children in a household. There were poems and tales, called fabliaux,
that, reflecting the mores of the age, dealt with nothing but cuckoldry
and fornication, adultery, sodomy, bestiality, and all the multiple
varieties of physiological perversions.

Furthermore, houses, manors, large estates were decorated with
tapestries, paintings, sculpture, all depicting the greatest
obscenities. Even churches and chapels and abbeys contained scenes,
figures, statues of the utmost lewdness in posture, presentation, and
implication.

* * * * *

Among the barbarities of the medieval centuries, many performances,
processions, and rites contained an amazing mingling of ecclesiastical
elements and dissolute blasphemies and libertinage: just as the Greek
satyr plays and the comedies of fifth century Athens were composites of
functional representations by human actors of the libidinous and
irreverent actions of the deities themselves.

The medieval scene contained secular and monastic lubricity, and
processions and rites in which the performers, under the guise of nuns
and prelates, presented shameless and unspeakable obscenities. In
addition, flagellation was inflicted on penitents. In Germany, France,
England, and Italy, all ranks, of all ages, underwent phallic
castigation as an act of devotion.

* * * * *

In Girolamo Folengo’s _Maccaronea_, published in 1519, there is mention
of manuals that provide magic instruction and prescriptions favorable in
inducing or diverting erotic urges:

He opens the manuals, or reads all that are open:

How to write arcane spells:
How to compel love;
How a husband can find out his wife’s adultery;
How virginal maidens can be forced to love;
How to make a hated husband impotent.

* * * * *

During the Italian Renaissance the women of Italy played a dominant and
sometimes sinister part in both social and political life. Courtesans,
particularly in Rome, had a position somewhat analogous to that of the
Greek hetairae. One such courtesan, Imperia, had skill in composing
sonnets. Most of them were literate and interested in intellectual
pursuits as well as in erotic interludes. Caterina di San Celso played
and sang. Many women of this type are described by Giraldi in the novels
of the _Hecatommithi_ and by Pietro Aretino in his _Ragionamenti_.

The Italian Renaissance was marked by both literary and social
indecencies and lewd lubricities and all kinds of scatological
productions and performances. In the lavish public entertainments, in
the Carnivals and Masques, apart from contests, reviews, pantomimic
presentations, the emphasis was consistently on scandalous songs, with
lascivious undertones, innuendoes, suggestions.

In literature, the moral atmosphere of this period is reflected in the
depiction of the most common Renaissance features—adultery and
cuckoldry, all kinds of illicit amours, lusts resulting in secrecies,
gallantries, murder. To satisfy her lusts, a woman poisons her husband.
An adulteress has her lover kill her husband, without hesitation,
without compunction. Love and lust, poison and death, infidelities and
vengeance followed each other in an abandoned, frenzied, amoral
sequence.

The Italian strega or witch was a powerful intermediary in amatory
affairs of all sorts. With her preparations, her thaumaturgic skills,
her secret concoctions, she aided men and women in consummating erotic
urges, arousing lustful sensualities, securing the love of hesitant
objects of passion, promoting vigor and virility, arranging furtive
amatory assignations: acting, in short, as an amatory midwife, an
empirical guide in debauchery.

By her magical skill the strega was able to aid men and women bent on
amatory consummations. Some of these skills were transferred to the
prostitutes. Acquiring these techniques, and discovering the secrets of
preparing potions, they were able to retain a lover, to lure a new
admirer. For their concoctions and brews they used human teeth and the
eyes of dead men, skulls and ribs, scraps of the flesh of corpses, hair
and nails boiled in oil. They made a fire of burning ashes, in the form
of a heart. Piercing the heart, they chanted their goetic invocation,
anticipating the surrender of the hesitant lover by this means of
sympathetic magic. In this sphere, in fact, the Italian Renaissance had
taken over, as it were, the entire corpus of ancient magic rites, love
brews, and concomitant procedures in the art of erotic control.

* * * * *

A solemn love conjuration appears in a medieval manual called the _True
Grimoire_. The invocation itself is preceded by special preparations
during the waxing or the waning of the moon. An inscription is written
on virgin parchment, by the light of a taper. The supplication runs:

I salute thee and conjure thee, O beautiful Moon, O most
beautiful Star, O brilliant light which I have in my hand. By
the air that I breathe, by the breath within me, by the earth
which I am touching: I conjure thee. By all the names of the
spirit princes living in you. By the ineffable Name On, which
created everything! By you, O resplendent Angel Gabriel, with
the Planet Mercury, Prince, Michiael, and Melchidael.

I conjure you again, by all the Holy Names of God, so that you
may send down power to oppress, torture, and harass the body and
soul and the five senses of her whose name is written here, so
that she shall come unto me, and agree to my desires, liking
nobody in the world, for so long as she shall remain unmoved by
me. Let her then be tortured, made to suffer. Go, then, at once!
Go, Melchidael, Baresches, Zazel, Firiel, Malcha, and all those
who are with thee! I conjure you by the Great Living God to obey
my will, and I promise to satisfy you.

* * * * *

A technique involving the separation of husband and wife, the converse
of a love-potion intended to attract or cement passion, appears in the
following invocation from a magic grimoire called the _Sword of Moses_:

I conjure you, luminaries of heaven and earth, as the heavens
are separated from the earth, so separate and divide N from his
wife N, and separate them from one another, as life is separated
from death, and sea from dry land, and water from fire, and
mountain from vale, and night from day, and light from darkness,
and the sun from the moon; thus separate N from N’s wife, and
separate them from one another in the name of the twelve hours
of the day and the three watches of the night, and the seven
days of the week, and the thirty days of the month, and the
seven years of Shemittah, and the fifty years of Jubilee, on
every day, in the name of the evil angel Imsmael, and in the
name of the angel Iabiel, and in the name of the angel Drmiel,
and in the name of the angel Zahbuk, and in the name of the
angel Ataf, and in the name of the angel Zhsmael, and in the
name of the angel Zsniel, who preside over pains, sharp pains,
inflammation, and dropsy, and separate N from his wife N, make
them depart from one another, and that they should not comfort
one another, swift and quickly.

* * * * *

[Illustration:

National Gallery of Art

DIANA

_by Renoir_
]

[Illustration:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

PYGMALION AND GALATEA

_by Rodin_
]

In the middle centuries prostitution as a civic institution had its
distinction and its privileges. In Venice, all kinds of secondary favors
were granted to these practitioners. They were favored with an indulgent
and even eulogistic Latin testimonial: nostrae bene merentes meretrices.

* * * * *

In France, there were orgiastic ceremonies in which the participants
performed in the nude. These rituals were associated in a contorted
sense with primal creation and were known as Fêtes d’Adam.

In one of Boccaccio’s tales there is an instance of a script intended as
an erotic provocation:

Quoth Bruno, ‘Will thy heart serve thee to touch her with a
script I shall give thee?’

‘Ay, sure,’ replied Calandrino; and the other, ‘Then do thou
make shift to bring me a piece of virgin parchment and a live
bat, together with three grains of frankincense and a candle
that hath been blessed by the priest, and leave me do.’

Accordingly, Calandrino lay in wait all the next night with his
engines to catch a bat and having at last taken one, carried it
to Bruno, with the other things required; whereupon the latter,
withdrawing to a chamber, scribbled divers toys of his fashion
upon the parchment, in characters of his own devising, and
brought it to him, saying, ‘Know, Calandrino, that, if thou
touch her with this script, she will incontinent follow thee and
do what thou wilt.’

* * * * *

In Turkey, under the Sultanate, and notably in the sixteenth century,
erotic relations in the seraglio were stimulated by a preparation known
as pastilles de sérail.

* * * * *

In the sixteenth century there was a religious-erotic cult in Europe
whose members were called Loïstes. Their rituals were marked by sexual
orgies and erotic aberrations.

* * * * *

The corpus of Shakespearean plays contains numberless allusions and
comments on sexual and amatory topics. The language, however, in which
these references are couched is sometimes figurative, euphemistic, and
seemingly innocuous and ingenuous. Sometimes, again, they are so
expressed in the contemporary Elizabethan idiom as to have an immediate
and illuminating impact on the contemporary audience: but, on a cursory
perusal, the context may not spontaneously reveal the underlying
currency.

There is, throughout the plays, mention of the functional processes and
their media, of the organs of the human body, including what are usually
termed pudenda. Shakespeare touches on the normal sexual functions and
also on deviations, on tribadism and coprophilia, on lust and cuckoldry,
on adultery and eunuchs, on all manner of erotic encounters, embraces,
and circumstances.

In _Troilus and Cressida_, to take an example, lust, libido, and potency
are illustrated:

Cressida: They say all lovers swear more performance than they
are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform:
vowing more than the performance of ten, and discharging less
than the tenth part of one. They that have the voice of lions
and the act of hares, are they not monsters?

Act 3.2

Again:

Troilus: This is the monstrosity of love, lady—that the will is
infinite and the execution confined; that the desire is
boundless and the act a slave to limit.

Act 3.2

Troilus: What will it be
When that the watery palate tastes indeed
Love’s thrice repured nectar?—death, I fear me,
Swooning distraction, or some joy too fine,
Too-subtle potent, tuned too sharp in sweetness,
For the capacity of my ruder powers:

Act 3.2

There are similar references in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, _Twelfth
Night_, and _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_.

In _Pericles_ Priapus is mentioned as a symbol of virility:

Pericles: Fie, fie upon her!
She’s able to freeze the god Priapus.

* * * * *

François Villon, the fifteenth century French lyric poet, was not too
happy in his loves. In his _Double Ballade_ he makes his personal
confession on amatory exercises, and gives due admonitions as to the
possible effects of erotic practices:

Then love until you have your fill,
Follow the ball and midnight feast,
The end will bring you naught until
You break your head, to say the least;
For foolish loves make man a beast:
Idolatrous was Solomon,
And thereby Samson’s vision ceased.
Happier those who all this shun!

And Orpheus, sweet troubadour,
Who piped his flute among the dead,
Risked mortal peril on its spoor
From Cerberus of the triple head;
And beautiful Narcissus fled,
Because of love too lightly won,
To seek his peace in a watery bed.
Happier those who all this shun!

Sardana, once a valiant knight,
Who conquered all the realm of Crete,
Aped woman’s form and took delight
In girlish chores and things effete;
And David, quitting wisdom’s seat,
Forgot his fear of God for one
Whose perfumed thighs aroused his heat.
Happier those who all this shun!

And Amnon, drunk with carnal power,
Feigning to gorge himself the while,
Plucked lovely Tamar’s virgin flower,
A deed incestuous and vile;
Herod—and here I use no guile—
Had John the Baptist’s head undone
For a dance, a song, a dancer’s smile.
Happier those who all this shun!

Of my poor self I wish to speak:
Beaten like washing in a stream,
Entirely nude—no tongue in cheek—
Who made me chew such sour cream
But Kate Vausselles? Noël I deem
Made up the three to share the fun.
Such wedding mittens costly seem.
Happier those who all this shun!

But is this hot, young blood to spurn
Their tender love and flee their sight?
May God forbid! Such ought to burn
As witches do who ride the night.
Sweeter than civets their delight,
But not to put your trust upon:
For be they brown or be they white,
Happier those who all this shun!

* * * * *

As late as the eighteenth century, in Central Europe, there were secret
cults that drew their basic tenets from ancient priapic rites. Some of
these orders practiced nudism but rejected marriage. Some encouraged
promiscuities in their ritualistic assemblies. The Ebionites, for
instance, were of this type. Also the Basilidians, a Gnostic sect that
followed the principles of the founder Basilides, a Gnostic who
flourished in Alexandria in the second century A.D.; also the
Nicolaitans, an early Christian sect.

In Italy, in the eleventh century and the twelfth, there was a similar
sect known as the Patarini. They made obscene obeisance to a black cat,
evidently a variant Satanic form, then abandoned themselves to scenes of
frantic lubricity.

So too in many regions of France that still recalled ancient pagan Gaul
similar orgiastic performances occurred under cover of darkness.

Even the Knights Templars, the military-religious members of the Order
that was founded early in the twelfth century and was suppressed at the
beginning of the fourteenth century, were reputed to have aligned
themselves with foul obscenities that involved anal osculation, as in
the case of the witch members of the Satanic Sabbat, and desecration of
Christian ritual accompanied by erotic perversions.

* * * * *

Sympathetic magic and the use of wax images were common means of
securing amatory ardor compulsively. The ancients were intimately
familiar with the procedures. And the grimoires current in medieval
times were similarly repositories of dark and occult amatory techniques,
and likewise recommended a variety of rituals. Involved in the
ceremonials were of course darkness, the burning of incense, the
construction of special pentagrams and magic circles, the shaping of the
figurine, and the Latin invocation which gave final assurance to the
erotic effects.

* * * * *

Amatory intimacies, especially but not exclusively in the Middle Ages,
were believed possible between human beings and disembodied creatures,
incubi and succubi, sylphs and undines or water spirits, salamanders,
various types of Satanic emissaries and subordinates in the infernal
hierarchy, such as Isheth Zemunin, who presided over prostitution.

Some of these mystic, occult unions, on the other hand, were associated
with beneficent spirits, with angelic embodiments, saints, and similar
personalities.

In the malefic traditions of the Black Arts and demoniac relationships,
there was widespread credence in intercourse between witches and the
members of the Satanic legions, between sorceresses and Satan himself,
and between the practitioners of magic and all kinds of bestial and
obscene creatures. The medieval demonographers are soberly voluble in
recounting many such instances. They chronicle, with precise supporting
confirmatory testimony, tales that brought the participants, the old and
the young women so accused of diabolic intimacies, to trial, to torture,
and finally to the gallows.

Ready and voluminous evidence comes from Guazzo and Johannes Anania and
Jean Bodin, from Henri Boguet and Delrio, from Tartarotti, Stridtbeckh,
Sinistrari and Ricardus, Molitor, de L’Ancre, Elich, and Daugis.

At the Sabbats, the assemblies of witches and Satanic forces, there
were, according to the medieval chroniclers and the old European folk
traditions, frantic performances of the most obscene nature, monstrous
rituals, weird banquets, culminating in lewd orgies characterized,
according to the grave testimonies of the demonographers, by copulation
of witches and materialized demoniac spirits.

The Aphroditic force and influence are all-pervasive. Hence, in the
field of astrological lore, Venus represents love, in its most extended
sense, normal, illicit, and aberrational. Certain symbols, creatures,
forms are regularly associated with her functions. The lubricities of
the goat and the bull are under her sway, while, botanically, many
plants, among them vervain and myrtle, are endowed with aphrodisiac
qualities.

CHAPTER X
MODERN TIMES

Eros is triumphant in the twentieth century, in every social frame, in
every milieu, and in every country. Henri Bergson, the French
philosopher who is associated with the concept of _l’élan vital_—the
vital urge, or, as George Bernard Shaw termed it, the life force,
declared that this twentieth century has become aphrodisiac.

* * * * *

The love-potion is not a matter of academic history only: it is still
flourishing. It still has its devotees. It is still encountered in
obscure places, where furtive secrecy is of the essence of the amatory
preparations. In the folk mind in particular the love-potion can still
be efficacious, sometimes grim in its attendant effects, but
unquestionably an accepted and often employed means of directing erotic
feelings, imposing amatory impulses, on a beloved victim, on the
indifferent libertine, on the wayward and flighty girl.

Ottokar Nemecek in his _Die Wertschätzung der Jungfräulichkeit_ (Verlag
A. Sexl. Vienna, 1953) gives interesting instances of erotic practices,
rituals, religious ceremonials, culled from many ethnic groups. In
Fernando Po, for example, a prayer is offered: May the woman and the man
become as erotically entwined as the creepers in the forest entwine
around the tree trunks.

In Ethiopia a phallic provocation was the wearing on the head of a band
to which a horn was attached. Similarly among many African tribes, where
the chief wore a phallus-crown with the same intention. As in Hellenic
antiquity, in ancient India and in modern India also, the phallus is the
symbol of might, of masculine sovereignty, of cosmic creativeness.

Such customs and rites, such implicit amatory instigations, have not
died out. They appear in many forms and guises, sometimes decorative, on
other occasions in fanciful culinary shapes. Amulets and figures in
phallic and genital form were sold, as late as 1894, in the shops of
Tiflis, in Caucasia, and in the United States migrants from the Central
European countries still reproduce, in their bake shops, festive genital
formations.

* * * * *

Traditional potions, aphrodisiacs, and similar means of arousing genital
impulses are in use even at the present time. Carrots, for instance,
were long listed by the Arabs as a stimulant. In medieval Spain they
were commonly consumed for such a purpose. And in the United States
carrots are still reputed to have a marked erotic potency.

* * * * *

Current magazines of the more popular sort, contemporary drug stores
have their amatory allurements. Some periodicals advertise exotic
perfumes, sultry essences, seductive cosmetics and similar feminine
accessories, or insidious unguents and lotions, whose avowed purpose is
to attract men in an amorous direction. In the drug stores, hormones and
gland extracts, transplantations and rejuvenative manipulations and
operations are publicized for similar purposes.

* * * * *

Among some primitive tribal communities in New Guinea, powerful love
charms take the form of genital secretions. Such secretions are then
used in magic ceremonials affecting both man and beast: the underlying
intent being procreational encouragement.

* * * * *

Virility and its concomitants have no frontiers, no temporal
restrictions. In Central India, in areas that have not yet been
significantly affected by the encroachments of modern ways and
procedures, virility has not become a tribal or personal problem. It is
so normal, in fact, and sexual indulgence is so released from emotional
or social inhibitions and taboos that erotic encouragement in the shape
of unguents, liquids, potions is rare: although there is, as a prelude
to erotic excitations, a preliminary mamillary exercise.

* * * * *

In the Orient, especially in the islands off South Eastern Asia, erotic
frustrations may be solved by resorting to the tribal magician, who
holds the communal secrets, the traditional ways of the society, within
his memory and his jurisdiction. A maiden may be recalcitrant to the
advances of her lover. He will then approach the magician, who will
present him with an amulet, a disc or token. The girl who has amatory
intentions in the direction of a particular male will likewise be given
a disc to wear, on which there is a design of a crescent moon, a
moon-coin, as it is termed, fashioned, according to indigenous
traditions, by the ancient gods themselves, indulgent to help mortals in
their erotic perplexities.

In extremely stubborn cases, love charms associated with magic
incantations and formulas are brought into operation: certain fruits,
such as bananas or cocoanuts, or even a child’s tears.

* * * * *

The love-potion, in respect of its ingredients, is often conditioned by
geographical situation. The flora and fauna of a particular region
become the elements for the amatory goblet. Mediterranean reeds, roots,
nuts, and plants naturally become useful for the philtre. It is only in
extreme cases that exotic items, rare drugs, inaccessible roots are the
object of any particular composition. So, in Sikkim, a state situated in
the Eastern Himalayan region, water in which a bird called indigenously
Ken fo, or a chameleon, has defecated, forms a potent love philtre. So
powerful, in fact, that it produces a condition of priapism in the male
and nymphomania in the female.

* * * * *

Absinthe is a popular drink in European countries, predominantly in
France. It is a liqueur distilled from a bushy plant, that has a
silk-like stem and small yellow flowers. The plant is found among the
valleys and foothills of Europe and on the North African littoral, and
prefers to flourish among hedges and ditches.

The botanical name of the plant is Artemisia absinthium: that is,
wormwood. Wormwood itself was sacred to the Greek divinity Diana, who
was also Artemis: hence the designation Artemisia.

Absinthe itself, distilled from the plant, is a green liqueur to which
are added aniseed oil, marjoram, and similar aromatic elements.

Used regularly, absinthe is not only dangerous, but when taken in large
quantities produces insanity. Yet it has been reputed to stimulate
amatory excitation.

Many noted French writers, poets, and painters have been addicted to the
drink, notably the artist Amedeo Modigliani.

The drink was first concocted by a Frenchman, a certain Dr. Ordinaire,
who resided in Switzerland. In 1797 the recipe was sold to a M. Pernod.
The name Pernod has since then been continuously associated with the
drink.

* * * * *

In the hinterland of folklore, in antique traditional sagas transmitted
through the ages to recent times, in areas that have been for centuries
more or less unaffected by developments, changes, and innovations, that
is, largely, in rural and secluded regions, old beliefs still cling. Old
ways are still followed. Old remedies, beverages, potions are still used
with anticipations of effective results. This view is illustrated in the
French film entitled L’Éternel Retour. As its pervasive theme it
stressed the rooted belief, among the French peasantry, in the efficacy
of the love-potion.

* * * * *

Currently, a great deal of writing appears constantly in the press, in
learned journals, in periodicals of a professional nature, and in
complete encyclopedias, all devoted to erotic studies, analyses of
society in terms of sexual life, and investigations into sexual morality
and sexual abnormalities.

In France, the Polish sponsored Biblioteki Kultury has been established.
This Press has recently produced a study of Pornography and its
involvements, by Witold Gombrowicz. In France, too, many surveys on
erotic practices in the field of films, the stage, art have likewise
made their appearance, in addition to a History of Eroticism. Lavishly
produced folios are also on the market, in which maisons closes are the
subject of detailed treatment and description. Their policies and mores
are freely expounded, and the texts are reinforced with photographs and
illustrations of persons and places and towns, along with paintings by
recognized artists.

A major project in this field is the Illustrated Encyclopedia Erotica,
to which a number of noted European sexologists and erotologists have
contributed. Published in ten volumes, under the sponsorship of the
Institute for Sexual Research of Vienna, this comprehensive compendium
is now reprinted in a new edition by the Verlag für Kulturforschung of
Hamburg.

There are some 22,000 articles and 12,000 illustrations. The contents
range over all aspects of human sexual activity, in their relation to
psychology and biology, medicine and jurisprudence, sociology and
psychotherapy. Folklore and ethnography, marriage, prostitution,
fertility rites, rites of initiation, the deviations of society, secret
amatory sects, flagellation and biographical memoirs comprise the
introductory matter.

Other subjects discussed and examined include: erotic sculpture, sex
mythology, criminology and forensic medicine as they affect perversions,
and contemporary developments along the lines of research.

* * * * *

Liquid and also solid nourishment, when essentially compounded of
wholesome ingredients, will unquestionably, in the contemporary
consensus of medical opinion, promote amatory capacity.

To go one step further, any nourishing food or beverage will, to the
extent of its wholesomeness as an acceptable and normally consumed
commodity, contribute to the general organic euphoria of the subject,
and consequently to his physiological vigor.

In a general sense, therefore, the fantastic or repellent compounds,
brews and stews, lotions, electuaries, ointments, and philtres that, for
long centuries, were transmitted either in folk legend or imprinted in
grave treatises, are, according to medical authority, brusquely
deprecated, and in many cases entirely discounted.

Yet, as is well known, legend and saga, folklore and tradition, often
retain within themselves accumulated knowledge based on tested
validities.

* * * * *

With the increase in experimentation along medical, pharmaceutical, and
culinary lines, there is a corresponding emphasis on food and
preparations that promote physiological well-being and act as tonics and
stimulants.

For these purposes, extracts of the gonads or sex-glands, and pituitary
extracts, are medically recommended in certain cases of physiological
weakness.

In a more gastronomic direction, there are wholesome broths and soups,
such as: mushroom soup, lentil soup, celery soup, as well as salads,
lobster dishes, and curries: all of which contain elements that are
traditionally reputed to aid in increasing vigor.

* * * * *

In a novel by John Brophy entitled _Windfall_, and published in London
in 1951, the hero arrives in New York, where he is confronted with the
fact that the drive for erotic aids is as urgent as ever:

It was true: where Broadway converged on, before it crossed, the
undeviating straightness of Sixth Avenue, the wide double roadway was
surrounded by theatres, cinemas, hotels and restaurants and newspaper
offices, indiscernible behind huge, colored, epileptically moving signs
advocating, pictorially or by blunt lettered exhortation, whiskies and
pea-nuts, cigarettes, motor-cars, night-clubs, patent medicines and
proprietary brands of sexual stimulants.

* * * * *

In the same novel there is a description of a New York Night Club, the
Freudian Frolics. Here are presented amatory stimulants and visual and
palpable inducements in a contemporary setting, basically identical with
the Aristophanic performances, the satires of Lucian, the sketches of
Alciphron and the more boisterous narratives of the Middle Ages, the
Renaissance, and, dominantly, eighteenth century France. The scene is
introduced with a generalization that marks the activities of the place:

Beyond the swing-doors almost every erotic taste not utterly
perverted could be if not gratified at least stimulated ... the
majority made straight for the primary erotogenic zones.

* * * * *

Again, there is a wildly farcical description of amatory reinforcements.
The character concerned is a degenerate multi-millionaire, an American
named Mirabel Jones XVIII. His problem is to achieve an heir to his vast
interests. For this purpose, he is undergoing a multiple variety of
treatments at the hands of his physician and his psychiatrist. He is
subjected to daily injections. He consumes all sorts of tablets. He is
regulated by calisthenic exercises, by vitamin pills, by radio-therapy,
by baths. All these various means are regimented methodically into
prospective erotic channels. As a climax, he travels constantly, from
one country to another, to secure a climate favorable to his condition,
from South America to California to England.

* * * * *

The possibilities of the love-potion still intrude into modern times. In
a series of light sketches of Scottish life, entitled _Christina_, the
author, J. J. Bell, presents young Christina herself, who is living with
an aunt who runs a small village store. To further a possible courtship
between the aunt and the commercial traveler Mr. Baldwin, Christina
conceives a plan to help the shy and hesitant Miss Purvis. The book
itself was published about forty years ago:

Christina greatly enjoyed looking at the shops without
supervision or restriction. She had made up her mind to purchase
a gift for her aunt, whose birthday fell about a month later.

Christina enters a barber’s shop, because she has seen the ideal
gift:

She moistened her lips, and, in a tremulous whisper, said—

“I want a—a potion.”

“A lotion, miss?”

“A potion.”

“A lotion—for the hair?” He smiled dreadfully—so it seemed to
Christina. Once more she all but fled.

Christina had been reading about potions, in a periodical devoted to
love stories. She tells her aunt, Miss Purvis, about it. “It was a magic
potion. A lass got it frae a—a sosserer to gi’e to a young man that
wasna heedin’ aboot her. She gi’ed it to him, an’ it charmed him, an’
afore she could say ‘Jack Robinson’ he was coortin’ her like fun, an’
their nuptails was celebrated in—”

Now Christina is ready to employ the same means in behalf of her aunt.

To the barber, then, Christina whispers: “A potion. What—what’s the
price o’ yer—yer Spirit o’ Love?”

The barber, momentarily nonplussed, finally smiled with understanding:

A moment later he was brushing a cobweb from a small bottle containing a
yellowish fluid. A soiled and faded label of floral design was affixed
to the bottle, and on it appeared, as in letters of fire, the words
“Spirit of Love.”

“One shilling, miss.”

“Would it—charm a lady?”

“Certainly! I have sold hundreds of bottles of ‘Spirit of Love’ to
gentlemen for that very object. Charms them like magic!”

“Like magic?”

“Like nothing else, miss. Do you wish the bottle for a sick friend? Just
so! In that case a few drops on the pillow will prove a real charm.”

Christina nearly dropped. It was too wonderful!

He must be a sosserer!

Christina administers the potion in her own way. While her aunt is
asleep, she pours a few drops on the pillow, but, disturbed by the
sudden squalling of a cat, lets the phial fall. It empties itself on the
pillow.

The aunt, a sceptic, throws the empty bottle into the fire, with the
remark “Spirit of Fiddlesticks!”

* * * * *

Experimentation and research in the direction of rejuvenating processes
and invigorating vigor continue all the time, without cessation. Some
procedures involve surgical operations: others are associated with the
administration of various hormones and extracts and glandular
compositions. Proprietary medicines are on the market, particularly in
France and in England. An advertisement in a weekly magazine advocates
The Royal Jelly Rejuvenating Food Supplement.

* * * * *

In the early nineteenth century, in Edinburgh, there were on sale
Luckenbooth Brooches. They were in the nature of amatory periapts. These
brooches were sometimes engraved with a lover’s initials. Or a plea or
an amorous inducement might appear thereon, such as:

Let me and thee
most happy be.

Or:

My heart ye have and thir I creve.
I fancie non but the alon.
Wrong not the heart whose joy thou art.

* * * * *

Analogous to philtres and similar amatory concoctions is the indirect
stimulus derived from reading teacups. A popular Scottish weekly paper
says: It’s fun, and there’s a good deal in it, too, if the signs are
read aright.

In relation to Love and Friendship, the column declares that a ‘human’
figure seen in the form of the tea leaves, whether man or woman, or the
outline of a letter of the alphabet, indicates that the love and feeling
of affection will concern the person whose name begins with the tea leaf
letter.

This is, in essence, an innocuous variation of an amatory inducement.

* * * * *

Among contemporary proprietary preparations reputed to have amatory
value is aphrodisin. This is a compound of yohimbine, a substance
indigenous to Central Africa and derived from the bark of the yohimbe
tree, along with extract of miura pauma, aronacein, and other
ingredients.

* * * * *

There are many instances of women, concubines, mistresses, and harlots,
who have become historically famous or notorious through their own
personal practices, or for the influence they have exerted socially and
politically. A French courtesan who rose from minor and humble
circumstances was Céleste Mogador, who was born in 1824 and who died in
1909. She was a dancer, an actress, and an equestrienne: and ultimately
became the Comtesse Lionel de Moreton de Chabrillan. She gained some
additional réclame by the publication of her Memoirs.

* * * * *

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867), the French poet, in his _Les Fleurs du
Mal_, has a sequence of poems on passion, macabre, violent, distorted,
filled with fantastic imagery, touched with the symbol of death, and
putrefaction, and unsated human longings. There are hymns to beauty that
border on disaster and cruelty, on ugliness and inhumanity. There is a
paean to exotic perfumes, a laudation of a woman’s dark tresses. But
these poetic effusions are stamped with bitterness and a sense of
reality aghast, unholy revelations. There appears an entire distant,
remote world, far-flung and almost extinct, where the poet sees an
aromatic forest, where he dwells in the woman’s depths. She pleads with
her lover, for she is unsated and insatiable. He peers through those two
dark eyes, the windows of your soul. O ruthless demon, he clamors, pour
less flame upon me. I am not the dread and furtive Styx, capable of
embracing you nine times.

A putresent carcass, seen on a summer morning, is a poetic memento mori,
like an Egyptian skeleton at the feast, a warning that lust and beauty
and passion have their brief day and are grimly evanescent, and an
indirect injunction, on the poet’s part, to adhere to the Roman poet
Horace’s hedonistic _carpe diem_.

In _The Vampire_ Baudelaire exclaims at being enslaved by a hateful but
alluring woman, while in another piece he stresses the potency of
perfumes.

These poems, then, symbolize, in a comprehensive sense, the intrusions
of lust and passion in human relationships, and the intimate contacts
and associations of these lusts with malefic forces and ominous impacts.

* * * * *

Ballads, street songs, and broadsides, belonging to a wide and usually
comparatively uncultured level, in all ethnic communities, deal largely
with physiological and scatological functions, sexual and erotic
intrusions and experiences and experiments, without restraint, without
reflection and without moralizing corollaries thereon, but with a
forthright, direct verbal impact. Hence there are, dispersed through
such unsophisticated uncontrived versified episodes, many matters
relating to amatory enticements and means of erotic provocations and
challenges affecting both male and female, in all types of occupation,
in many gradations of society, at every age level, from young and urgent
milkmaids and their swains to debauched lechers and libertines.

Pastoral pieces, soldiers’ rollicking ditties, sailors’ chanties, all
the rhythmic, chthonic, usually crude but outspoken exuberance of folk
ways and currents, of peasantry and burgher, tinker and servant,
tipplers, ploughmen, and innkeepers—that is the colorful and various
component of the popular muse.

Sometimes the erotic impact is suggested by indirection: sometimes by an
innocuous expression used in a double entendre context. Sometimes the
idiom has the immediacy of the Greek functional and genital significance
exemplified in the Aristophanic comedies.

Rakes and panders rub shoulders with guileless innocence and feminine
wiles, with lordly arrogance, authority, and wealth, with humility and
beggarliness, with want and starvation. And pervasive through all the
insinuating permutations of street life and market place, of court and
manor, of fields and ocean, battle and stress, there runs the urgency of
amatory attraction: lust and passion and allurement, and the means of
satisfying and sating and continuing and maintaining such erotic
capacities, such animal lustfulness and unbridled salaciousness and lewd
ardor, prurience and perverted depravities.

Yet there are instances, sudden outbursts, occasional spurts of deeper
feelings, brusque awareness: some latent though possibly dishonored
principle, a touch of wry humor, in which blatant reality and some
remote consciousness of betterment peer through the vernacular
crudities.

In one collection of such ballads, entitled _Drolleries_, the amatory
theme returns again and again, always lusty, always sensual. The burgess
who is off to the fair while her good man is absent from home: the coy
mistress: the country maid on a visit to the City: the old lecherous
beau unrepentantly persistent: the lustful squire, the libidinous
courtier, the wayward maid: widows and lords, fiddlers and coopers,
cobblers and miners, merchants all conniving in adultery and incest, in
concocting potions for reluctant lovers, in beseeching hesitant favors,
in besmirching marriage and domesticity and exultantly and indifferently
glorifying all the varieties of amatory diversions and perversions.

* * * * *

In _Today_, a popular British weekly magazine, an article appeared early
in 1962, by a woman, accusing the contemporary man of having lost his
virility. She spoke of ‘sexually moribund men,’ of man’s failure, in
consequence, as a marriage partner, and of his amatory deficiencies.

A response to these challenges appeared in a later issue. It was written
by a factory worker who, from his own experience and that of his
acquaintances and fellow-workers, refuted the first attack. He denied
physical exhaustion. He asserted that the typical worker, by virtue of
his constant application to his job, is kept continuously physically fit
and capable. His knowledge, too, of the range of amatory procedures and
practices has been widened by war contacts, by interchange of views and
attitudes with many groups, foreigners, visitors, refugees. He added
that the freedom of expression on such matters was an additional
encouragement toward enlightenment. If anything, this typical worker
concluded, it was the woman who was hesitant, indifferent, and
un-cooperative.

* * * * *

In Gilbert and Sullivan’s _The Sorcerer_, a farcical treatment of the
Black Arts, there is a scene involving love philtres and their effects:

Mr. Wells: Love-philtre—we’ve quantities of it ...

Alexis: I have sent for you to consult you on a very important
matter. I believe you advertise a Patent Oxy-Hydrogen
Love-at-first-sight Philtre?

Mr. Wells: Sir, it is our leading article. (_Producing a
phial_).

Alexis: Now I want to know if you can confidently guarantee it
as possessing all the qualities you claim for it in your
advertisement?

Mr. Wells: Sir, we are not in the habit of puffing our goods.
Ours is an old-established house with a large family connection,
and every assurance held out in the advertisement is fully
realized. (_Hurt_).

Aline (_aside_): Oh, Alexis, don’t offend him! He’ll change us
into something dreadful—I know he will!

Alexis: I am anxious from purely philanthropical motives to
distribute this philtre, secretly, among the inhabitants of this
village. I shall of course require a quantity. How do you sell
it?

Mr. Wells: In buying a quantity, sir, we should strongly advise
you taking it in the wood, and drawing it off as you happen to
want it. We have it in four-and-a-half and nine gallon
casks—also in pipes and hogsheads for laying down, and we deduct
10 per cent for prompt cash.

Alexis: I should mention that I am a Member of the Army and Navy
Stores.

Mr. Wells: In that case we deduct 25 per cent.

Alexis: Aline, the villagers will assemble to carouse in a few
minutes. Go and fetch the tea-pot.

Aline: But, Alexis—

Alexis: My dear, you must obey me, if you please. Go and fetch
the tea-pot.

Aline (_going_): I’m sure Dr. Daly would disapprove of it.

(_Exit Aline_).

Alexis: And how soon does it take effect?

Mr. Wells: In twelve hours. Whoever drinks of it loses
consciousness for that period, and on waking falls in love, as a
matter of course, with the first lady he meets who has also
tasted it, and his affection is at once returned. One trial will
prove the fact.

_Enter Aline with large tea-pot._

Alexis: Good: then, Mr. Wells, I shall feel obliged if you will
at once pour as much philtre into this tea-pot as will suffice
to affect the whole village.

Aline: But bless me, Alexis, many of the villagers are married
people!

Mr. Wells: Madam, this philtre is compounded on the strictest
principles. On married people it has no effect whatever. But are
you quite sure that you have nerve enough to carry you through
the fearful ordeal?

Alexis: In the good cause I fear nothing.

Mr. Wells: Very good, then, we will proceed at once to the
Incantation.

* * * * *

In the South Sea Islands amatory aids and spells are still in vogue. The
following love incantation involves the love-sick girl Taratake:

Mr. Hair-of-his-head, Mr. Hair-of-his-head,
Go you to him, to Taratake!
Whisper my name when he dreams,
when he wakes.
When he walks among the women.
Draw him by the hand,
Draw him by the foot,
Draw him by the heart and entrails to me.
He thinks only of me;
He dies for love of me;
There is no woman for him but me,
no love but mine,
no love-making but mine.
He comes to me, he comes, he is here with me,
With me, Laughter-of-Waves-o-o-o!

* * * * *

As recently as 1956, in the _Flute of Sand_, Lawrence Morgan describes
an experience among the Ouled-Naïl dancers of North Africa:

Interwoven into their lives were sorcery, black magic, and, most
common of all, the use of love-philtres with which they believed
they could enslave any man. In the pot of mint tea in Yacourte’s
room had been a philtre intended to help the erring lover to
make up his mind.

* * * * *

The term bayadère is derived from the Portuguese baladeira, associated
with bailar, to dance. Originally, the expression was applied to a Hindu
dancing girl, noted for erotic performances. The bayadère, in fact, like
the nautsch dancers, could be equated with prostitution.

* * * * *

The European newspapers and magazines, notably in Germany, Austria, and
France, until quite recent times, advertised, in the interests of
readers, all kinds of elixirs, remedies, philtres, concoctions, and
unguents, to correct sexual deficiencies or to promote physiological
capacity. There was a cream called Vigor. Dragées des Fakirs were
‘scientific and immediate.’ A Parisian aphrodisiac powder announced
itself as ‘durable.’ It could be forwarded by mail, from the Scientific
Laboratories. Clients could be interviewed at specified hours. Renox was
a concoction that was urged very persuasively: so too with the
contrivance Heureka. There was another contrivance called Samson,
implicitly suggesting a Biblical valor. Sexine and Stimulol and Dragées
de Vénus were both harmless and effective, according to the laudatory
testimony of the manufacturers themselves.

* * * * *

There was a highly advertised preparation, called Testogan, that implied
stimulating amatory reactions.

* * * * *

A contrivance under the name of Amor Star was formerly advertised in
Europe as very effective, making the agent another Casanova. In Paris, a
preparation called Mono promised rejuvenation for the male.

* * * * *

Many European restaurants practiced a dual role. In addition to their
culinary purpose, they were in a basic sense amatory rendez-vous. During
the First World War German eating-places, variety halls, dance palaces,
and cabarets advertised, with appropriately alluring illustrations:

Wein, Weib Gesang

In other instances, Teutonic gaiety was eulogized as being highly
imitative of Gallic ways. Leben à la Paris—ran the posters:

Damenklub
Maskenbälle
Lustiger Abend
Café Dorian Gray.

These spots were instigations to perversions, amatory practices, and
promiscuities.

* * * * *

Numerous collections of erotica exist in varying degrees of seclusion,
in libraries, state archives, and museums. To a large extent, such
compilations were made during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The
bibliophile, on his death, usually bequeathed his books and manuscripts
and erotic objects and artifacts to a state or national library. Among
English specialists in this genre were James Campbell, the pseudonym of
J. C. Reddie, William S. Potter, Henry Spencer Ashbee, better known
under his pseudonym of Pisanus Fraxi. In France, the Bibliothèque
Nationale, in its section known as L’Enfer, houses a large collection of
erotic matter.

* * * * *

In cosmopolitan cities like London and New York, the sex theme is
predominant in certain types of rather furtive bookstores. They deal
largely with paperbacks, stressing sexual relationships, erotic
magazines, and treatises, both authoritatively written and, in some
cases, barely literate, on erotic mores and variations of perversions.
The paperbacks, flaunting jackets that play a significant role in the
attraction of the text, range from lust to rape, from masochism to
tribadism, with all possible intermediate permutations. Such fictional
productions not infrequently transcend the ingenuities of the Marquis de
Sade.

* * * * *

Contemporary witches, sorceresses, and spell-binders of varying degrees
of reliability still use, as love potions, old, traditional ingredients.
One of these is hippomanes. Hippomanes was well known among the
ancients. It is a fleshy excrescence that appears on a foal’s head at
birth. When dried, and swallowed by the person in search of the amatory
excitation, it produces, according to these dark practitioners, a result
that cannot be questioned.

The erotic merit of this equine aposteme is confirmed by a number of
authorities, from Vergil himself, the Roman epic poet, to Pausanias, the
second century A.D. Greek geographer, and to the sixteenth century
Neapolitan alchemist and occultist Gambattista della Porta.

SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benoit, H. The Many Faces of Love. New York: Pantheon, c. 1955.

Bibliotheca Erotica Moniacensis. A German collection of erotica.

Bibliotheca Roloffiana. A collection of erotica published in Germany
in the eighteenth century.

Blondeau, Nicolas. Dictionnaire Erotique. Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1885.

Clauder, Johannes. De Philtris. Leipzig, 1661.

Decle, L. Three Years in Savage Africa. London: Methuen, 1898.

Dufour, H. Histoire de la Prostitution chez tous les Peuples du Monde.
Bruxelles: 1857.

Dulaure, Jacques-Antoine. The Gods of Generation. English translation
by A.F.N. Privately printed. New York: Panurge Press, 1934.

Ellis, Havelock. Studies in the Psychology of Sex. 2 volumes. New
York: Random House, c. 1938–1942.

Epton, N. C. Love and the French. London: Cassell, 1959.

Epton, N. C. Love and the English. London: Cassell, 1960.

Epton, N. C. Love and the Spanish. London: Cassell, 1961.

Flacelière, Robert. Love in Ancient Greece. Trans. by J. Cleugh.
London: Muller, 1962.

Gilbert, O. P. Men in Women’s Guise. London: John Lane, 1926.

Gilbert, O. P. Women in Men’s Guise. London: John Lane, 1932.

Goncourt, E and J De. La Femme au dix-huitième Siècle. Paris, 1902.

Gregorovius, F. A. Der Ghetto und die Juden in Rom. Berlin: Schocken
Verlag, 1935.

Hervé-Piraus, F.R. Les Temples d’Amour au XVIIIe Siècle. Paris, 1910.

King, L. W. Babylonian Magic and Sorcery. London: 1896.

Laurent, E. Magica Sexualis. New York: Anthropological Press, 1934.

Mantegazza, Paolo. English translation under the title Sexual
Relations of Mankind. Privately printed. New York: Anthropological
Press, 1932.

Rodocanachi, E. P. La Femme italienne: avant, pendant et après la
Renaissance: sa vie privée et mondaine, son influence sociale.
Paris: Hachette, 1922.

Wolff, J. F. Dissertatio de Philtris. Wittenberg, 1726.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
2. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Love Potions through the Ages - A Study of Amatory Devices and Mores" ***

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