Love Potions Over Time (with giveaway) By Donna Schlachter

Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels

 

With February being the Love Month, I thought I’d look at the history of love potions, which are simply aphrodisiacs by another name. Originally named after Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, there were attempts by ancient civilizations to control something they didn’t understand. In fact, even today, while scientists can explain what happens when two people are attracted in an amorous fashion, they still struggle to explain why.  

 

The first recorded potions were memorialized as far back in time as 4000 BC, when the witch doctor or shaman or other member of a tribe or clan prepared various concoctions to increase libido. This is understandable, since cultures depended on multiplying their numbers through their offspring. No sexual desire, no babies. That was a fact of life and survival.

Ancient Greeks, known for their refined and genteel ways, believed that ground up orchids that were then added to wine solved any sexual dysfunction in both men and women. This became so popular and widespread that for a time, the orchid plant became extinct. It didn’t help the availability of the plant when the ancient Romans also adopted the use of the orchid, this time brewing it into a delicately aromatic tea. Perhaps one solution to this scarcity was the introduction of insects, such as Spanish Fly or Blister Beetle, into love potions.

Photo by Max Avans from Pexels

Ancient Egyptians associated seafood with sexual potency, and so banned all seafood from consumption by their celibate priests. Imagine a life without lobster or flounder.

Natives of the Orient thought garlic contained special properties that encouraged romantic relationships and promoted its use widely throughout their part of the world.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

During the Middle Ages, the focus of those trying to increase amorous advances changed, often incorporating more personal and increasingly bizarre ingredients, such as human sweat, reproductive organs from male animals, and even by-products of the birthing process. Often, these ingredients were mixed with wine to make them more palatable. As if anything could.

Love potions can be found in literature from the Middle Ages and beyond. However, perhaps in keeping with the tragedy of the story and the facts that most didn’t work, these often-magical experiments rarely worked. The Celtic story Tristan and Isolde includes a successful ingestion of the potion, leading to the infatuation of the couple. Which might be thought as a success, except she was already engaged to another.

Midsummer Night’s Dream includes the tale of Titania, who unknowingly consumes a potion in her sleep. Her estranged husband perpetrated this evil deed, hoping she’d fall back in love with him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t there when she opened her eyes, and instead she falls for another.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

In the 1600s, magical poems became popular—perhaps because nobody wanted to drink the potions. An instruction book was released entitled The Book of Secrets of Albertus Magnus, which told the reader to crush earthworms with periwinkle and feed it to the afflicted spouse. Other recipes included the fat of a snake, the head of a sparrow, the blood of a bat, or the heart of a pigeon.

The need—or shall I say desire—for such potions spread to the New World and the Old. In Mexico, the story went that if a wife sprinkled crushed basil on her chest, her husband wouldn’t cheat on her. American Indians used hallucinogens such as peyote and psilocybin, derived from cactus and mushrooms respectively, to heighten romantic pleasure. And in India, wives intent on prolonging intimacy powdered their bodies with crushed henna leaves.

While certain foods such as oysters, onions, and honey are legendary in the aphrodisiac category, perhaps the genuine excitement came from the fact these foods were scarce and expensive. This meant if your date fed you with these, they must really think you’re special. Which ultimately could arouse amorous feelings for them. If you’re impressed by that sort of thing.

Plants, herbs, and flowers have been used over the years because they are easy to collect in native habitats. Apart from the once-near-extinct orchid, no other reports of over-harvesting were noted in researching this article.

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

In reality, any amorous feelings generated by these potions were likely circumstantial. In a culture limited by tribal or social norms, romance in general may have been just as awkward then as it can be now. Let’s face it—expressing your feelings to the object of your desire is like stepping out onto a diving board without knowing if the pool is full. You could be getting in over your head, or preparing to take a fall.

But with an entire month dedicated to love, surely there is hope for all to achieve their happily-ever-after.



Leave a comment, and I will draw randomly for a print copy (US only) or ebook – winner’s choice – of The Mystery of Christmas Inn, Colorado. Please remember to include your email address, disguising it like: donna AT livebytheword DOT com



About The Mystery of Christmas Inn, Colorado

Matthew returns to Christmas Inn to celebrate his anniversary, intending to join his beloved Sarah, who passed on to glory the previous January. He learns that the old inn will close its doors soon. Can he save the hotel—and his memories?

Edith Cochrane, a widow, comes to Christmas Inn to escape her greedy family. Ever since her husband’s passing, she’s found herself at loose ends. A body in a wall and a kidnap attempt rejuvenate her. But will it be enough?



Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Christmas-Inn-Colorado-ebook/dp/B0779HTH9C



About Donna:

A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 50 times in books; is a member of several writers' groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both.



 

 

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Resources:

https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-history/love-potions-aphrodisiacs-facts-spanish-fly/

https://www.elitedaily.com/p/are-love-potions-real-heres-what-history-science-have-to-say-19298441



https://www.elitedaily.com/p/are-love-potions-real-heres-what-history-science-have-to-say-19298441

Motherhood in Ancient Times

by Kiersti Giron 

After examining childbirth and motherhood in the 19th century earlier this summer, today we’re going to take a trip far earlier in time—to the ancient world, where becoming a mother was the most important, as well as most dangerous, part of a woman’s life.

Ancient Egypt

Cleopatra offers a sacrifice to Isis in this Egyptian engraving.
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Let’s begin in Egypt, one of the most complex early civilizations of the world. The ideal mother in Ancient Egyptian society was the goddess Isis, the “Divine Mother” whose cult produced thousands of bronze statuettes of her nursing her son Horus—many of which can still be seen in museums today. In the Egyptian mindset, human mothers also deserved much honor and respect, especially from their sons. Children were expected to care for their mothers as they aged, and there is one record of an elderly mother disinheriting her children because they did not. A didactic text from Any, dating from 1500 B.C., gives a fascinating peek into the care of an Egyptian mother for her child—one mothers throughout the centuries can relate to.

“When you were born after your months, she was yet yoked to you. Her breast in your mouth for three years, as you grew…When she sent you to school, and you were taught to write, she kept watch over you daily.”

Ancient Israel

The Bible and other ancient Jewish texts give fascinating glimpses into the early mothers of Israel. Midwives were significant women in Israelite culture, seen especially in the beginning of Exodus when the Hebrew midwives were called before Pharaoh—and because of their faith and courage, many Israelite baby boys were saved. The text there hints at childbirth practices of the time, such as the birth stool, thought to be composed of two stones in early days—kneeling also seems to have been a common birthing position, and we now know being upright in childbirth does make things easier. After the baby was born, he or she was commonly bathed and rubbed in salt, then swaddled in strips of cloth, just as Mary did when Jesus was born.

Mary and Infant Jesus, thought to be by Coreggio. Internet Archive Book Images - https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14578002368/Source book page: https://archive.org/stream/correggiocollect00hurl/correggiocollect00hurl#page/n26/mode/1up,
No restrictions, 

Jewish mothers were ritually unclean for some time after giving birth, with the purification sacrifice for after childbirth occurring forty days if the baby was a boy, eighty days if a girl. Interestingly, it is recognized today that it takes about six weeks for a mother to physically recover from childbirth—about the forty days Leviticus prescribes.

As in ancient Egypt, where we have already seen that breastfeeding for three years was apparently normal, Jewish mothers generally nursed their children for two to three years. Weaning was a time of fulfillment and celebration, typically with a party, like the weaning feast for Isaac in Genesis 21.

Jewish mothers were honored as well, seen in Proverbs 31’s laudatory description of a wife and mother who fears the Lord. And Jesus took special care to ensure that His mother was taken care of when He was dying on the cross. In typical Jewish culture, mothers had the primary care of their children, at least boys, for the first six years or so, after which the father would take a greater role in his sons’ training in the Law and a trade.

Plutarch, early Greek philosopher and proponent of breastfeeding.
By Odysses - original: own work of author; this is a cropped version of
File:Copy_of_Plutarch_at_Chaeronia,_Greece.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0

Ancient Greece and Rome

In classical Greece and Rome, wet nurses were common for nursing babies, at least for wealthy families. However, such prominent writers as Aristotle and Plutarch urged against this practice; as Plutarch wrote, “It is necessary that mothers breast feed their own children, because they will indulge them with love and kindness.”  

While Greek and Roman women did have some place in society, mothers lacked rights we today might take for granted. For example, at the birth of a baby in ancient Greece, it was up to the father whether to keep the child or expose it to the elements, as Oedipus was at birth in the play Oedipus Rex. Of course, this effective infanticide was enacted against more baby girls than boys. Mothers also did not get custody of their children if the couple were to divorce—children instead were given to the father, though sometimes mothers and children stayed together voluntarily.

So, what stands out to you about mothering in ancient times? If you had to pick an ancient culture to be a mother in, which would you choose? Please comment and share!

Kiersti Giron holds a life-long passion for history and historical fiction. She loves to write stories that show the intersection of past and present, explore relationships that bridge cultural divides, and probe the healing Jesus can bring out of brokenness. Kiersti has been published in several magazine and won the 2013 and 2018 Genesis Awards – Historical for her novels Beneath a Turquoise Sky and Fire in My Heart. An English teacher and member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Kiersti loves learning and growing with other writers penning God's story into theirs, as well as blogging at www.kierstigiron.com. She lives in California with her husband, Anthony, their two kitties, and their new baby boy.