Riassunto
Trama e riassunto di Afrodisiaci e antiafrodisiaci
A chi è rivolto
This book will delight readers who love curious history, old medicine and folklore, and who enjoy a collector of odd facts quoting Montaigne, Rabelais and the court records of old France.
Che cos’è questo libro
What did people in every age believe about desire, and how much of it was folklore? John Davenport, an English writer who died in 1877, sets out to answer with dry humor. His three essays gather witnesses from the Bible and Pliny to Montaigne, Rabelais and French court records. They cover fertility symbols, impotence and sterility, love potions and the remedies used to cool desire. Along the way you meet kings, monks, doctors and ordinary couples, each with a story. The oldest idea comes first: the power to create life was once sacred.
In questo riassunto
- 1Fertility symbols were once held sacredFree
- 2Impotence and sterility are different troubles
- 3Fear and the law made matters worse
- 4Love potions run from mandrake to hippomanes
- 5Foods, drugs and electricity were all tried
- 6Cooling desire has its own list
Punto chiave 1 di 6
Fertility symbols were once held sacred
Davenport opens with the oldest religion. Nature was first worshipped through its power to bring forth life, and the symbols of that power seemed holy to the ancients, not shameful. He follows them through Egypt, Greece, Rome and India.
In India husbands gave brides a small jewel called the taly, marked with such an emblem. A papal legate ordered converts to wear a cross instead. The women refused, and the missionaries settled the quarrel by engraving a cross on the taly itself.
The surprise is that the old rites survive in Christian Europe under saints' names. Saint Foutin in Provence received wax offerings, and Protestants who captured Embrun in 1585 found his relic there.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Questions about Afrodisiaci e antiafrodisiaci
What is Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs about?
It is three essays by John Davenport on fertility symbols, impotence and sterility, and the foods, drugs and potions people used to raise or lower desire. He draws on ancient writers, doctors, church records and court cases.
What is tying the points in this book?
It is an old French belief that a knotted cord, tied at a wedding, could make a groom unable to consummate his marriage. Davenport describes the spell, the trials, the counter-charms and why he thinks fear was the true cause.
What is the Judicial Congress?
It was a French court ordeal in which a husband accused of impotence had to show his powers before appointed examiners. Davenport traces its origins, gives real cases and explains why Parliament banned it in 1677.
Is Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs a scientific book?
It is a Victorian collection of history, folklore and old medical opinion, not modern science. Its charm lies in the stories, quotations and sources, which show what people believed about desire and why.
Who is Davenport quoting in the book?
He quotes a wide range, including Pliny, Galen, Montaigne, Rabelais, Brillat-Savarin, Burton and Voltaire. Their words give the essays a lively mix of learning, humor and anecdote that makes the topics easy to follow.