2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29
Oysters, avocados, chocolate, honey: We have all heard that certain foods should provoke your passions when you eat them. What is less well known is the history and folklore behind these foods, which explain how they became known as such.
Oysters
The famous lover Casanova starts each day with 50 oysters to prepare for the afternoon effort. Oysters are also said to be present in equally famous Roman orgies, and Roman doctors prescribed them as a cure for impotence. Part of the reason for their relationship with love is their pronounced lability, but the association comes from the animal's reproductive cycle. Oysters release a stream of reproductive material directly into the water. This allows fertilization to take place externally. In addition, they are closely associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love and desire. All shells are sacred animals to her - she was born in a shell, and the pearl is her sacred stone.
Avocado
The avocado was a favorite of Louis XIV. The fruit has a creamy, soft texture and creates a sensual feeling when you eat it. But there is another bigger reason for the association. Avocados hang on trees in pairs and look so much like a specific part of the body that in Aztecs the word for avocado is ahuacatl, which means testicle. When the Spaniards encountered Aztec culture, the avocado already had an established reputation as one of the fruits of love. The fruit migrated north, and farmers had to sell it to the Americans. They chose a new name to make it easier to pronounce and get rid of the avocado's previous alternative name, "alligator pear," not much different from the Aztecs' "testicles." The name was changed to "avocado", but its aphrodisiac status remained.
Almonds
Popular wedding fragrances include small packets of almonds covered in candy, and it's not just because they're so delicious. Nuts have long been considered an aphrodisiac - a faith that dates back to ancient Greece. Greek couples were blessed with almonds to ensure a fruitful reunion, and superstition said that if a girl put almonds under her pillow, she would have a dream husband. In Morocco, almonds are used to pass on the bride's happiness to future generations. In India, giving almonds to a member of the opposite sex is a clear proposition. The association between almonds and fertility brings us back to the Bible. Numbers 17: 1-8 tells the story of sticks given to the Israelites. Aaron, who had received the scepter for Levi's house, knew that his line would continue as his wand blossomed, blossomed, and bore almonds. Almonds are mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament, with less explicit hints of reproduction. A reference comes to Jeremiah 1:11. When God asked Jeremiah what he saw before him, he replied that he saw the fruit of the almond tree.
Nar
Pomegranate is another food whose history goes back to Aphrodite, the goddess who gave her name to the aphrodisiac. According to Greek legend, the first pomegranate tree was planted by Aphrodite on the island of Cyprus. Pomegranates also became sacred to Hera, and the combination of the two goddesses helped link the pomegranate to marriage and reproduction. Pomegranate has not only many seeds, but also a color associated with the blood of a virgin. Pomegranate also appears in the myth of Persephone. Kidnapped by Hades, she retains the opportunity to return to the surface while eating the food of the Underworld. She does so, eating a few pomegranate seeds to finalize her relationship with Hades.
Chocolate
Chocolates dominate store shelves around Valentine's Day, but science is still debating exactly how aphrodisiac chocolate is. Some research shows that while chocolate contains chemicals that usually make us feel good, they are in such low doses that they don't actually do anything. But the position of chocolate at the top of any list of aphrodisiacs is not unprecedented. The cultivation and use of cocoa pods dates back to 1400 BC. Many records describe the importance of chocolate in Mayan and Aztec cultures; in both civilizations it was prepared as a beverage and not eaten, as edible chocolate was a much later invention. Often used as a ceremonial drink for the Maya, it is available to the common man and is also depicted as a drink to the gods. In marriage and wedding ceremonies, couples often drink chocolate as part of the rituals associated with the change in their lives. This was also extremely valuable to the Aztecs.
Lettuce
In addition to foods that are thought to increase sexual desire, several have been known to lower it. In ancient Greece, a woman serving lettuce to her husband sent a clear and rather cold message: Keep your hands away from me. Lettuce is a plant sacred to the goddess Aphrodite, but not for the reason that she kept other precious plants and animals. One of her few deadly loves is Adonis, and their love story is very tragic. Apollo's son Erimantos saw Adonis and Aphrodite together and became a wild boar as punishment for his espionage. He accused and killed Adonis, who had been hiding in lettuce. After his death, Aphrodite placed his body in lettuce to mourn him, forever linking lettuce to death and impotence. The association of lettuce with impotence jumped from myth to pseudoscience with a text by the Greek doctor Nikander from Colophon. He says that lettuce makes a man powerless, no matter how much he wants a woman.
Garlic
Garlic may seem like the most incredible charm of love, given its strong and pungent odor. But its history as an aphrodisiac is long. Passages in the Talmud say that garlic should be eaten on Friday, because Friday is traditionally the day on which couples will perform the duties of the wedding bed. Garlic has several properties that make it conducive to sexual intercourse. It was believed to bring a warm feeling and general happiness to the whole body, suppress hunger, increase sperm volume and kill internal parasites that are in the body. Some scriptures also say that it works to overcome jealousy and bring two people closer together. However, many other crops, including the ancient Greeks and Romans, hated garlic and the smell it left. In India, garlic is on the list of foods that are unsuitable for higher castes.
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