Notes

Crocus

Crocus (text)

Saphran

For the loves of Crocus, who was turned into a saffron-flower, and Smilax, cf. Ovid Met. iv 283.

saphran

How you also, Celmis, now adamant, were once most faithful friend of little Jove; how the Curetes sprang from copious showers; how Crocus and his beloved Smilax were changed into tiny flowers. All these stories I will pass by and will charm your minds with a tale that is pleasing because new.

saphran

Ovide (Mét., IB, 283) rapporte que le jeune Crocus, fort amoureux d’une fillette, fut métamorphosé en plante. Ce nom vient plutôt du grec, χρόχοζ (de χρόχη, fil ou trame, par allusion aux franges des stigmates de la plante, seuls employés en thérapeutique). D’ailleurs les étamines florales se nomment en grec χροχύδεζ.

Pline (XXI. 17) mentionne le Crocum silvestre et le C. sativum; ils correspondent à notre Crocus sativus, :L. (Iriacée). (Paul Delaunay)

crocus

Crocum silvestre optimum. serere in Italia minime expedit, ad scripula usque singula areis decoquentibus. seritur radicis bulbo. sativum latius maiusque et nitidius, sed multo lenius, degenerans ubique, nec fecundum etiam Cyrenis, ubi semper flores laudatissimi. prima nobilitas Cilicio et ibi in Coryco monte, dein Lyciae monte Olympo, mox Centuripino Siciliae. aliqui Theraeo secundum locum dedere. adulteratur nihil aeque. probatio sinceri, si inposita manu crepitet veluti fragile; umidum enim, quod evenit adulteratione, silet.1 altera probatio, si manu relata ad ora leniter faciem oculosque mordeat. est per se genus sativi blandissimum vulgo, cum sit mediocre, dialeucon vocant. contra Cyrenaico vitium, quod omni croco nigrius est et celerrime marcescit. optimum ubicumque quod pinguissimum et brevis capilli, pessimum vero quod situm redolet. Mucianus auctor est in Lycia anno septimo aut octavo transferri in locum subactum atque ita degenerans renovari. usus eius in coronis nusquam, herba enim est folio angusto paene in capillamenti modum. sed vino mire congruit, praecipue dulci, tritum ad theatra replenda. floret vergiliarum occasu paucis diebus, folioque florem expellit.1 viret bruma et colligitur. siccatur umbra, melius etiam hiberna. carnosa et illi radix vivaciorque quam ceteris. gaudet calcari et adteri, pereundoque melius provenit. ideo iuxta semitas ac fontes laetissimum. Troianis temporibus iam erat honos ei. hos certe flores Homerus tris laudat, loton, crocum, hyacinthum.

Wild saffron is better than any other. To grow it in Italy is most unprofitable, as a whole bed of saffron yields only a scruple of the essence. It is propagated from a bulb of the root. The cultivated saffron is broader, larger and more handsome, but much less potent; it is degenerating everywhere, and is not prolific even at Cyrene, where grows a saffron whose flowers have always been very famous. But the prime favourite is that of Cilicia, and in particular of Mount Corycus, then that of Mount Olympus in Lycia, and then that of Centuripa in Sicily. Some have given second place to the saffron of Thera. Nothing is adulterated as much as saffron. A test of purity is whether under the pressure of the hand it crackles as though brittle; for moist saffron, as saffron is when adulterated, makes no noise. Another test is whether it stings slightly the face and eyes if after the above test you bring the hand back to the face. There is a kind of cultivated saffron which is for its own sake very attractive to the general public, though it really is of moderate value, called dialeucon. That of Cyrene, on the other hand, has the defect of being darker than any other kind, and loses its quality very rapidly. The best everywhere is that having a very rich nature, and a short pistil; the very worst has an odour of decay. Mucianus is our authority for stating that in Lycia after six or seven years it is transplanted to a well-dug bed; in this way it recovers from its degeneration. It is nowhere used for chaplets, the plant having a leaf that is but little broader than the fibre.d But with wine, especially with sweet wine, powdered saffron makes a wonderful mixture to spray the theatre. The saffron plant flowers for only a few days at the setting of the Pleiades [Theophrastus has (H.P. VI. 6, 10) <μετὰ> Πλειάδα γὰρ ἀνθεῖ καὶ ὀλίγας ἡμέρας· εὐθὺς δ᾿ ἅμα τῷ φύλλῳ καὶ τὸ ἄωθος ὠθεῖ. Hort translates “after the rising of the Pleiades” (i.e. May). Surely this is wrong; it is the setting of the Pleiades in November to which reference is made. But Pliny mistranslates εὐθὺς δὲ κ. τ. λ., which means that the flower springs up at the same time as the leaf], and pushes off the flower with its leaves. It is green at the winter solstice, when it is gathered. It is dried in the shade; if in winter, so much the better. The root also is fleshy and longer-lived than that of any other plant. Saffron likes to be trodden on and trampled under foot; destroying it makes it grow better. For this reason it is most luxuriant near foot-paths and fountains. Already at the time of the Trojan war it was held in high esteem. Homer, at any rate, praises three flowers—lotus, saffron and hyacinth [Iliad XIV. 348].

crocus

thus Crocus, a lovesick suitor, and smilax, after the maid he pined for…

saphran

Pour saphran (crocus) voir Textor, Officina, d’apres Ovide, Metam, IV 283.

Saphran

Crocus, amoureux d’une fillette, fut métamorphosé en safran (Ovide, Métamorphoses, IV, v. 283).

saffron

saffron. [adopted from French safran (12th c. in Hatzfeld and Darmesteter, Dictionnaire général de la langue française) The ultimate source is Arabic zafaran (adopted unchanged in Turkish, Persian, and Hindustani); also Jewish Aramaic za perana). The Arabic word with prefixed definite article, azzafaran, is represented by Spanish azafran, the word without this prefix gives rise to Ital. zafferano, zaffrone, Provençal safran, safrá, French safran, medieval Latin safranum, medieval Greek zafraj, modern Greek safrani, Russian shafran. The origin of Arabic zafaran is unknown; it is not connected with çafra fem. of açfar yellow. The Turkish synonym çafran (Zenker; given in Redh.-Wells only as an incorrect pronunciation) may however be derived from this adj., and may be the source of some of the European forms.]

An orange-red product consisting of the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus. Now used chiefly for colouring confectionery, liquors, etc., and for flavouring; formerly extensively used in medicine as a cordial and sudorific.

Notes

Narciscus

Narcissus

Narcissus, probably about 1500.
In Greek mythology, Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. It is unusual for him to be given modern dress and for the pool to be a raised basin. The painting may be a poetic portrait and the pool an afterthought. 
The type of effeminate male beauty, the loose curls and the distant lake are all derived from the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio was Leonardo’s main pupil in Milan.

Narcissus poeticus

Narcissus poeticus L.

Narcisse

He [Tiresias], famed far and near through all the Boeotian towns, gave answers that none could censure to those who sought his aid. The first to make trial of his truth and assured utterances was the nymph, Liriope, whom once the river-god, Cephisus, embraced in his winding stream and ravished, while imprisoned in his waters. When her time came the beauteous nymph brought forth a child, whom a nymph might love even as a child, and named him Narcissus. When asked whether this child would live to reach well-ripened age, the seer replied: “If he ne’er know himself.” Long did the saying of the prophet seem but empty words. But what befell proved its truth—the event, the manner of his death, the strangeness of his infatuation. For Narcissus had reached his sixteenth year and might seem either boy or man. Many youths and many maidens sought his love; but in that slender form was pride so cold that no youth, no maiden touched his heart. Once as he was driving the frightened deer into his nets, a certain nymph of strange speech beheld him, resounding Echo, who could neither hold her peace when others spoke, nor yet begin to speak till others had addressed her.

Up to this time Echo had form and was not a voice alone; and yet, though talkative, she had no other use of speech than now—only the power out of many words to repeat the last she heard. Juno had made her thus; for often when she might have surprised the nymphs in company with her lord upon the mountain-sides, Echo would cunningly hold the goddess in long talk until the nymphs were fled. When Saturnia realized this, she said to her: “That tongue of thine, by which I have been tricked, shall have its power curtailed and enjoy the briefest use of speech.” The event confirmed her threat. She merely repeats the concluding phrases of a speech and returns the words she hears. Now when she saw Narcissus wandering through the fields, she was inflamed with love and followed him by stealth; and the more she followed, the more she burned by a nearer flame; as when quick-burning sulphur, smeared round the tops of torches, catches fire from another fire brought near. Oh, how often does she long to approach him with alluring words and make soft prayers to him! But her nature forbids this, nor does it permit her to begin; but as it allows, she is ready to await the sounds to which she may give back her own words. By chance the boy, separated from his faithful companions, had cried: “Is anyone here?” and “Here!” cried Echo back. Amazed, he looks around in all directions and with loud voice cries “Come!”; and “Come!” she calls him calling. He looks behind him and, seeing no one coming, calls again: “Why do you run from me?” and hears in answer his own words again. He stands still, deceived by the answering voice, and “Here let us meet,” he cries. Echo, never to answer other sound more gladly, cries: “Let us meet”; and to help her own words she comes forth from the woods that she may throw her arms around the neck she longs to clasp. But he flees at her approach and, fleeing, says: “Hands off! embrace me not! May I die before I give you power o’er me!” “I give you power o’er me!” she says, and nothing more. Thus spurned, she lurks in the woods, hides her shamed face among the foliage, and lives from that time on in lonely caves. But still, though spurned, her love remains and grows on grief; her sleepless cares waste away her wretched form; she becomes gaunt and wrinkled and all moisture fades from her body into the air. Only her voice and her bones remain: then, only voice; for they say that her bones were turned to stone. She hides in woods and is seen no more upon the mountain-sides; but all may hear her, for voice, and voice alone, still lives in her.

Thus had Narcissus mocked her, thus had he mocked other nymphs of the waves or mountains; thus had he mocked the companies of men. At last one of these scorned youth, lifting up his hands to heaven, prayed: “So may he himself love, and not gain the thing he loves!” The goddess, Nemesis, heard his righteous prayer. There was a clear pool with silvery bright water, to which no shepherds ever came, or she-goats feeding on the mountainside, or any other cattle; whose smooth surface neither bird nor beast nor falling bough ever ruffled. Grass grew all around its edge, fed by the water near, and a coppice that would never suffer the sun to warm the spot. Here the youth, worn by the chase and the heat, lies down, attracted thither by the appearance of the place and by the spring. While he seeks to slake his thirst another thirst springs up, and while he drinks he is smitten by the sight of the beautiful form he sees. He loves an unsubstantial hope and thinks that substance which is only shadow. He looks in speechless wonder at himself and hangs there motionless in the same expression, like a statue carved from Parian marble. Prone on the ground, he gazes at his eyes, twin stars, and his locks, worthy of Bacchus, worthy of Apollo; on his smooth cheeks, his ivory neck, the glorious beauty of his face, the blush mingled with snowy white: all things, in short, he admires for which he is himself admired. Unwittingly he desires himself; he praises, and is himself what he praises; and while he seeks, is sought; equally he kindles love and burns with love. How often did he offer vain kisses on the elusive pool? How often did he plunge his arms into the water seeking to clasp the neck he sees there, but did not clasp himself in them! What he sees he knows not; but that which he sees he burns for, and the same delusion mocks and allures his eyes. O fondly foolish boy, why vainly seek to clasp a fleeting image? What you seek is nowhere; but turn yourself away, and the object of your love will be no more. That which you behold is but the shadow of a reflected form and has no substance of its own. With you it comes, with you it stays, and it will go with you—if you can go.

No thought of food or rest can draw him from the spot; but, stretched on the shaded grass, he gazes on that false image with eyes that cannot look their fill and through his own eyes perishes. Raising himself a little, and stretching his arms to the trees, he cries: “Did anyone, O ye woods, ever love more cruelly than I? You know, for you have been the convenient haunts of many lovers. Do you in the ages past, for your life is one of centuries, remember anyone who has pined away like this? I am charmed, and I see; but what I see and what charms me I cannot find”—so serious is the lover’s delusion—“and, to make me grieve the more, no mighty ocean separates us, no long road, no mountain ranges, no city walls with close-shut gates; by a thin barrier of water we are kept apart. He himself is eager to be embraced. For, often as I stretch my lips towards the lucent wave, so often with upturned face he strives to lift his lips to mine. You would think he could be touched—so small a thing it is that separates our loving hearts. Whoever you are, come forth hither! Why, O peerless youth, do you elude me? or whither do you go when I strive to reach you? Surely my form and age are not such that you should shun them, and me too the nymphs have loved. Some ground for hope you offer with your friendly looks, and when I have stretched out my arms to you, you stretch yours too. When I have smiled, you smile back; and I have often seen tears, when I weep, on your cheeks. My becks you answer with your nod; and, as I suspect from the movement of your sweet lips, you answer my words as well, but words which do not reach my ears.—Oh, I am he! I have felt it, I know now my own image. I burn with love of my own self; I both kindle the flames and suffer them. What shall I do? Shall I be wooed or woo? Why woo at all? What I desire, I have; the very abundance of my riches beggars me. Oh, that I might be parted from my own body! and, strange prayer for a lover, I would that what I love were absent from me! And now grief is sapping my strength; but a brief space of life remains to me and I am cut off in my life’s prime. Death is nothing to me, for in death I shall leave my troubles; I would he that is loved might live longer; but as it is, we two shall die together in one breath.”

He spoke and, half distraught, turned again to the same image. His tears ruffled the water, and dimly the image came back from the troubled pool. As he saw it thus depart, he cried: “Oh, whither do you flee? Stay here, and desert not him who loves thee, cruel one! Still may it be mine to gaze on what I may not touch, and by that gaze feed my unhappy passion.” While he thus grieves, he plucks away his tunic at its upper fold and beats his bare breast with pallid hands. His breast when it is struck takes on a delicate glow; just as apples sometimes, though white in part, flush red in other part, or as grapes hanging in clusters take on a purple hue when not yet ripe. As soon as he sees this, when the water has become clear again, he can bear no more; but, as the yellow wax melts before a gentle heat, as hoar frost melts before the warm morning sun, so does he, wasted with love, pine away, and is slowly consumed by its hidden fire. No longer has he that ruddy colour mingling with the white, no longer that strength and vigour, and all that lately was so pleasing to behold; scarce does his form remain which once Echo had loved so well. But when she saw it, though still angry and unforgetful, she felt pity; and as often as the poor boy says “Alas!” again with answering utterance she cries “Alas!” and as his hands beat his shoulders she gives back the same sounds of woe. His last words as he gazed into the familiar spring were these: “Alas, dear boy, vainly beloved!” and the place gave back his words. And when he said “Farewell!” “Farewell!” said Echo too. He drooped his weary head on the green grass and death sealed the eyes that marvelled at their master’s beauty. And even when he had been received into the infernal abodes, he kept on gazing on his image in the Stygian pool. His naiad-sisters beat their breasts and shore their locks in sign of grief for their dear brother; the dryads, too, lamented, and Echo gave back their sounds of woe. And now they were preparing the funeral pile, the brandished torches and the bier; but his body was nowhere to be found. In place of his body they find a flower, its yellow centre girt with white petals.

When this story was noised abroad it spread the well-deserved fame of the seer throughout the cities of Greece, and great was the name of Tiresias.

Narcissus

Sunt et purpurea lilia, aliquando gemino caule, carnosiore tantum radice maiorisque bulbi, sed unius, narcissum vocant. huius alterum genus flore candido, calice purpureo. differentia a liliis est et haec, quod narcissis in radice folia sunt, probatissimis in Lyciae montibus. tertio generi cetera eadem, calix herbaceus. omnes serotini, post arcturum enim florent ac per aequinoctium autumnum.

There is also a bright-red lily, having sometimes a double stem, and differing from other lilies only in having a fleshier root and a larger bulb, and that undivided. It is called the narcissus. Another variety of it has a white flower and a reddish bud. There is this further difference between the ordinary lily and the narcissus, that the leaves of the latter grow straight out of the root. The most popular sort is found on the mountains of Lycia. A third kind has all its characteristics the same as those of the other kinds, except that the cup is light green. All the narcissi blossom late, for the flower comes after the rising of Arcturusf and during the autumnal equinox.

Narcissus

Ovid Met. iii. 339-510

Narcisse

Narcisse, fils du fleuve Céphisae et de Liriope, fille de l’Océan, méprisa les nymphes séduites par sa beauté et laissa mourir la nymphe Écho sans daignes répondre à ses vœux. S’étant miré dans une source, il devint si épris de lui-même qu’il en sécha de langueur. Les dieux le changèrent en fleuve, et une fleur perpétua sa mémoire (Ovide, Mét., III, 341 et sqq.) Pline (XXI, 12) décrit, sous le nom de Iis purpurins, trois espèces de narcisse. Le narcisse des Anciens est probablement Narcissus poeticus, L., de l’Europe méridionale (Amaryllacée). (Paul Delaunay)

narcissus

thus narcissus, after him who allowed the nymph Echo to die of unrequited love and, seeing his own reflection in a pool, pined away for love of self until the gods, pitying him, turned him into a river, and fashioned a flower to perpetuate his name.

Narcisse

Ovide, Métamorphoses, III, v. 341.

narcissus

narcissus. [adopted from Latin narcissus (Virgil, etc.), adaptation of Greek narkissoj, according to Pliny and Plutarch formed on narkh numbness, in reference to the heavy or narcotic effects produced by it.]

A genus of the order Amaryllidaceæ, containing many species; a plant of this genus; now esp. Narcissus poeticus, a bulbous plant, flowering in spring and bearing a heavily scented single white flower with an undivided corona edged with crimson and yellow.

Notes

Mirtus

myrtus

Myrtus communis

myrtle

298. “Cinyras was her [Paphos’] son and, had he been without offspring, might have been counted fortunate. A horrible tale I have to tell. Far hence be daughters, far hence, fathers; or, if your minds find pleasure in my songs, do not give credence to this story, and believe that it never happened; or, if you do believe it, believe also in the punishment of the deed. If, however, nature allows a crime like this to show itself, [I congratulate the Ismarian people, and this our city;] I congratulate this land on being far away from those regions where such iniquity is possible. Let the land of Panchaia be rich in balsam, let it bear its cinnamon, its costum, its frankincense exuding from the trees, its flowers of many sorts, provided it bear its myrrh-tree, too: a new tree was not worth so great a price. Cupid himself avers that his weapons did not harm you, Myrrha, and clears his torches from that crime of yours. One of the three sisters with firebrand from the Styx and with swollen vipers blasted you. ’Tis a crime to hate one’s father, but such love as this is a greater crime than hate. …

331. yet they say that there are tribes among whom mother and son, daughter with father mates, and natural love is increased by the double bond. Oh, wretched me, that it was not my lot to be born there, and that I am thwarted by the mere accident of place!

470. “Forth from the chamber she went, full of her father, with crime conceived within her womb. The next night repeated their guilt, nor was that the end. At length Cinyras, eager to recognize his mistress after so many meetings, brought in a light and beheld his crime and his daughter. Speechless with woe, he snatched his bright sword from the sheath which hung near by. Myrrha fled and escaped death by grace of the shades of the dark night. Groping her way through the broad fields, she left palm-bearing Arabia and the Panchaean country; then, after nine months of wandering, in utter weariness she rested at last in the Sabaean land. And now she could scarce bear the burden of her womb. Not knowing what to pray for, and in a strait betwixt fear of death and weariness of life, she summed up her wishes in this prayer: ‘O gods, if any there be who will listen to my prayer, I do not refuse the dire punishment I have deserved; but lest, surviving, I offend the living, and, dying, I offend the dead, drive me from both realms; change me and refuse me both life and death!’ Some god did listen to her prayer; her last petition had its answering gods. For even as she spoke the earth closed over her legs; roots burst forth from her toes and stretched out on either side the supports of the high trunk; her bones gained strength, and, while the central pith remained the same, her blood changed to sap, her arms to long branches, her fingers to twigs, her skin to hard bark. And now the growing tree had closely bound her heavy womb, had buried her breast and was just covering her neck; but she could not endure the delay and, meeting the rising wood, she sank down and plunged her face in the bark. Though she has lost her old-time feelings with her body, still she weeps, and the warm drops trickle down from the tree. Even her tears have honour: and the myrrh which distils from the bark preserves the name of its mistress and will be remembered through all the ages

Myrrh

Smith translates as “Myrrh, from Myrsine” and cites Ovid Met. x. 298-514.

myrte, de myrsine

Le Myrtus des Anciens est notre M. communis L. (Myrtacée.) — M. Sainéan (H.N.R., 120) pense que cette Myrsine est Myrrha fille de Cinyre, roi de Chypre (Ovide, Mét., X, 298 et sqq.) qui fut changée en un arbre à myrrhe, que Rableais aurait confondu avec le myrte. (Paul Delaunay)

myrtle

Thus myrtle and myrrh tree after Myrsina or Myrrha, who was so changed because of her incestuous love of Cyniras, King of Cyprus, her father…

myrte, de Myrsine

Le myrtus est consacré à Vénus non pas à Myrsine. R. pense-t-il à Myrrha, métamorphosée en arbre à myrrhe? (EC).

Myrte

Confusion possible entre le myrte, consacré à Vénus et l’arbre à myrrhe.

Myrte

Le myrte est appelé en grec μνφτίνη et μνφφΐνη, à cause de Myrsine, jeune Athénienne, renommée pour sa beauté et sa force, et tuée par un jeune homme qu’elle avai devancé à la lutte et à la course. La légende est rapportée par les glossateurs de Dioscorides (I, corol. 157); voir Œuvres complètes, éd. Demerson, n. 34, p. 537.

myrtle

myrtle. Forms: mirtille, -ylle, mirt-, myrtel(l, -ylle, mirtle, mertle, mert-, mirt-, myrtil(l, myrtle. [adopted from Old French mirt-, myrtille, myrtle-berry, adaptation of popular Latin myrtilla, –us, diminutive of Latin myrta, myrtus myrt.]

The fruit or berry of the myrtle tree. Obsolete

A plant of the genus Myrtus (N.O. Myrtaceæ), esp. M. communis, the Common Myrtle, a shrub growing abundantly in Southern Europe, having shiny evergreen leaves and white sweet-scented flowers, and now used chiefly in perfumery. The myrtle was held sacred to Venus and is used as an emblem of love.

Myrrha

Myrrha (Greek: Μύρρα, Mýrra), also known as Smyrna (Greek: Σμύρνα, Smýrna), is the mother of Adonis in Greek mythology. She was transformed into a myrrh tree after having had intercourse with her father and given birth to Adonis as a tree. Although the tale of Adonis has Semitic roots, it is uncertain from where the myth of Myrrha emerged, though it was likely from Cyprus.

The myth details the incestuous relationship between Myrrha and her father, Cinyras. Myrrha falls in love with her father and tricks him into sexual intercourse. After discovering her identity, Cinyras draws his sword and pursues Myrrha. She flees across Arabia and, after nine months, turns to the gods for help. They take pity on her and transform her into a myrrh tree. While in plant form, Myrrha gives birth to Adonis. According to legend, the aromatic exudings of the myrrh tree are Myrrha’s tears.

Myrtus

Myrtus, with the common name myrtle, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae, described by Swedish botanist Linnaeus in 1753.

Over 600 names have been proposed in the genus, but nearly all have either been moved to other genera or been regarded as synonyms. The genus Myrtus has three species recognised today, including Myrtus communis, the “common myrtle”, is native across the Mediterranean region, Macaronesia, western Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. It is also cultivated.

The plant is an evergreen shrub or small tree, growing to 5 metres (16 ft) tall. The leaf is entire, 3–5 cm long, with a fragrant essential oil.

In Greek mythology and ritual the myrtle was sacred to the goddesses Aphrodite and also Demeter: Artemidorus asserts that in interpreting dreams “a myrtle garland signifies the same as an olive garland, except that it is especially auspicious for farmers because of Demeter and for women because of Aphrodite. For the plant is sacred to both goddesses. Pausanias explains that one of the Graces in the sanctuary at Elis holds a myrtle branch because “the rose and the myrtle are sacred to Aphrodite and connected with the story of Adonis, while the Graces are of all deities the nearest related to Aphrodite.” Myrtle is the garland of Iacchus, according to Aristophanes, and of the victors at the Theban Iolaea, held in honour of the Theban hero Iolaus.

In Rome, Virgil explains that “the poplar is most dear to Alcides, the vine to Bacchus, the myrtle to lovely Venus, and his own laurel to Phoebus.”At the Veneralia, women bathed wearing crowns woven of myrtle branches, and myrtle was used in wedding rituals. In the Aeneid, myrtle marks the grave of the murdered Polydorus in Thrace. Aeneus’ attempts to uproot the shrub cause the ground to bleed, and the voice of his dead brother warns him to leave. The spears which impaled Polydorus have been magically transformed into the myrtle which marks his grave

Myrrh

Myrrh (from Aramaic) is a natural gum or resin extracted from a number of small, thorny tree species of the genus Commiphora. Myrrh resin has been used throughout history as a perfume, incense, and medicine. Myrrh mixed with wine was common across ancient cultures, for general pleasure and as an analgesic.

The word myrrh corresponds with a common Semitic root m-r-r meaning “bitter”, as in Aramaic ܡܪܝܪܐ murr and Arabic مُرّ murr. Its name entered the English language from the Hebrew Bible, where it is called מור mor, and later as a Semitic loanword was used in the Greek myth of Myrrha, and later in the Septuagint; in the Ancient Greek language, the related word μῠ́ρον (múron) became a general term for perfume.

Neptune

Neptune. [adopted from French Neptune, or adaptation of Latin Neptunus.]

In Roman religion and mythology, the god of the sea, corresponding to the Greek Poseidon; also in transferred sense, the sea or ocean.

mithridate

mithridate [adopted from medieval Latin mithridatum, altered from late Latin mithridatium, pertaining to Mithridates, formed on Latin Mithrad¯tes, Greek Miqri-, Miqrada¯´thj. Cf. Old French metridat (modern French mithridate).]

Old Pharmacy. A composition of many ingredients in the form of an electuary, regarded as a universal antidote or preservative against poison and infectious disease. Hence, any medicine to which similar powers were ascribed. So called from Mithridates VI, king of Pontus (died c 63 b.c.), who was said to have rendered himself proof against poisons by the constant use of antidotes.

mithridatic

mithridatic. Of or pertaining to Mithridates VI, king of Pontus. Mithridatic wars, the wars waged by Rome against this king.

Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of mithridate. Resembling Mithridates or his alleged immunity from poisons. Pertaining to or of the nature of mithridatism.

mithridatism

mithridatism. The condition of immunity to a poison induced by administering to an organism gradually increased doses of it.

mithridatize

mithridatize. To render immune or proof against a poison by the administration of gradually increasing doses of it.

Notes

Artemisia

Mausolus

Colossal statue of a man, traditionnally identified with Maussollos, king of Caria, ca. 350 BC, from the north side of the Mausoleum, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, British Museum

The story of Artemisia

Book 10, Chapter 18.  Artemisia is said to have loved her husband with a love surpassing all the tales of passion and beyond one’s conception of human affection. Now Mausolus, as Marcus Tullius tells us [Tusc. Disp. iii. 75], was king of the land of Caria; according to some Greek historians he was governor of a province, the official whom the Greeks term a satrap. When this Mausolus had met his end amid the lamentations and in the arms of his wife [in 353 BC], and had been buried with a magnificent funeral, Artemisia, inflamed with grief and with longing for her spouse, mingled his bones and ashes with spices, ground them into the form of a powder, put them in water, and drank them; and she is said to have given many other proofs of the violence of her passion. For perpetuating the memory of her husband, she also erected, with great expenditure of labour, that highly celebrated tomb¹, among the seven wonders of the world.²

1. The famous Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, adorned by Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus and Leochares with sculptures, the remains of which are now in the British Museum. It was a square building, 140 feet high, surrounded by Ionic columns. It stood upon a lofty base and was surmounted by a pyramid of steps ending in a platform, on which was a fourhorse chariot. The term mausoleum was applied by the Romans to large and magnificent tombs such as the mausoleum of Augustus and that of Hadrian.

2. The other six “wonders” were: The walls and hanging gardens of Babylon; the temple of Diana at Ephesus; the statue of Olympian Zeus by Phidias; the Pyramids; and the Pharos, or lighthouse, at Alexandria.

Artemisia

Voiez Aulu-Gelle, l. 10 chap 18.

Artemisia

See Aulus Gellius, l. x. c. xviii.

Artemisia

Aul. Gell x. 13, § 3.

Artemisia

Ce trait est rapporté par Aulu-Gelle, X, 18; mais Rabelais y ajoute, de son cru, le vin blanc: «Artemisia…, ossa cineremque ejus mixta odoribus contusaque in faciem pulveris, aquæ indidit, ebibitque».

Mausolus

Artemisia, widow of Mausolus, King of Caria, drank his ashes in water; and the tomb she built for him — the Mausoleum — was one of the seven wonders of the world!

Artemisia

Aulu-Gelle, X, 18 (LD)

Artemisia

Selon Aulu-Gelle, Nuits attiques, X, xviii, Artémise but les cendres de son mari dans l’eau.

Artemisia

D’après Aulu-Gelle, X, 18. C’est Rabelais qui ajoute du vin blanc à la recette.

mausoleum

mausoleum [adopted from Latin mausoleum, adaptation of Greek mauswleion, formed on Mauswloj Mausolus.]

The magnificent tomb of Mausolus, King of Caria, erected in the middle of the 4th century b.c. at Halicarnassus by his queen Artemisia, and accounted one of the seven wonders of the world.

Artemisia

Artemisia [Latin, adopted from Greek artemisia, formed on Artemij the goddess Diana.]

A genus of plants (N.O. Compositæ), distinguished by a peculiarly bitter or aromatic taste, including the Common Wormwood, Mugwort, and Southernwood.

Artemisia I of Caria

Artemisia I of Caria (fl. 480 BC) was a Greek queen of the ancient Greek city-state of Halicarnassus and of the nearby islands of Kos, Nisyros and Kalymnos, within the Achaemenid satrapy of Caria, in about 480 BC. She fought as an ally of Xerxes I, King of Persia against the independent Greek city states during the second Persian invasion of Greece.[3] She personally commanded her contribution of five ships at the naval battle of Artemisium and in the naval Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. She is mostly known through the writings of Herodotus, himself a native of Halicarnassus, who praises her courage and the respect in which Xerxes held her.

Another Artemisia also is well-known, Artemisia II of Caria, satrap of Caria and builder of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in the 4th century BC.

Artemisia II of Caria

Artemisia II of Caria (Greek: Ἀρτεμισία; died 350 BC) was a naval strategist, commander and the sister (and later spouse) and the successor of Mausolus, ruler of Caria. Mausolus was a satrap of the Achaemenid Empire, yet enjoyed the status of king or dynast of the Hecatomnid dynasty. After the death of her brother/husband, Artemisia reigned for two years, from 353 to 351 BCE. Her ascension to the throne prompted a revolt in some of the island and coastal cities under her command due to their objection to a female ruler. Her administration was conducted on the same principles as that of her husband; in particular, she supported the oligarchical party on the island of Rhodes.

Because of Artemisia’s grief for her brother-husband, and the extravagant and bizarre forms it took, she became to later ages “a lasting example of chaste widowhood and of the purest and rarest kind of love”, in the words of Giovanni Boccaccio. In art, she was usually shown in the process of consuming his ashes, mixed in a drink.

Boccaccio, Giovanni (2003). Chapter 57. De mulieribus claris [On Famous Women]. Translated by Brown, Virginia. Harvard University Press. pp. 115–118.

Notes

Malva

Malva

Althaea

Malva

Taxon: Malva sylvestris L.
English: common mallow

malva

Definitions of the various classes into which plants may be divided.
III. Now since our study becomes more illuminating if we distinguish different kinds, it is well to follow this plan where it is possible. The first and most important classes, those which comprise all or nearly all plants, are tree, shrub, under-shrub, herb.
A tree is a thing which springs from the root with a single stem, having knots and several branches, and it cannot easily be uprooted; for instance, olive fig vine. A shrub is a thing which rises from the root with many branches; for instance, bramble Christ’s thorn. An under-shrub is a thing which rises from the root with many stems as well as many branches; for instance, savory rue, A herb is a thing which comes up from the root with its leaves and has no main stem, and the seed is borne on the stem; for instance, corn and pot-herbs.
These definitions however must be taken and accepted as applying generally and on the whole. For in the case of some plants it might seem that our definitions overlap; and some under cultivation appear to become different and depart from their essential nature, for instance, mallow3 when it grows tall and becomes tree-like. For this comes to pass in no long time, not more than six or seven months, so that in length and thickness the plant becomes as great as a spear, and men accordingly use it as a walking-stick, and after a longer period the result of cultivation is proportionately greater.

malva

E contrario in magnis laudibus malva est utraque et sativa et silvestris. duo genera earum amplitudine folii discernuntur. maiorem Graeci malopen vocant in sativis, alteram ab emolliendo ventre dictam putant malachen. at e silvestribus, cui grande folium et radices albae, althaea vocatur, ab excellentia effectus a quibusdam plistolochia. omne solum in quo seruntur pinguius faciunt, contra omnes aculeatos ictus efficaces, praecipue scorpionum, vesparum similiumque et muris aranei. quin et trita cum oleo qualibet earum peruncti ante vel habentes eas non feriuntur. folium inpositum scorpionibus torporem adfert. valent et contra psimithi venena. aculeos omnes extrahunt inlitae crudae cum aphronitro, potae vero decoctae cum radice sua leporis marini venenum restingunt, ut quidam dicunt, si vomatur. De iisdem mira et alia traduntur, sed maxime, si quis cotidie suci ex qualibet earum sorbeat cyathum dimidium, omnibus morbis cariturum. ulcera manantia in capite sanant in urina putrefactae, lichenas et ulcera oris cum melle, radix decocta furfures capitis et dentium mobilitatem. eius quae unum caulem habet radice circa dentem qui doleat pungunt, donec desinat dolor. eadem strumas et parotidas, panos addita hominis saliva purgat citra vulnus. semen in vino nigro potum pituita et nauseis liberat. radix mammarum vitiis occurrit adalligata in lana nigra, tussim in lacte cocta et sorbitionis modo sumpta quinis diebus emendat. stomacho inutiles Sextius Niger dicit, Olympias Thebana abortivas esse cum adipe anseris, aliqui purgari feminas foliis earum manus plenae mensura in oleo et vino sumptis. utique constat parturientes foliis substratis celerius solvi. protinus a partu revocandum, ne vulva sequatur. dant et sucum bibendum parturientibus ieiunis in vino decocta2 hemina. quin et semen adalligant bracchio genitale non continentium. adeoque veneri nascuntur, ut semen unicaulis adspersum curationi feminarum aviditates augere ad infinitum Xenocrates tradat, itemque tres radices iuxta adalligatas. tenesmo, dysintericis utilissime infundi, item sedis vitiis, vel si foveantur. melancholicis quoque sucus datur cyathis ternis tepidus, et insanientibus quaternis, decoctae comitialibus heminae suci. hic et calculosis et inflatione et torminibus aut opisthotonico laborantibus tepidus inlinitur. et sacris ignibus et ambustis decocta in oleum folia inponuntur, et ad vulnerum impetus cruda cum pane. sucus decoctae nervis prodest et vesicae et intestinorum rosionibus. vulvas et cibo et infusione emollit oleum, sucus decoctae permeatus suaves facit. althaeae in omnibus supra dictis efficacior radix, praecipue convulsis ruptisque. cocta in aqua alvum sistit, ex vino albo strumas et parotidas, et mammarum inflammationes; et panos in vino folia decocta et inlita tollunt. eadem arida in lacte decocta quamlibet perniciosae tussi citissime medentur. Hippocrates vulneratis sitientibusque defectu sanguinis radicis decoctae sucum bibendum dedit, et ipsam vulneribus cum melle et resina, item contusis, luxatis, tumentibus; et musculis, nervis, articulis inposuit ut supra; spasticis, dysintericis in vino bibendam dedit. mirum aquam radice ea addita addensari sub diu atque glaciescere. efficacior autem quo recentior.

On the other hand, both kinds of mallow, the cultivated and the wild, are highly praised. The two kinds of them are distinguished by the size of the leaf. Among cultivated mallows the larger is called by the Greeks malope; the other is called malache, the reason being, it is thought, because it relaxes the bowels. But of the wild kinds, the one with a large leaf and white roots, called althaea, has received from some the name of plistolochia, from the excellence of its properties. Mallows make richer every soil in which they are sown. They are efficacious against every sort of stings, especially those of scorpions, wasps and similar creatures, and those of the shrew-mouse. Moreover, those who have been rubbed beforehand with oil and any one of the mallows pounded, or who carry it on their persons, are never stung. A leaf placed on a scorpion paralyses it. Mallows also counteract the poison of white lead. Raw mallow applied with saltpetre extracts splinters and thorns; taken moreover boiled with its root it counteracts the poison of the sea-hare, some adding that it must be brought back by vomiting. Other marvels are reported of the mallows, the most wonderful being that whoever swallows daily half a cyathus of the juice of any one of them will be immune to all diseases. Running sores on the head are cured by mallows that have rotted in urine, lichen and sores in the mouth by them and honey, dandruff and loose teeth by a decoction of the root. With the root of the single-stem plant they stab around an aching tooth until the pain ceases; the same plant [Possibly “root,” eadem referring to radice] clears scrofula and parotid abscesses, and with the addition of human saliva superficial abscess also, and that without leaving a wound. The seed taken in dark wine clears away phlegm and nausea. The root attached as an amulet in dark wool stays troubles of the breasts; boiled in milk and taken like broth it relieves a cough in five days. Sextius Niger says that mallows are injurious to the stomach; the Theban lady Olympias that with goose-grease they cause abortion, and others that a handful of their leaves taken in oil and wine assist the menstruation of women. It is agreed at any rate that women in labour are more quickly delivered if mallow leaves are spread under them, but they must be withdrawn immediately after delivery for fear of prolapsus of the womb. They give the juice to be drunk by women in labour; they must be fasting, and the dose is a hemina boiled down in wine. Moreover, they attach the seed to the arm of sufferers from spermatorrhoea, and mallows are so aphrodisiac that Xenocrates maintains that the seeds of the single-stem mallow, sprinkled for the treatment of women, stimulate their sexual desire to an infinite degree, and that three roots attached near to the part have a like effect. He says too that injections of mallow are very good for tenesmus and dysentery, and also for rectal troubles, or fomentations may be used. The juice is also given warm in doses of three cyathi to sufferers from melancholia, and in doses of four to those who are raving; for epilepsy the dose is a hemina of the decocted juice. This juice is also applied warm to patients with stone, and to sufferers from flatulence, griping and opisthotonus. For both erysipelas and burns the leaves are applied boiled down to an oily paste, and they are applied raw with bread for painfulf wounds. The juice of a decoction is good for sinews, bladder and gnawings of the intestines. The paste soothes the womb whether taken by the mouth or injected; the decoction makes the passage pleasant. For all purposes mentioned above the root of althaea is more efficacious, especially for spasms and ruptures. Boiled in water it checks looseness of the bowels; taken in white wine it is good for scrofula, parotid abscesses and inflammation of the breasts, and an application of the leaves, boiled down in wine, removes superficial abscess. The same leaves dried and boiled down in milk cure very quickly the most racking cough. Hippocrates gave the juice of the boiled-down root to be drunk by wounded men who were thirsty through loss of blood, and applied the plant itself with honey and resin to wounds; likewise to bruises, sprains, and swellings; as above also to muscles, sinews and joints. He gave it to be taken in wine by patients suffering from cramp or dysentery. It is remarkable that water to which this root has been added thickens in the open air and congeals. The fresher it is also, the better.

mallow

Hesiod (Op. 41):

nor how great a benefit there is in mallow (malachē)
and asphodel.

Malachē is the Attic form. But, says [Athenaeus], I found the word written with an omicron in many copies of Antiphanes’ Minos (fr. 156):

eating mallow (molochē) root.

And Epicharmus (fr. 151):

I am milder than a mallow (molocha).

Mallow

Pliny xx. 21, § 84.

maulve

Malva, μαλάχη ; (μαλάσσω, j’amollis, allusion aux propriétés émollientes de la plante.). Pline décrit, XX, 84, deux espèces de mauve cultivée: malope et malache; deux espèces sauvages: major, ou althæa, ou plistolochial et minor. Malache, Μαλάχη de Théophraste (H.P., 1, 4) est, pour Sprengel, Lavatera arborea , L.; pour Fée, Malva rotundifloria, L. Malope, et Malva silvestris major aut minor est pour Fée M. silvestris, L. Quant a Μαλάχη de Dioscoride (II, 144) Sprengel y voit soit M. rotundifloria, L., soit M. mauritanica. (Paul Delaunay)

nommés pas leurs vertus et operations

Sauf pour le lichen, tous les détails sont dans De latinis nominibus («Alysson … dicitur (ut ait Galenus) quod mirifice morsus a cane rabido curet. [gk] enim rabiem significat. Ephemerium… quo die sumptum fuerit (ut nominis ipsa ratio ostendit) intermit. Bechion autem appellatum est, quod [gk], id es tusses … juvet. Nasturtium, cresson alenois … dicitur a torquendis naribus. Hyoscame, faba suis, vulgo hannebane, … dicitur … quot pastu ejus convellantur sues ». R. a mal lu ses notes, faisant de hanebanes une plante différente de l’hyoscame.

maulve

Term rattaché au grec μαλάσσω, « amollir » (Pline XX, lxxxiv).

mallow

mallow. Forms: mealuwe, malwa, mealwe, mealewe, malwe, malue, malve, maloo, malewe, mallo, malew, malowe, mallowe, mallow. [Old English mealuwe , adopted from Latin malva; probably related in some way to the synonymous Greek malaxh, moloxh, Old French malve (modern French mauve)]

A common wild plant, Malva sylvestris (N.O. Malvaceæ), having hairy stems and leaves and deeply-cleft reddish-purple flowers; it is very mucilaginous. Also called common, field, wild mallow. In extended use, any plant of the genus Malva.

Notes

Citrum

Citrum (text)

Media

A map of the Middle east, Greece and Asia minor, showing the states at the breakout of the first Mithridatic war, 89 BC.

malus medicam

And in general the lands of the East and South appear to have peculiar plants, as they have peculiar animals; for instance, Media and Persia have, among many others, that which is called the ‘Median’ or ‘Persian apple’ (citron). This tree has a leaf like to and almost identical with that of the andrachne, but it has thorns like those of the pear or white-thorn, which however are smooth and very sharp and strong. The ‘apple’ is not eaten, but it is very fragrant, as also is the leaf of the tree. And if the ‘apple’ is placed among clothes, it keeps them from being moth-eaten. It is also useful when one has drunk deadly poison; for being given in wine it upsets the stomach and brings up the poison; also for producing sweetness of breath; for, if one boils the inner part of the ‘apple’ in a sauce, or squeezes it into the mouth in some other medium, and then inhales it, it makes the breath sweet. The seed is taken from the fruit and sown in spring in carefully tilled beds, and is then watered every fourth or fifth day. And, when it is growing vigorously, it is transplanted, also in spring, to a soft well-watered place, where the soil is not too fine; for such places it loves. And it bears its ‘apples’ at all seasons; for when some have been gathered, the flower of others is on the tree and it is ripening others. Of the flowers, as we have said, those which have, as it were, a distaff projecting in the middle are fertile, while those that have it not are infertile. It is also sown, like date-palms, in pots with a hole in them. This tree, as has been said, grows in Persia and Media.

pommes medices

Malorum plura sunt genera. de citreis cum sua arbore diximus, Medica autem Graeci vocant patriae nomine.

Of the apple class there are a number of varieties. We have spoken of citrons when describing the citron-tree; the Greeks, however, call them ‘Medic apples,’ after their native country.

Median apple

Malus Assyria, quam alii vocant, venenis medetur. folium eius est unedonis intercurrentibus spinis. pomum ipsum alias non manditur, odore praecellit foliorum quoque, qui transit in vestes una conditas1 arcetque animalium noxia. arbor ipsa omnibus horis pomifera est, aliis cadentibus, aliis maturescentibus, aliis vero subnascentibus. temptavere gentes transferre ad sese propter remedii praestantiam fictilibus in vasis, dato per cavernas radicibus spiramento (qualiter omnia transitura longius seri artissime transferrique meminisse conveniet, ut semel quaeque dicantur); sed nisi apud Medos et in Perside nasci noluit. hoc est cuius grana Parthorum proceres incoquere diximus esculentis commendandi halitus gratia. nec alia arbor laudatur in Medis.

The citron or Assyrian apple, called by others the Median apple, is an antidote against poisons. It has the leaves of the strawberry-tree, but with prickles running among them. For the rest, the actual fruit is not eaten, but it has an exceptionally strong scent, which belongs also to the leaves, and which penetrates garments stored with them and keeps off injurious insects. The tree itself bears fruit at all seasons, some of the apples falling while others are ripening and others just forming. Because of its great medicinal value various nations have tried to acclimatize it in their own countries, importing it in earthenware pots provided with breathing holes for the roots (and similarly, as it will be convenient to record here so that each of my points may be mentioned only once, all plants that are to travel a specially long distance are planted as tightly as possible for transport); but it has refused to grow except in Media and Persia. It is this fruit the pips of which, as we have mentioned, the Parthian
XII. 278.
grandees have cooked with their viands for the sake of sweetening their breath. And among the Medes no other tree is highly commended.

Poncire

Poncire: A Pome-Citron.

Median Apples

Pome citrons.

Median apples

Pliny xv. 14, § 14.

pommes medices

Malum medicum (Théophr. H.P., I, 22) « Malus assyria quam alii vocant Medicam », Pline, XII, 7. « Medica [mala] autem Græci vocant [citreos] patriæ nomine. » Pline, XV, 14.

poncires

Poncires, poncières (Belon). « Limones et quos poncerias appellant. » (Bruyerin Champier). Pomsires (pommes de Syrie) dans le Midi. — Fruit d’une Autantiacée, Citrus medica, L., citronnier. Les Grecs connurent ce fruit par les Médes, d’où son nom.

median apples

lemons

pomme Medice

Pline, XV, xiv.

Median

Median. Of or belonging to the ancient kingdom of Media, or the Medes.

Pome-citron

Latin malus citreum = citron

Media (region)

Media (Old Persian: Māda, Middle Persian: Mād) is a region of north-western Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Medes. During the Achaemenid period, it comprised present-day Azarbaijan, Iranian Kurdistan and western Tabaristan. As a satrapy under Achaemenid rule, it would eventually encompass a wider region, stretching to southern Dagestan in the north. However, after the wars of Alexander the Great, the northern parts were separated due to the Partition of Babylon and became known as Atropatene, while the remaining region became known as Lesser Media

Notes

Mercuralis

mercurialis

Mercurialis mas
Bingelkraut mennle

mercuriale

Linozostis sive parthenion Mercurii inventum est. ideo apud Graecos Hermu poan multi vocant eam, apud nos omnes mercurialem. duo eius genera: masculus et femina, quae efficacior. caule est1 cubitali, interdum ramoso in cacumine, ocimo angustioribus foliis, geniculis densis, alarum cavis multis, semine in geniculis dependente feminae copioso, mari iuxta genicula stante rariore ac brevi contortoque, feminae soluto et candido. folia maribus nigriora, feminis candidiora, radix supervacua, praetenuis. nascuntur in campestribus cultis. mirumque est quod de utroque eorum genere proditur: ut mares gignantur hunc facere, ut feminae illam. hoc contingere, si a conceptu protinus bibatur sucus in passo edanturve folia decocta ex oleo et sale, vel cruda ex aceto. quidam decocunt eam in novo fictili cum heliotropio et duabus vel tribus spicis, donec cogatur. decoctum dari iubent et herbam ipsam in cibo altero die purgationis mulieribus per triduum, quarto die a balineo coire eas. Hippocrates miris laudibus in mulierum usum praedicavit has; ad hunc modum medicorum nemo novit. ille eas volvae cum melle vel rosaceo vel irino vel lilino admovit, item ad ciendos menses secundasque. idem praestare potu fotuque dixit. instillavit auribus olidis sucum. suco inunxit cum vino vetere alvum. folia inposuit epiphoris. stranguriae et vesicis decoctum eius dedit cum murra et ture. alvo quidem solvendae vel in febri decoquatur quantum manus capiat in duobus sextariis aquae ad dimidias. bibitur sale et melle admixto nec non cum ungula suis aut gallinaceo decocta salubrius. purgationis causa putavere aliqui utramque dandam per se sive cum malva decoctam. thoracem purgant, bilem detrahunt, sed stomachum laedunt. reliquos usus dicemus suis locis.

Linozostis or parthenion was discovered by Mercury, and so many among the Greeks call it “Hermes’ grass”, but all we Romans agree in calling it mercurialis. There are two kinds of it, the male and the female, the latter having the more powerful properties. It has a stem which is a cubit high and sometimes branchy at the top, leaves narrower than those of ocimum, joints close together and many hollow axils. The seed of the female hangs down in great quantity at the joints; while that of the male stands up near the joints, less plentiful, short and twisted; the female seed is loose and white. The leaves of the male plant are darker, those of the female lighter; the root is quite useless and very slender. It grows in flat, cultivated country. A remarkable thing is recorded of both kinds: that the male plant causes the generation of males and the female plant the generation of females. This is effected if immediately after conceiving the woman drinks the juice in raisin wine, or eats the leaves decocted in oil and salt, or raw in vinegar. Some again decoct it in a new earthen vessel with heliotropium and two or three ears of corn until the contents become thick. They recommend the decoction to be given to women in food, with the plant itself, on the second day of menstruation for three successive days; on the fourth day after a bath intercourse is to take place. Hippocrates has bestowed very high praise on these plants for the diseases of women; no medical man recognises its virtues after this fashion. He used them as pessaries for uterine troubles, adding thereto honey, or oil of roses or of iris or of lilies, also as an emmenagogue and to bring away the after-birth. The same effects, he said, resulted from taking them in drink and from using them for fomentations. He dropped the juice into foul-smelling ears, and with the juice and old wine made an embrocation for the abdomen. The leaves he applied to fluxes from the eyes. A decoction of it with myrrh and frankincense he prescribed for strangury and bladder troubles. For loosening the bowels, however, or for fever, a handful of the plant should be boiled down to one half in two sextarii of water. This is drunk with the addition of salt and honey, and if the decoction has been made with a pig’s foot or a chicken added, the draught is all the more beneficial. Some have thought that as a purge both kinds should be administered, either by themselves or with mallows added to the decoction. They purge the abdomen and bring away bile, but they are injurious to the stomach. Their other uses we shall give in the appropriate places.

Mercurialis

Hermupoa, Linozostis or Parthenion. Pliny xxv. 5, § 18.

mercuriale

La mercuriale fut trouvée par Mercure, dit Pline, XXV, 18, qui lui donne les noms de linozostis, parthenion, hermupoa, mercurialis : « Duo ejus genera, masculus et fœmina. » C’est Mercurialis annua, L. Son usage thérapeutique est fort ancien ; le miel de mercuriale entre encore dans la composition de nos lavements purgatifs. (Paul Delaunay)

mercurial

Elsewhere it is known as Good King Henry for like reasons. (Incidentally, it is used for purgatives!)

mercuriale

C’est le premiere exemple de P. Vergile, cité d’après Pline: De Invent. rerum, I, xxi: «Et sic alii alias herbas invenerunt, ut Mercurius moly, Achilles achilleam, Aesculapius penacem, compluresque alias, quod admodum longus esset, minime necessarium persequi, cum praesertim Plinium illud disertissime prodat». Pour les autres étymologies, consulter De latinis nominibus, s.vv.

mercuriale

Pline, XXV, xxxviii.

mercury

mercury. As a plant-name. [After Latin (herba) mercurialis, mercurial B 1; compare Latin Hermupoa (Pliny) adopted from Greek *Ermoupoa.]

The pot-herb allgood, Chenopodium Bonus-Henricus. Also English, false mercury.

The euphorbiaceous poisonous plant Mercurialis perennis. Also dog’s, wild mercury.

The euphorbiaceous plant Mercurialis annua. Also baron’s, boy’s, French, garden, girl’s, maiden mercury. According to Britten and Holland, the baron’s or boy’s is the female and the girl’s the male mercury.

mercury, girl’s

Etymology:  < the genitive of girl n. + mercury n. (compare mercury n. 10), so called on account of the plant's supposed property of inducing the generation of female children. Compare Hellenistic Greek θηλυγόνον ( > classical Latin thēlygonon (Pliny)), use as noun (short for ϕύλλον θηλυγόνον ) of neuter of θηλυγόνος promoting the conception of females (compare quot. 1578).
 
The male of either of two plants of the genus Mercurialis, M. tomentosa and M. annua, formerly supposed to have the property of inducing the generation of female children.

Notes

Toutes les arbres lanificques des Seres,

116. divisae arboribus patriae. sola India nigrum
fert hebenum, solis est turea virga Sabaeis.
quid tibi odorato referam sudantia ligno
balsamaque et bacas semper frondentis acanthi?
quid nemora Aethiopum molli canentia lana,
velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres?

trees have their allotted climes. India alone bears black ebony; to the Sabaeans alone belongs the frankincense bough. Why should I tell you of the balsams that drip from the fragrant wood, or of the pods of the ever blooming acanthus? Why tell of the Ethiopian groves, all white with downy wool [molli lana, i.e. cotton], or how the Seres comb from leaves their fine fleeces [In Virgil’s time the Romans, knowing nothing of the silkworm, supposed that the silk they imported from the East grew on the leaves of trees] ?

Therefore

And therefore Merchants, Marriners, people all
Of all trades, on your marrow bones downe fall:
For you could neither rise, or bite or sup,
If noble Hempseed did not hold you vp. 

Therefore

Le Tiers Livre se termine avec une allusion à Virgile (Géorgiques, II, 109; 114 seq.) :

Nec vero terrae ferre omnes omnia possunt…
Adspice et exremis domitum cultoribus orbem,
Eoasque domos Arabum, pictosque Gelonos.
Divisae arboribus patriae. Sola India nigrum
Fert ebenium ; solis et turea virga Sabeis.
Quid tibi odorato referam sudantia ligno
Balsamaque et baccas semper frondentis acanthi ?
Quid nemora Aethiopum, molli canentia lana ?
Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres ?

Therefore

The book ends with an unforeseeable patriotic flourish, awakening a distant echo of the Prologue and its account of the contemporary fortification of France. Pantagruelion’s only serious rival in incombustibility was apparently the Piedmontese larch, which enabled the good folk of Larigno to obstruct Julius Caesar’s march into Transalpine Gaul. Now that another Caesar (one of Charles V’s courtesy titles) is threatening the kingdom, Rabelais shouts defiance, not least in the huitain that rounds off the book, where Pantagruelion outshines the fabled riches of the Indies, source of Charles V’s wealth. Happy the kingdom that is blessed with the miraculous herb! The episode makes perfect sense as a mock eulogy, but as usual Rabelais drops that teasing hint of allegory. Pantagruelion has been identified as the scientific optimism of the Renaissance, the unlimited potential of humankind, the weapon of covert Evangelism and even as Indian hemp, the substance that unlocks the imagination— so it is said— and that made life in Theleme so infinitely blissful in Jean- Louis Barrault’s hippy stage version. The least that can be said is that the liberating plant provides a transition from the static world of the Tiers Livre to the endless adventure of the Quart Livre.

fossil linen

fossil linen: a kind of asbestos. Obsolete

asbestos

asbestos. Forms: asbeston, abeston, abiston, albeston(e; absistos, asphestus, asbestos, asbestus; abestos, -istos; abbest, asbest. [The modern form is adopted from Latin asbestos (modern Latin asbestus), adopted from Greek asbestoj, `inextinguishable, unquenchable,’ formed on a not + sbestoj, formed on sbennunai to quench. Old French had also adopted from Latin, asbestos, later abestos, whence an English form abestos; but the common Old French form was adopted from Latin asbeston, phonetically changed to abeston, and (by confusion with albus white) albeston; hence the earlier English forms asbeston, abeston, abiston, albeston, and (by assimilation to stone) albestone. Modern French is asbeste, formerly also abeste.]

As a substantive asbestos was applied by Dioscorides to quicklime (`unslaked’). Erroneously applied by Pliny to an incombustible fibre, which he believed to be vegetable, but which was really the amiantos of the Greeks. Since the identification of this, asbestos has been a more popular synonym for amiantus or amiant.

`The unquenchable stone’; a fabulous stone, the heat of which, when once kindled, was alleged to be unquenchable. (A distorted reference to the phenomena observed in pouring cold water on quick lime.) Obsolete

An alleged kind of incombustible flax. Obsolete (An erroneous notion of the mineral substance.)

A mineral of fibrous texture, capable of being woven into an incombustible fabric; amiant or amiantus. In mineralogy applied more widely than Amiantus, to all fibrous varieties of Hornblende or Amphibole, and of Pyroxene; Amiantus being specifically the finest Hornblende Asbestos, distinguished by its long silky fibres, usually pearly white.