The Curious History of Love Potions
The idea of a love potion created to win the heart of an uninterested companion has been around for virtually as long as recorded history. While no one knows for sure when these elixirs first bubbled into existence, their development through the years, in many guises, serves as a snapshot for the cultures these creative concoctions have passed through.
The Ancient Greeks Set the Tone
According to Love Potions Through the Ages: A Study of Amatory Devices and Mores by Harry E. Wedeck, the ancient Greeks were among the earliest civilizations to foster the regular use of love potions, also known as “philtres.” The physician Xenocrates, who lived in the third century BCE, suggested that drinking the sap of the mallow plant would arouse passions in women.
The stimulating effects of the roots of the satyrion and mandrake plants were well known to both the Greeks and the Romans that followed. The Greek physician Dioscorides, who served as an army surgeon for the Roman Emperor Nero, wrote of how the mandrake root dipped in wine would help win over prospective lovers.
Even those who lacked wealth and power enjoyed access to love-inducing aides, as they could find various charms and concoctions in a seedy district of ancient Rome known as the Sabura. Yet the widespread availability of such philtres, with their varying degrees of effectiveness, could also be a source of trouble.
The poet Lucretius, a contemporary of Julius Caesar’s, was said to have been driven mad by a potion administered by his wife. Later, the Roman writer Apuleius stood trial for his alleged concoction of love potions to win the heart of a widow, with recipes including such stimulating seafood as spiced oysters, cuttlefish, and lobsters.
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India’s Kama Sutra Provided Instructions for Reeling in Lovers
The Greeks and Romans weren't the only ancients to encourage the common use of love-inducing ingredients. The Kama Sutra, composed in North India around the third century BCE, is famed as an erotic how-to manual, but also includes instructions for how to win over a mate. One such entry describes how a man who plays a reed pipe treated with the juices of various plants could ignite the passions of his love interest.
The Islamic cultures that flourished in the Middle East and Africa devised their own methods of romantic inducements culled from local specialties. The 11th-century physician and philosopher Ibn Sina (known in the West as Avicenna) wrote of a love brew composed of honey, pepper, and ginger.
Honey was also a prime ingredient cited in Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nefzawi's The Perfumed Garden, a 15th-century Arabic erotic manual. One fail-proof recipe for summoning a lover, according to Nefzawi, involved heating purified honey with onion juices, before adding water and pounded chickpeas. The resulting broth was to be taken in small doses, just before going to bed, during a spell of cold weather.
Things Took a Turn Toward the Bizarre in the Middle Ages
The European Middle Ages marked a culmination of centuries of potion-making on the continent. Easily found in marketplaces, these philtres included many traditional plants and foods, but also crossed into the realm of the bizarre by incorporating human and animal body parts and fluids.
The 13th-century German polymath Albertus Magnus, known as Doctor Universalis, wrote of one such recipe: "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."
By the Elizabethan era in late-16th-century England, William Shakespeare was among those who dramatized the appeal of love potions among the populace. One such spell appears to comedic effect in A Midsummer Night's Dream, when petals are laid on the eyes of the sleeping fairy queen Titania, enchanting her to fall in love with the hapless weaver Nick Bottom.
Yet love potions remained very much in existence beyond the fictional realm of the stage and printed page. King Louis XIV of France, who was known to partake in pleasures of the flesh at the Palace of Versailles, was famously administered such mind-warping tonics by a cunning mistress, Madame de Montespan. Supplied by alleged sorceress Catherine Monvoisin, Montespan treated the Sun King's meat and wine with mixtures made of "blood, bones, intestines, along with parts of toads and bats," binding Louis XIV to her wiles long enough to produce seven children.
Future Drugs May Replace Archaic Potions
While many cultures continue to rely on local dishes designed to stimulate amorous feelings, the old-fashioned love potion comprised of roots and hairs and crafted to win over a longed-for mate primarily endures among the tropes of popular culture. "Love Potion No. 9" was a hit song for the Clovers in 1959, as well as the title of a 1992 Sandra Bullock film. And Harry Potter fans might recall that the dreaded Lord Voldemort's parents were brought together by a philtre.
Of course, pharmaceuticals serve as something of a replacement for these traditional mixtures, from the libidinous inducements of Viagra to the warm and fuzzy feelings ignited by MDMA. Along those lines, scientists have teased the unveiling of new drugs that trigger the release of the "love hormone" oxytocin among affection-seeking users.
The difference is that these stimulants would be geared toward couples who are looking to rekindle a spark, as opposed to the old (and problematic) method of eliminating the autonomy of a would-be lover. It remains to be seen how effective such doses would be, but given the long history of love potions as a remedy for unrequited lovers, it’s a good bet that people will be willing to find out.
