Latin Texts & Translations

The Greeks give the name of "satyrion" ^[Note] to a plant with

red leaves like those of the lily, but smaller, not more than three of them making their appearance above ground. The stem, they say, is smooth and bare and a cubit in length, and the root double; the lower part, which is also the larger, pro- moting the conception of male issue, the upper or smaller part, that of female.

They distinguish also another kind of satyrion, by the name of "erythraïcon" ^[Note] it has seed like that of the vitex, ^[Note] only larger, smooth, and hard; the root, they say, is covered with a red rind, and is white within and of a sweetish taste: it is mostly found in mountainous districts. The root, we are told, if only held in the hand, acts as a powerful aphrodisiac, and even more so, if it is taken in rough, astringent wine. It is administered in drink, they say, to rams and he-goats when inactive and sluggish; and the people of Sarmatia are in the habit of giving it to their stallions when fatigued with covering, a defect to which they give the name of "prosedamum." The effects of this plant are neutralized by the use of hydromel or lettuces. ^[Note]

The Greeks, however, give the general name of "satyrion" to all substances of a stimulating tendency, to the cratægis ^[Note] for example, the thelygonon, ^[Note] and the arrenogonon, plants, the seed of which bears a resemblance to the testes. ^[Note] Persons who carry the pith of branches of tithymalos ^[Note] about them, are rendered more amorous thereby, it is said. The statements are really incredible, which Theophrastus, ^[Note] in most cases an author of high authority, makes in relation to this subject; thus, for instance, he says that by the contact only of a cer-

tain plant, a man has been enabled, in the sexual congress, to repeat his embraces as many as seventy times even! The name and genus, however, of this plant, he has omitted to mention.