And like a wittol think thee void of slight.
Why see I lines so oft received and given?
This bed and that by tumbling made uneven?
Like one start up your hair tost and displaced,
And with a wantons tooth your neck new-rased.
Grant this, that what you do I may not see;
If you weigh not ill speeches, yet weigh me.
The erotic power, the essential property that possessed the virtue of enflaming desire and exciting sensual emotions, was believed, anciently and in later ages, to reside in growing things, in the produce of the earth, in the teeming abundance of the ocean, in metals, in essences, and in intricate and cunningly contrived combinations, mixtures, and amalgams of such matter.
The common onion, that normally was a part of a simple daily meal, acquired, among the Greeks, amatory virtues. The onion, in fact, rose from its lowly status as a gastronomic item to a mystically-endowed root, that could inspire and direct erotic sensations. Alexis, a writer of comedies who flourished in the third century B.C., dwells on its highly effective nature.