Sweet-talking Adelphasium. Papaver rhoeas, Field Poppy, Frankendael, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Perhaps because just earlier I had been reading about a fascinating new book, In Search of the Phoenicians by Josephine Crawley Quinn, my mind immediately turned to the Poenulus, a comedy by Plautus (c.254-184 BCE), when this morning I saw this pretty Poppy in Frankendael.
The story is a complicated comedy of errors. Among other ploys one of the characters pretends to be able to translate from Punic to Latin.
I won't summarise the plot. Suffice it to say in our context that one Agorastocles, abducted as a child from Carthage to become the adopted son of a wealthy man, falls in love with one of two sisters, abducted from Carthage as well and sold into prostitution. Her name is Adelphasium. She sweet-talks Agorastocles, and the latter's slave Milphio is on to her. In an aside he adumbrates and mentions our poppy(-seed):
'AGORASTOCLES, apart.:
Troth now, prithee, do mark how she speaks honied wine!
MILPHIO, apart:
Nothing at all, except tile-cakes, sesamum, and poppies, wheat and parched nuts.'
(see Perseus, Tufts.edu for this translation)
Having hurried home, I then spent a bit of time rereading Plautus with a smile and Poppy etched on my retina.
Sweet-talking Adelphasium. Papaver rhoeas, Field Poppy, Frankendael, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Perhaps because just earlier I had been reading about a fascinating new book, In Search of the Phoenicians by Josephine Crawley Quinn, my mind immediately turned to the Poenulus, a comedy by Plautus (c.254-184 BCE), when this morning I saw this pretty Poppy in Frankendael.
The story is a complicated comedy of errors. Among other ploys one of the characters pretends to be able to translate from Punic to Latin.
I won't summarise the plot. Suffice it to say in our context that one Agorastocles, abducted as a child from Carthage to become the adopted son of a wealthy man, falls in love with one of two sisters, abducted from Carthage as well and sold into prostitution. Her name is Adelphasium. She sweet-talks Agorastocles, and the latter's slave Milphio is on to her. In an aside he adumbrates and mentions our poppy(-seed):
'AGORASTOCLES, apart.:
Troth now, prithee, do mark how she speaks honied wine!
MILPHIO, apart:
Nothing at all, except tile-cakes, sesamum, and poppies, wheat and parched nuts.'
(see Perseus, Tufts.edu for this translation)
Having hurried home, I then spent a bit of time rereading Plautus with a smile and Poppy etched on my retina.