Encolpian Error. Jacobaea vulgaris, Ragwort or St James-wort or Stinking Willie or Horse's Fart, Océ-weerd, Meuse Corridor, Venlo, The Netherlands
As I wandered through the autumnal fields along the Meuse River, Petronius's Satyricon - that marvellously wicked risqué satire of late Antiquity mined for modern surreal viewers by Federico Fellini in 1969 - was far from my mind. And certainly our Jacobaea vulgaris, Ragwort, or Mare's Fart or Stinking Willie, delighted my simple roaming mind purely for its Bright and Sunny Beauty. But then I returned home...
To my surprise, many entries on the internet for this Ragwort add the supposition that 'in ancient Greece and Rome a supposed aphrodisiac was made from the plant; it was called satyrion'. This must be a wide-ranging mistake, I thought. The potent drink in which young Encolpius and his ardent companions in the Satyricon indulged, satyrion, was reportedly pressed from Lady's Traces (= Tresses), a Spiranthes orchid or else possibly from Aceras or Orchis anthropophora. Neither have any relation to Jacobaea vulgaris. Indeed, a drink of Ragwort Tea is strong medicine which would undoubtedly have cured anyone from Amorous Games.
I wondered, though, whence this misunderstanding. Leafing through various dictionaries and other tomes, I didn't exactly find a definitive answer. The earliest instance I could find was in Nathan Bailey's dictionaries of the early eighteenth century: 'Lady traces: a sort of satyrion or ragwort' (1731). Thus Love-draught Flower and Stinking Willie are synonyms for the 'Pleated' Orchids of Lady's Traces; a patent mistake, if ever there was one. If anyone has earlier information, please let me know. Trimalchio would have grinned at this verbal confusion and might've told the story at his lavish banquet...
But I turned again to the Sunny Faces of wild Jacobaea vulgaris for some natural light.
Encolpian Error. Jacobaea vulgaris, Ragwort or St James-wort or Stinking Willie or Horse's Fart, Océ-weerd, Meuse Corridor, Venlo, The Netherlands
As I wandered through the autumnal fields along the Meuse River, Petronius's Satyricon - that marvellously wicked risqué satire of late Antiquity mined for modern surreal viewers by Federico Fellini in 1969 - was far from my mind. And certainly our Jacobaea vulgaris, Ragwort, or Mare's Fart or Stinking Willie, delighted my simple roaming mind purely for its Bright and Sunny Beauty. But then I returned home...
To my surprise, many entries on the internet for this Ragwort add the supposition that 'in ancient Greece and Rome a supposed aphrodisiac was made from the plant; it was called satyrion'. This must be a wide-ranging mistake, I thought. The potent drink in which young Encolpius and his ardent companions in the Satyricon indulged, satyrion, was reportedly pressed from Lady's Traces (= Tresses), a Spiranthes orchid or else possibly from Aceras or Orchis anthropophora. Neither have any relation to Jacobaea vulgaris. Indeed, a drink of Ragwort Tea is strong medicine which would undoubtedly have cured anyone from Amorous Games.
I wondered, though, whence this misunderstanding. Leafing through various dictionaries and other tomes, I didn't exactly find a definitive answer. The earliest instance I could find was in Nathan Bailey's dictionaries of the early eighteenth century: 'Lady traces: a sort of satyrion or ragwort' (1731). Thus Love-draught Flower and Stinking Willie are synonyms for the 'Pleated' Orchids of Lady's Traces; a patent mistake, if ever there was one. If anyone has earlier information, please let me know. Trimalchio would have grinned at this verbal confusion and might've told the story at his lavish banquet...
But I turned again to the Sunny Faces of wild Jacobaea vulgaris for some natural light.