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If you saw The labyrinth of the faun , by Guillermo del Toro, you could observe the scene in which the mother and the girl argue, and the mother says “magic does not exist, this It has to stop! ”, while a mandragora root burns in the chimney fire and screams and shakes and comes alive…
This image is not accidental, rather it refers to thousands of years of use therapeutic and magical, from doctors of ancient Greece to witches of the Middle Ages.
As is the mandragora
It is a plant of about 30 cm, with leaves and dark green stem.Its flowers leave the center, a beautiful and delicate white violaceo.
Its roots, which is what is used, are thick, long and generally divided into several branches that extend along the ground, and say they have human forms.The fruit is like an apple that smells very bad.
Usually found in humid areas and shady forests, on the side of streams and rivers, where the sun does not reach, in the south and center of Europe and in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.Very conducive to everything so that the sorceresses leave at night in its search.
Therapeutic uses
Both the species mandragora officinarum and the autumnalis were used in the past for healing purposes.
Whole plant is poisonous or toxic, and contains at keloids , that is, it has hallucinogenic properties.In small quantities it was enough to reduce nerve impulses and therefore it was widely used as an anesthetic.But in large quantities it can be fatal.
If it was grated finely the root could be applied externally to relieve rheumatism; the leaves boiled in milk were excellent for ulcers, and in times of Pliny patients were given a piece of root to chew before undergoing surgery.It was also used to treat melancholy, seizures and mania.
When administered orally, it behaves similarly to belladonna, because it contains atropine, an alkaloid that suppresses the effects of the parasympathetic nervous system, provided they are low doses.
The problem with doses is that there are no records of exact dosages, only the warning that they should be small .
Magic uses
The mandragora here It is much more interesting. It has been traditionally used by witches , in ancient times, and its uses range from love and aphrodisiac potions to pot poisons intimate.
There has been speculation that Circe , the sorceress who kept Odysseus captive on his island, used the mandrake to transform his soldiers into pigs.In the book X of the Odyssey , he recounts how Circe loved wolves and other wild animals and kept them docile with "dreadful drugs", no doubt referring to the mandrake already other solanaceas, like the datura , that bend the will of animals and humans.
It is also interesting to verify that through these plants (the mandrake, the belladonna or the datura) witches and sorceresses They claimed to fly towards the Sabbath, when in reality what they had were hallucinations.
Their roots were carved, taking advantage of their ramifications, in the form of a body, and only four were left as an e xtremidades.Ira adored as a goddess and was used in both black and white magic , because its uses, as we saw, they can be good and bad.
The curse of the mandragora
It was thought that the mandrake had human characteristics because its roots resembled legs.You can't tear yourself off the ground because your terrible screams are capable of driving you crazy or killing whoever did it.
Popular belief indicates that roots are transformed into little men, like elves, and that they favor and protect to its owner, although they do not assure that all the roots become, only some, then considering these as the true sorceress plants.
To get the roots up without risking death there is a whole procedure, described carefully: if you have a mandragora plant you must dig deep around its roots and expose them, but don't try to tear it away, but either tie a rope to the root and the other end to the neck of a dog and then call it from afar.Trying to go to your call will pull the rope and the plant, it will scream and unfortunately the dog will die.
As its power is so great, there is no choice but the animal sacrifice , and you will be free from its curse.
Ah! And mandragora in English is mandrake…
Did you like the article? Well, we recommend you read about the morning after pill, which was already known in ancient Greece.
Images: peganum , yoel_tw , Betty Nudler , Smithsonian American Art Museum , Jennifer Patterson Lohman
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