Cupid the Cherub

The rascal cherub with his bow and arrows, Cupid, is the most recognized symbol of love. He is an ancient roman mythological god, symbol of passionate love and playful, son of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. In the myths of the ancient Greece, Cupid was known as Eros, the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and from where the word Aphrodisiac comes from.

As a messenger of his mother, Cupid throws arrows, which mean desires and emotions of love, and perforate the heart of his victims – gods and humans – causing them to fall in deeply in love.

As in all the cultures and ages, the Egyptians also had diverse systems for increasing the sexual desire by using aphrodisiacs. One of these was lettuce, that according to what they said enamored men and made woman fertile, reason for which it was eaten in great quantities.

Lettuce oozes when it is cut, a liquid that has a milky color to it, with the color and texture similar to that of semen, reason to which they had consecrated it to the god Min, in whose honor had many important festivities to propitiate pregnancies amongst the girls. Min was god that represented the generating force of nature, fertility in all its aspects.  

Another food that was eaten was a red color liquor called Shedeh, and that was obtained from the fruit of the pomegranate tree.

And a third element in this category was the mandrake, which apparently was not only used to awaken the libido, but to favor fertility. As an extension of these types of aphrodisiacs, people also used, on occasions, magic. In a text of ancient times one can read, “To create a filter of love, all that has to be done is take out some blood from the second finger close to the pinky of the left hand”.