CLASSICS 330 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Electric Ray, Practical Reason, Connotation
Document Summary
We mostly get depictions of women using these; gendered. A potion to put on a mans penis to attract someone. Ingredients: a crows egg, a plant, bile of an electric ray, honey. Ritual because a spell is spoken as the potion is created. Balancing of the body and external factors. Could have to do with sweetness of the honey. Sweetness is associated with love and is sexualized. Association with the acidity of bile and the electricity of the eel could be symbolic of the shock and electrification of love. Because it is an intelligent bird (?) Crows are black and black is symbolic of things that are magical, dark, or unknown (?) In egypt, black has an opposite meaning (contrast); it is symbolic of life and fertility. Crows are a symbol of death (?) It is important to consider the symbolism of ingredients and other things included in spells.
