494 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



The " day of Venus " was doubtless chosen as the day for digging 

 mandragora because it bore the name of the Goddess of Love,* since 

 one of the virtues claimed for the mandragora in the middle ages was 

 that it won the owner favor in love.f Digging before sunrise was a 

 common practice in ancient times in the case of several other plants. J 

 Instructions to stop the ears followed naturally upon the incorporation 

 into the story of the idea that the plant shrieked when taken from the 

 ground. § Affixing a sign to the roots we have already seen in Aelian ; 

 here t^ie sign is the sign of the cross, to suit the age in which this 

 version of the story arose. The rest of the story agrees with one or 

 the other of the versions which we have already examined, and calls for 

 no further comment. || 



Closely connected with this digging story in later times was the belief 

 that the mandragora grew in a form resembling the human body, and 

 even presenting the peculiarities of sex. This does not appear to be 

 definitely stated anywhere before mediaeval times. But the germs of 

 the superstition are found in the words of several ancient writers. 



Both Dioscorides and Pliny refer to a " male " and a " female " species 

 of mandragora.H These terms, which the ancients applied to many 

 plants, have nothing to do with sex, but signify more robust species 

 (i. e., those having larger leaves, roots, etc., and attaining a greater 

 height) and their opposites. 



* Friday was never sacred to Venus in tlie ancient religion. It received 

 the name " day of Venus " wlien the names of tlie seven planets were given 

 to the days of the week, which Dio Cassius (37. 18) says was not very long 

 before his time (2d-3d century of our era). See Hare, Pliilol. Mus., 1 (1832), 

 p. 2 fE. 



t Levinus Leinnius, Herb. Bibl. Explic, cap. 2. 



t See Tiieophr., 9. 8. 5 (t/«men(«H) ; Colum., De Re Rust., 6. 5. 3 (co«s!'%o) ; Plin., 

 25. 145 (anaf/allis) ; Diosc, 1. 349 {cenlaureum). 



§ See below, p. 495. 



II Why they should have made circles about the plant with a trij>od before dig- 

 ging is unintelligible to me, and I can only suggest that Schmidel (who is the only 

 one to cite this custom, so far as I know), or some one before him who read of this 

 ceremony, misinterpreted the phrase relating to this part of it. Ponce de Leon in 

 liis Commentary on Physiologus, cap. 4, thus translates the words of Tiieophras- 

 tus, rhf 5' fTipov KVK\(f Trfpiopx('t(T9ai (9. 8. 8) : iubent et alium saltantem Irijnidio 

 circumagi. Probably the words trijiudium and trijuis were confused, and tcnio tri- 

 yndii circumductu should be the reading in Schmidel instead of terno tn'podis 

 circumductu. 



t See below, p. 605. 



