The mandrake narrative is actually the first of two consecutive stories preserving ancient fertility myths, the second being the story in Gen. The story is rooted in an ancient fertility myth in which mandrakes are understood to possess both physical and chemical properties that enhance fertility. 30:14–24 to trade an evening of sex with Jacob for mandrakes discovered by Leah’s son, Reuben, constitutes an exchange of sex for drugs, specifically, supposed fertility enhancers. The literary tropes depicting mandrakes as useful for coaxing another into sex and the production of offspring trace back to the Bible. Rowling’s second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), includes a classic scene where the Hogwarts students repot shrieking baby mandrakes with Professor Pomona Sprout while defending themselves from death with earmuffs. 1590) reads “get with child a mandrake root.” And of course, J. The second line of English poet John Donne’s famous Song (ca. Niccolò Machiavelli penned a 1518 satirical comedy titled Mandragola, in which the legendary reputation of mandrakes as a fertility aid is the centerpiece of a sophisticated plot to sleep with another man’s wife.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) refers to mandrakes on six occasions in five separate plays-twice with regard to their renowned fertility properties, twice with regard to the shrieking the mandrakes are said to make when extracted from the earth, and twice describing mandrakes as charms to be worn. The legends of the fertility-enhancing properties of mandrakes and their fatal shrieking are known from some of humanity’s greatest literature. This article examines this exchange of sex for drugs in Genesis 30:14–24, the nature of mandrakes and the origin of the fertility myth, including the origin of the legend of the shrieking mandrake which is misattributed to Josephus, and examines the myth’s reception history, including apologetic devices employed by later biblical and extra-biblical authors to disguise the fertility myth, its efficacy, and the willingness of the biblical characters to participate in it. The story is rooted in an ancient fertility myth in which mandrakes are understood to possess physical and chemical properties that enhance fertility. Rachel’s agreement with Leah in Genesis 30:14–24 to exchange sex with Jacob for mandrakes discovered by Leah’s son, Reuben, constitutes an exchange of sex for fertility drugs.

Mandrake wine