Be more advised, walk as a puritan, And I shall think you chaste, do what you can. Slip still, only deny it when ’tis done, And, before folk, immodest speeches shun. The bed is for lascivious toyings meet, There use all tricks, and tread shame under feet. When you are up and dressed, be sage and grave, And in the bed hide all the faults you have. Be not ashamed to strip you, being there, And mingle thighs, yours ever mine to bear. There in your rosy lips my tongue entomb, Practice a thousand sports when there you come. Forbear no wanton words you there would speak, And with your pastime let the bedstead creak; But with your robes put on an honest face, And blush, and seem as you were full of grace. Deceive all; let me err; and think I’m right, And like a wittol think thee void of slight. Why see I lines so oft received and given? This bed and that by tumbling made uneven? Like one start up your hair tost and displaced, And with a wantons tooth your neck new-rased. Grant this, that what you do I may not see; If you weigh not ill speeches, yet weigh me. * * * * * The erotic power, the essential property that possessed the virtue of enflaming desire and exciting sensual emotions, was believed, anciently and in later ages, to reside in growing things, in the produce of the earth, in the teeming abundance of the ocean, in metals, in essences, and in intricate and cunningly contrived combinations, mixtures, and amalgams of such matter. The common onion, that normally was a part of a simple daily meal, acquired, among the Greeks, amatory virtues. The onion, in fact, rose from its lowly status as a gastronomic item to a mystically-endowed root, that could inspire and direct erotic sensations. Alexis, a writer of comedies who flourished in the third century B.C., dwells on its highly effective nature. Another Greek comic writer, Diphilus, of the third century B.C., likewise says of onions: They are hard to digest, though nourishing and strengthening to the stomach. They are cleansing also, but they have a weakening effect on the sight. In addition, they stimulate sexual desire. The pungency of pepper is relished gastronomically. But pepper had another use apart from its function as a condiment. It was pounded, then mixed with nettle-seed, and in this form it was regularly taken by the Greeks as a means of promoting intercourse. Wine has for ages been lauded poetically and convivially, and a vintage meant, as a rule, a matter for gastronomic appreciation. But old wine, with the addition of ground pyrethron—which is botanically feverfew or pellitory, was known to the Hellenic people as a particularly powerful erotic potion.