Coded Ingredients
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 7:13 pm
Lots of texts have coded language for the ingredients. Baby's blood? No that's strawberry juice. What are some of the ones you know?
To get things started I'll post an entry from PGM XII, lines 401 to 444:
Interpretations wich the temple scribes employed, from the holy writings, in translation. Because of the curiosity of the masses the [i.e., the scribes] inscribed the names of the herbs and other things which they employed on the statues of the gods, so that they [i.e., the masses], since they do not take precaution, / might not practice magic, [being prevented] by the consequence of their misunderstanding. But we have collected the explanations [of these names] from many copies [of the sacred writings], all of them secret.
Here they are:
A snake's head: a leech
A snake's "ball of thread": this means soapstone. /
Blood of a snake: hematite
A bone of an ibis: this is a buckthorn
Blood of a hyrax: truly of a hyrax
Tears of a Hamadryas baboon: dill juice
Crocodile dung: Ethiopian soil
Blood of a Hamadryas baboon: blood of a spotted gecko
Lion semen: human semen
Blood of Hephaistos: wormwood
Hairs of a Hamadryas baboon: dill seed
Semen of Hermes: dill
Blood of Ares: purslane
Blood of an eye: tamarisk gall
Blood from a shoulder: bear's breach
From the loins: camomile
A man's bile: turnip sap
A pig's tail: leopard's bane
A physician's bone: sandstone
Blood of Hestia: camomile
An eagle: wild garlic
Blood of a goose: a mulberry tree's milk
Kronos' spice: piglet's milk
A lion's hairs:"tongue" of a turnip
Kronos' blood:... of cedar
Semen of Helios: white hellebore
Semen of Herakles: this is mustard-rocket
[A Titan's] blood: wild lettuce
Blood from a head: lupine
A bull's semen: egg of a blister beetle.
A hawk's heart: heart of wormwood
Semen of Hephaistos: this is fleabane
Semen of Ammon: houseleek
Semen of Ares: clover
Fat from a head: spurge
From the belly: earth-apple
From the foot: houseleek
To get things started I'll post an entry from PGM XII, lines 401 to 444:
Interpretations wich the temple scribes employed, from the holy writings, in translation. Because of the curiosity of the masses the [i.e., the scribes] inscribed the names of the herbs and other things which they employed on the statues of the gods, so that they [i.e., the masses], since they do not take precaution, / might not practice magic, [being prevented] by the consequence of their misunderstanding. But we have collected the explanations [of these names] from many copies [of the sacred writings], all of them secret.
Here they are:
A snake's head: a leech
A snake's "ball of thread": this means soapstone. /
Blood of a snake: hematite
A bone of an ibis: this is a buckthorn
Blood of a hyrax: truly of a hyrax
Tears of a Hamadryas baboon: dill juice
Crocodile dung: Ethiopian soil
Blood of a Hamadryas baboon: blood of a spotted gecko
Lion semen: human semen
Blood of Hephaistos: wormwood
Hairs of a Hamadryas baboon: dill seed
Semen of Hermes: dill
Blood of Ares: purslane
Blood of an eye: tamarisk gall
Blood from a shoulder: bear's breach
From the loins: camomile
A man's bile: turnip sap
A pig's tail: leopard's bane
A physician's bone: sandstone
Blood of Hestia: camomile
An eagle: wild garlic
Blood of a goose: a mulberry tree's milk
Kronos' spice: piglet's milk
A lion's hairs:"tongue" of a turnip
Kronos' blood:... of cedar
Semen of Helios: white hellebore
Semen of Herakles: this is mustard-rocket
[A Titan's] blood: wild lettuce
Blood from a head: lupine
A bull's semen: egg of a blister beetle.
A hawk's heart: heart of wormwood
Semen of Hephaistos: this is fleabane
Semen of Ammon: houseleek
Semen of Ares: clover
Fat from a head: spurge
From the belly: earth-apple
From the foot: houseleek