Aphrodisiac
Ah, the aphrodisiac. Is it a myth trumped up by the same ancients who believed gods in chariots and punishing gods would sling arrows of fate, striking down humans at whim? Is it a gimmick contrived by the same money-mongering folks who blew Valentine’s Day up into a multi-million dollar imperative? Or is it a natural and inevitable instigator, in the form of the all-famous oyster, bringing on inspired sensuality as powerful and potent as the Spanish Fly brought bowel irritation in the guise of sexual stimulation?
Your guess is as good as the opinions of the experts. Some will attest to the aphrodisiac that is chocolate, given its properties that stimulate certain hormones, such as dopamine, in the hypothalamus of the human brain. Others will aver that such natural herbs and roots as Yohimbe (or Yohimbine) work to remedy problems such as erectile dysfunction. And still others ascribe to decidedly sexually potent animal parts, foods which have visually allusive shapes, or plants, foodstuffs, or mythically charged animal parts that have been rumored as aphrodisiacs to stimulate sexual arousal.
But as with any tradition, belief, or value that has the potential for changing over time and through the variant translations, the item still deemed an aphrodisiac might just be the aphrodisiac as we know it today but the item serving different purposes in history. For example, an aphrodisiac in ancient times and tribes was a tool for reproduction. Another aphrodisiac was an implement for assuaging fears of infertility. Still another was a way of ensuring performance.
So chocolate, rhino horn, tiger’s penis, the oyster, the potato, and the tomato may be the love fruit, the union key, the horny pill, or the sex stimulator, but may not in fact be an aphrodisiac. At the same time, the derivatives of the above continue to be produced, manufactured, advertised, supplied, and believed in. And the chemical equivalent of aphrodisiacs are making their way and taking their place in line: according to a writer at Wikipedia.com, the first actual aphrodisiac (with physically and emotionally impacting properties, that is) has been synthesized. It’s labeled PT-141, and is said to actually “stimulate sexual desire in men as well as women,” though it is still in the clinical trial phases for future treatments of such disorders as sexual arousal disorder and erectile dysfunction.
While Spanish Fly really was just an irritant to the urinary organs, fooling the influenced one (who took a dose of the beetle powder) to think she has insatiable sexual desire, and while the oyster was originally rumored to be a sexual stimulant merely because it replicates female genitalia, maybe what it comes down to is powers of mind…or powers of suggestion: if you think it’s an aphrodisiac, it will work as an aphrodisiac would ideally work.
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