Eros & Capricorn: A Cross-Cultural Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Techniques (John Warren Wells on Sexual Behavior Book 1)

by John Warren Wells

  In Greco-Roman civilization, the unconscious equation of organ-shaped foods with sexuality was reinforced on a conscious level with a quasi-medical theory that there was a direct connection between the symptoms and aspects of a disease and the substance that would cure it. To make a man desire women, let him eat oysters. To make him potent as a ram, let him eat a ram’s penis. Here, incidentally, we see once again the manner in which scientific theories are drawn up not out of collected data but to reinforce unconsciously motivated superstition.

  While the clam and the oyster have a physical resemblance to the female genitalia, the fish may be equated with sexuality because of its tremendous production of eggs. Fish eggs in themselves are often equated with sperm cells. Eggs in general, being obvious representations of fertility, are natural candidates in the search for a food that will aid fertility and potency. The special magic of raw eggs is probably attributable to its consistency and appearance and the unconscious equations drawn up there from.

  Spicy foods and a whole variety of spices have long been assigned aphrodisiacal properties. A pinch of cinnamon, a clove of garlic, a bit of saffron—‌these and most other spices have been so employed. Here the connection would seem to be a semantic one. We need only consider the words to describe a highly seasoned dish—‌hot, spicy, pungent, and so forth. These words possess distinctly libidinous overtones and connotations.

  Finally, many of the aphrodisiacal recipes of single cultures that do not yield to these explanations probably owe their origin to a natural if unscientific brand of after-the-fact reasoning. For example, a villager goes mad and deflowers fifteen virgins in a night, and his neighbors later recall that he had eaten a great quantity of mushrooms earlier in the day. Inevitably, they will believe that the mushrooms turned him into a sex maniac and will presume that mushrooms possess aphrodisiacal properties. When men of this village talk with men from another village, they learn that someone else has also reported a somewhat similar experience after eating a huge portion of mushrooms. Before long the argument has become a part of the folklore of the region.

  Sad to say, none of the foods we have discussed have the properties of a true aphrodisiac. They neither create sexual desire nor contribute to one’s capacity to perform the sex act.

  At the same time, a diet conducted along the lines indicated by the pseudo-science of aphrodisiacs would be beneficial from a sexual standpoint, though not for the imagined reasons. In the main, the aphrodisiacal foods are extremely high in protein and are quite rich in vitamins as well. Bodybuilding proteins are of considerable importance to one’s general physical well-being, and there is considerable correlation between all-around physical well-being and ability in coitus. In the main, individuals who live on high-protein diets will acquit themselves better in sexual pursuits than those whose diets are heavy in starches. Eggs, fish, meat, nuts—‌these are not specifically sex foods, but nutritionists recognize their immense value to general physical health.

  In addition, sea food provides a good source of phosphorous, one mineral compound with acknowledged aphrodisiacal properties. It is unlikely in the extreme, however, that the amount of phosphorous derivable from a fish diet could have any discernible effect. In order for phosphorous to affect one sexually, near-fatal doses must be ingested.

  —♦♦♦—

  On a par with aphrodisiacs to be taken internally are the various external methods of arousing sexual ardor. A variety of liniments have been advocated over the years to be applied to the penis, either to ready it for coitus, to prevent premature ejaculation, or to increase the actual size of the organ.

  In The Perfumed Garden of the Sheikh Nefzaoui, we find the following involved discussion of methods for augmenting one’s coital equipment. Long sought as a titillating work, this book is essentially the compilation of the sexual wisdom of the Middle East, and the methods described were probably in more or less general use throughout the Arab world.

  A man, therefore, with a small member, who wants to make it grand or fortify it for coitus, must rub it before the copulation with tepid water, until it gets red and extended by the blood flowing into it, in consequence of the heat; he must then anoint it with a mixture of honey and ginger, rubbing it sedulously. Then let him join the woman; he will produce for her such pleasure that she objects to him getting off her again. Another remedy consists in a compound made of a moderate quantity of pepper, lavender, galanga, and musk, reduced to a powder, sifted, and mixed up with honey and preserved ginger. The member, after having been first washed in warm water, is then vigorously rubbed with the mixture; it will then grow large and brawny, and afford to the woman a marvelous feeling of voluptuousness.

  A third remedy is the following: wash the member in warm water until it becomes red and enters into erection. Then take a piece of soft leather, upon which is spread hot pitch, and envelop the member with it. It will not be long before the member raises its head, trembling with passion. The leather is to be left on until the pitch grows cold, and the member is again in a state of repose. This operation, several times repeated, will have the effect of making the member strong and thick.

  A fourth remedy is based upon the use of leeches… You put as many of them into a bottle as can be got in and then fill it up with oil. Then expose the bottle to the sun until the heat … has effected a complete mixture. Then with the fluid thus obtained the member is to be rubbed several consecutive days, and it will, by being thus treated, become of a good size and of full dimensions… The efficacy of all these remedies is well known, and I have tested them.

  Various recipes for compounds to be rubbed on the penis appear throughout Oriental sexual literature. The Kama Sutra makes several suggestions in this area, many of them very much akin to those of The Perfumed Garden. Nor are these practices confined to the mysterious East. In his excellent work Sex in History, C. Rattray Taylor cites a late eighteenth-century report from the British Minister in Naples to the president of the Royal Society on phallic worship practices in rural Isernia during the feast of St. Cosimo.

  During the three-day feast, peasants, chiefly women, would present waxen ex votos (of the phallus), kissing them before giving them to the priest and saying “Blessed St. Cosimo, that’s how I want it to be.” Men would present their afflicted members to the priest to be anointed with oil, and 1400 flasks of oil were consumed every year for this purpose.

  Similar compounds are sold to the present day in our own society. Snake oil, the popular cure all of the medicine show pitchman, was generally extolled as a panacea for all human ills, designed to cure everything from an ingrown toenail to terminal carcinoma. It is less widely understood how often the sales pitch included a sexual argument—‌that sterility would be cured, that potency would be enormously increased. The useless snake oil might be touted as a tonic to be taken internally or as a rubbing compound to be applied directly to the sex organs, depending upon the particular whim of the pitchman.

  Various creams to prevent premature ejaculation are still being sold, although it is rare to see them advertised as openly as was often the case during the latter part of the nineteenth century. When these preparations are more than just out-and-out quackery, they usually consist of a surface anesthetic that deadens the nerve endings in the penis. The theory here is a logical one; by diminishing the sensory response of the penis, sexual excitement will be retarded and a precipitate climax delayed. These remedies may have a certain amount of effect, although their efficacy in prolonging coitus is often overruled by a decline in the pleasurable sensations of the act. Furthermore, since premature ejaculation is most often emotional in origin, a physical remedy is apt to amount to treating the wrong disease. Either premature ejaculation continues in spite of the treatment, or else erection is lost prior to ejaculation; in any case, the nerve-deadening cream has relatively little positive effect.

  The methods recommended by the author of The Perfumed Garden all operate on approximately the same principle, and all have about as much to rec
ommend them. The mechanism of erection in the human male is both physiological and psychological. In response to psychological stimulation, a physical response is engendered—‌the penis becomes engorged with blood, the glans is moistened with a glandular secretion, and so on. This same set of responses may occur as a result of physical stimulation of one sort or another. This is especially notable with adolescent and preadolescent males, who often experience erections as a result of riding on a train, the presence of excessive urine in the bladder, fear, excitement, friction, etc.

  These rubbing compounds attempt to create erection through physical stimulation. Warm water and warm poultices dilate the local blood vessels and facilitate the flow of blood to the penis. The friction and stimulation of rubbing the penis similarly leads to erection. Many of the compounds suggested contain irritants that affect local nerves and have a similar result.

  Unlike the author of The Perfumed Garden, I cannot say that “the efficacy of all these remedies is well known, and I have tested them.” It does seem highly unlikely, however, that a sexual symptom such as impotence or lack of considerable virility could be properly alleviated by an essentially asexual treatment. It would seem doubtful that a majority of cases of impotence would yield to such treatment or that pleasurable coitus would be the ultimate result.

  Furthermore, meddling of this sort can be hazardous. As a single example, it might be mentioned that a condition known as priapism, in which the individual is unable to divest himself of an erection, is a possible consequence of such stimulation.

  —♦♦♦—

  “Candy is dandy,” Ogden Nash has assured us, “but liquor is quicker,” and this brief testimony to the aphrodisiacal reputation of alcohol sums things up rather neatly. Alcohol has always been a standard accompaniment to sex, and the occasions of its use are too numerous to warrant individual mention. Alcohol in one form or another is often employed not only as an aid in seduction but also to enhance a sexual encounter where no element of seduction is present. A male may pour drinks into his date in the hope that she will grant him her favors, and a married couple may make something of a point in getting half-lit together to heighten their sexual pleasure together. Either instance is proof of alcohol’s reputation.

  In point of fact, alcohol is no aphrodisiac at all. Nor is it a stimulant. It is a depressant—‌which tells us everything and tells us nothing at the same time.

  The pharmacopoeia contains a multitude of stimulants and a multitude of depressants. None of them are precisely the same. Any stimulant or depressant is apt to work not upon the body as a whole but upon one or more parts of the body with varying degrees of emphasis. Alcohol in particular is apt to work in an especially capricious way—‌it will exert a greater depressive effect upon one component than upon another at a given time but will vary in the sort of effect it yields, depending upon the individual, the way it has been imbibed, the contents of the stomach, and a variety of psychological variables that are not easily analyzed.

  One man will begin drinking, will grow progressively more tired, and will eventually pass out or drift off to sleep. In his case, alcohol is obviously a depressant. Another man may drink in the same fashion and may be moved to make a night of it, staying out longer than is his habit, raising all kinds of hell, and generally acting like someone with an overdose of adrenalin in his system. One might presume that alcohol has acted upon him as a stimulant. Actually, it has simply served to depress those elements of his nervous system which would have detected his fatigue, muddle his inhibitions, in other words makes him the life of the party.

  Alcohol is an aphrodisiac insofar as it depresses inhibitions. No woman becomes more passionate under its influence; some women, however, are more capable of realizing their true level of passion when the countermanding restrictions of conscience, fear, etc., are removed. Alcohol may also exert its depressant powers by enabling one to relax; when severe external tension has made pleasurable and satisfying sexual congress difficult or impossible, alcohol may dispel this tension and permit love to find a way.

  Finally, enough alcohol renders anyone unconscious, and unconscious women present blessed little resistance to seduction. While one might think that they also provide little pleasure to their seducers, such an opinion is by no means universally held. For certain men, the mere accessibility of a woman is the prime consideration; her participation is secondary, her pleasure not even in the running.

  The properties of alcohol in respect to sex are easy to explain, if occasionally difficult to predict in practical application. Other more exotic drugs present a good deal more in the way of complexity as far as their aphrodisiacal properties are concerned. Two of the more important of these have long been associated with sexual behavior, especially in the Middle East and the Orient. These are marijuana and opium.

  Marijuana—‌or hashish, or bhang, or an astonishing variety of names—‌is a rather complicated weed, rendered more complex by the variable forms it takes and the variable uses to which it is put in different societies. Demanding a brief explanation of the properties of marijuana is akin to the demand of that pagan who ordered a Talmudic scholar to explain the Law to him while he stood upon one leg. The scholar, one Rabbi Hillel, replied by spouting the Golden Rule. One might conjure up a comparable simplification by stating that marijuana is an intensifier. Its predominant property is that of catalyzing the intensification of certain moods and sensations.

  Under its influence, the morbid become suicidal, the happy become joyous, the inner-directed become profoundly introspective, the hostile become more irritable, and the sexy become, logically enough, still sexier. Tastes and odors, for better or for worse, are more keenly perceived. The time sense is for many persons completely distorted—‌a minute will last hours of subjective time, or an hour may vanish in a wink. Fear is more terrifying and hunger more demanding.

  In the sexual lore of the East, particularly the Arab world, the aphrodisiacal properties of hashish are taken for granted. It is thought to be particularly valuable in permitting the user to prolong coitus and sustain erection for a far greater period of time than would otherwise be possible. Marijuana does seem to endow the more sophisticated user with a special sort of control over himself and an ability to dominate aspects of his muscular and nervous systems that are normally largely involuntary.

  In The Cradle of Erotica, sexologists Edwardes and Masters describe this Arabic use of hashish as follows:

  The Islamic peoples of North Africa use hashish as… a medicine taken to prolong pleasure in carnal coition. Hemp is eaten, drunk, or smoked in small quantities to effect the desired result: a voluptuous stupor.

  Many Muslims, in describing the incredible effects of hashish, state that it stimulates the nervous system and prolongs erection of the penis for several hours. Under the influence … a man has no moral inhibitions and no self-restraint; he will indulge to frenzy in any sexual act which it is within his power to indulge. One of the first impulses of a mekaiyif or “ecstatic” is to strip stark naked, take his penis in hand, and masturbate as long and as hard as he possibly can. Inflamed by hashish, young Indian Mussulmans, marauding in small bands, will attack, rob, and rape men and women and boys and girls, taking turns in a continuous assault throughout the night.

  The enervating effects of marijuana are either a cultural matter or, as the authors suggest, derive from the Eastern custom of taking other drugs along with hashish; at any rate, they are not noticeable among Western marijuana users, who are rarely if ever moved to acts of violence by the drug. The effect of prolonging sexual potency has been well noted, however. Although one might not agree with Edwardes and Masters that “When a man is under the influence of imsak, a woman may rub and suck his penis all night long for his satisfaction,” the statement does represent reasonable hyperbole.

  The report of the United States Public Health Service on marijuana discusses the drug’s aphrodisiacal properties only briefly, summing things up with the neat observation that “the
sexual effects of marijuana are capricious.” The point is well taken. Under ideal conditions, marijuana may well enhance the pleasure of an act of coitus. By the same token, it may as easily render performance of the act utterly impossible. It is by no means uncommon, for example, for two persons to smoke marijuana as a prelude to coitus, only to discover that the drug has served to destroy rather than improve the mood. A scene in a novel by one of the lesser known Beat Generation writers provides good illustration.

  Mirabelle—‌sweet rounded tail, puppy dog eyes. We went by her place, a railroad flat on Houston Street, blood and eyes and wormwood walls. She broke out the pot. I rolled, expertly, losing not a drop. It was good shit. “Much better stuff in Mexico, baby. Last time in Laredo—‌”

  I’m no longer in tune with Mirabelle. I close my eyes and dig the gases in my lower colon. I am very much involved with myself. Mirabelle is now obsessed with making, with making it. IT. Sweater crawling into a pile on the floor, pants down over hips, down, off. Her hands on me like ants on dead meat.

  “Baby, baby.” I am unmoved. Somewhere way away a record plays. I want her to bug off but love her too much to say so. She is all sexness and I a statue. The tips of her breasts are bloody. I can smell her thighs and between them.

  “Baby, baby.” I think Go Away but say nothing. I cool it. She opens my fly and pulls out a plum. I lie cool as Death and let her have her lunch. Her mouth is a violation, but I am immune…