oples, such as _didi_
played in the Egyptian myth. These fruits can be either elixirs of life
and food of the gods, or weapons for overcoming the dragon as Hathor
(Sekhet) was conquered by her sedative draught.[388]

In his account of the peony, Pliny ("Nat. Hist.," Book XXVIII, Chap. LX)
says it has "a stem two cubits in length, accompanied by two or three
others, and of a reddish colour, with a bark like that of the laurel ...
the seed is enclosed in capsules, _some being red_ and some black ... it
has an _astringent taste_. The leaves of the female plant _smell like
myrrh_". Bostock and Riley, from whose translation I have made this
quotation, add that in reality the plant is destitute of smell. In the
Ebers papyrus _didi_ was mixed with incense in one of the
prescriptions;[389] and in the Berlin medical papyrus it was one of the
ingredients of a fumigation used for treating heart disease. If my
contention is justified, it may provide the explanation of how the
confusion arose by which the peony came to have attributed to it a
"smell like myrrh".

Pliny proceeds: "Both plants [_i.e._ male and female] grow in the woods,
and they should always be taken up at night, it is said; as it would be
dangerous to do so in the day-time, the woodpecker of Mars being sure to
attack the person so engaged.[390] It is stated also that the person,
while taking up the root, runs great risk of being attacked with
[prolapsus ani].... Both plants are used[391] for various purposes: the
red seed, taken in red wine, about fifteen in number, arrest
menstruation; while the black seed, taken in the same proportion, in
either raisin or other wine, are curative of diseases of the uterus." I
refer to these red-coloured beverages and their therapeutic use in
women's complaints to suggest the analogy with that other red drink
administered to the Great Mother, Hathor.

In his essay, "Jacob and the Mandrakes,"[392] Sir James Frazer has
called attention to the homologies between the attributes of the peony
and the mandrake and to the reasons for regarding the former as Aelian's
_aglaophotis_.

Pliny states ("Nat. Hist.," Book XXIV, Chap. CII) that the
_aglaophotis_ "is found growing among the marble quarries of Arabia, on
the side of Persia," just as the Egyptian _didi_ was obtained near the
granite quarries at Aswan. "By means of this plant [aglaophotis],
according to Democritus, the Magi can summon the deities into their
presence when they plea