It is probable that
the mistake arose from the fact that potatoes were originally a
luxury, and luxuries frequently tend to be regarded as
aphrodisiacs, since they are consumed under circumstances which
tend to arouse the sexual desires. It is possible also that, as
has been plausibly suggested, the misunderstanding may have been
due to sailors--the first to be familiar with the potato--who
attributed to this particular element of their diet ashore the
generally stimulating qualities of their life in port. The eryngo
(_Eryngium maritimum_), or sea holly, which also had an erotic
reputation in Elizabethan times, may well have acquired it in the
same way. Many other vegetables have a similar reputation, which
they still retain. Thus onions are regarded as aphrodisiacal, and
were so regarded by the Greeks, as we learn from Aristophanes. It
is noteworthy that Marro, a reliable observer, has found that in
Italy, both in prisons and asylums, lascivious people are fond of
onions (_La Puberta_, p. 297), and it may perhaps be worth while
to recall the observation of Serieux that in a woman in whom the
sexual instinct only awoke in middle age there was a horror of
leeks.
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