Hi Noreen!
now, that's really exciting what you write:
>, the transliteration seems to be:
>Ta n wnS ("tja en wenesh")
>I can't find it in the only other Egyptian dictionary I have (Faulkner's
>_Concise Dict. of Middle Egyptian_). Budge translates it literally as
>"wolf's paw." "Tja" is written with an animal's foot,
1. One of my sources says - without actual source - the mandrake's name in
Papyrus Ebers was 'dja-dja'. Fancy, the Hebrew/ maybe ancient Semitic (no
idea about that!) name was 'Dudaim' (in the Bible, describing the
'Loveapples' in Genesis I,30,14), used as a powerful aphrodisiac - as always
throughout time - and
2. One of the typical effects of mandrake - besides 'erotizing' and mainly
depending on the dose - is having visions of animals, favoritely dogs
etc.(most of the nightshade induced trances/trips include some vision of
animals: typically the medieval witches' travels).
!!! Let's just realize for a moment that we are here may be touching on a
very hot and not publicly known subject ... :-)) Who has liked to, nowadays
the sixties are gone, talk about possible drugs in ancient times any more?
Its not too scholarly a subject, I admit, but if we don't fantasize, we
won't learn anything more.
And another nightshade, henbane (hyoscyamos, translated as sow-bean, but I'm
not so sure as for that being the proper translation), good candidate for
Aegean 'highs' pharmacologically, may be >the< drug. I thought of it when
reading about 'iwryt kftiw', the bean from Crete, mentioned in the Papyrus
Ebers as remedy 'for giving defecation'. This again made me wonder. I can't
think of any 'bean' here for this purpose. In spite of its name the plant
has absolutely nothing to do with beans, but is a good remedy 'for giving
defecation'! Unfortunately we don't know nothing of ancient Cretan names for
plants (they probably wrote on perishing material, and we don't have
Egyptian climate here...), but often these names haven't changed for
centuries/millennia.
So is there any possibility (just being nosy, to much hypothesizing for
scholarly means...) the Egyptians had this bean's name as a kind of
'Lehnübersetzung'? Did the beans they ate also have this name 'iwryt' ?
And I've no idea about Butch as I have hardly any idea about Egyptology I
must admit (except from where it touches with Crete...)
As for the plants you mention:
beautiful, discreet (small, white-rose-ish, with a little yellow, generally
unknown, endemic to Crete, I believe) wild tulips flower here in spring
(May) in the high mountains. As I'm staying on the Nida plain (just below
the famous Idean Cave at c. 1450 m) in May because of my hayfever (that
drove me - together with following chronic bronchitis and asthma- out of
Germany where I was born) every May for two weeks or so: why don't you come
see me there? It's extremely cheap - via me - except for the flight... and
extremely interesting. And I'd really enjoy having someone like you sharing
my eremitage!
Narcissus/daffodils start blooming now - small and heavily odorous (you
can't stand them in the room over night). Tiny white flowers with bright
yellow centers.
Crocus - the famous one showing in lots of Minoan iconography - has just
flowered for its short week. I collected some flowers. They develop their
scent when drying. Why don't you mail me your postal address so I'll post
you a small probe for smell?? It's wonderful, sweet and - well, magical.
I think, Mandragora, in a pot or warm spot, might like your climate, too (in
winter on the window-sill, a friend of mine in Germany has tried it
successfully)!
Best wishes from Crete where - very late this year - we had our second
rainfall today. (And my parents in southern Germany are drowning in snow ...
I don't know how to teach my smallest daughter - of five, born in Crete -
what that is).
Sabine
p.s. but apart from all that late hour dreaming - it's just 4.30 here and
all my kids are asleep - please tell me your scholarly impression!