mandrake

The English name "mandrake" derives from Latin mandragora, and while the classical name has nothing to do with either "man" or "dragon/drake", the English form made it susceptible to such a folk etymology. The French form {{lang|fr|main-de-gloire}} ("hand of glory") has been held up as an even "more complete example" of folk etymology (cf. {{section link||Main-de-gloire}}).

The German common name is {{lang|de|Alraun, Alraune}} (cf. {{section link||Alraun}} below). However, the Latin mandragora, misidentified by false etymology to have a -draco ("dragon") stem (as manifests in the English from "mandrake", above) has caused the plant and beast to be conflated into an {{lang|de|Alraundrachen}}, in the sense of a household spirit. This combined form is not well attested, but the house kobold is known regionally as either alraune[e] or drak ({{lang|de|drak}}),{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|This is a Low German form, but also borrowed in Switzerland, as noted by to Doderer.}} both classed as "dragon names" by Weiser-Aall (cf. {{section link||Alraun-drak}}).{{rp|68), 71)}}

The mandrake-doll in German might be called {{lang|de|Alraun Männlein}} ("mandrake manikin"), in Belgian (Flemish) {{lang|nl|mandragora manneken}}, or in Italian {{lang|nl|mandragora maschio}}.{{sfnp|Harris|1917|p=370}} In German, it is also known as {{lang|de|Galgenmännlein}} ("little gallows man") stemming from the belief that they grow near gallows, also attested in Icelandic {{lang|is|þjófarót}} "thieves' root".{{sfnp|Simoons|1998|pp=121–122}}

Certain sources cite the Dutch name {{lang|nl|{{linktext|pis|diefje}}}} (lit. "little urine thief"{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Leyland gives 'little brain thief', which is not wrong, given "brain thief" is a term for mandrake, but {{linktext|pis}} is literally "piss, urine".}}) or {{lang|nl|{{linktext|pis|duiveltje}}}} ('urine devilkin'), claiming the plant grows from the brains of dead thieves, or the droppings of those hung on the gallows. The name "brain thief" for mandrake also occurs in English.

All species of Mandragora contain highly biologically active alkaloids, tropane alkaloids in particular. The alkaloids make the plant, in particular the root and leaves, poisonous, via anticholinergic, hallucinogenic, and hypnotic effects. Anticholinergic properties can lead to asphyxiation. People can be poisoned accidentally by ingesting mandrake root, and ingestion is likely to have other adverse effects such as vomiting and diarrhea. The alkaloid concentration varies between plant-samples. Clinical reports of the effects of consumption of Mediterranean mandrake include severe symptoms similar to those of atropine poisoning, including blurred vision, dilation of the pupils (mydriasis), dryness of the mouth, difficulty in urinating, dizziness, headache, vomiting, blushing and a rapid heart rate (tachycardia). Hyperactivity and hallucinations occurred in the majority of patients.

The root is hallucinogenic and narcotic. In sufficient quantities, it induces a state of unconsciousness and was used as an anaesthetic for surgery in ancient times. In the past, juice from the finely grated root was applied externally to relieve rheumatic pains. It was used internally to treat melancholy, convulsions, and mania. When taken internally in large doses it was said to excite delirium and madness.{{cite book|title=A Modern Herbal, first published in 1931, by Mrs. M. Grieve, contains Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-Lore|url=http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mandra10.html}}

File:NaplesDioscuridesMandrake.jpg De materia medica {{right|{{small|―7th century manuscript., Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples.}}}}]]

Theophrastus (d. c. 287 BC) Historia Plantarum wrote that the mandragora needed to be harvested by following a prescribed ritual, namely, "draw three circles around [the root] with a sword, and cut it facing west"; then in order to obtain a second piece, the harvester must dance around it while speaking as much lewd talk about sex as he possibly can.{{Refn|Theophrastus HN 9.8.8,"{{lang|grc|περιγράφειν δὲ καὶ τὸν μανδραγόραν εἰς τρὶς ξίφει..τὸν δ᾽ ἕτερον κύκλῳ περιορχεῖσθαι καὶ λέγειν ὡς πλεῖστα περὶ ἀφροδισίων.}}",{{sfnp|Randolph|1905|p=358}} Hort renders it as "one should dance round the plant and say as many things as possible about the mysteries of love", whereas Preus gives it directly as "say as much as possible about sexual intercourse".}} The ritual given in Pliny probably relies on Theophrastus.{{sfnp|Randolph|1905|p=358}}

Dioscorides in De materia medica (1st century) described the uses of mandragora as a narcotic, analgesic, and abortifacient. He also claimed a love potion could be concocted from it.

File:Dioscorides Vienna (detail).jpg

Dioscorides as a practicing physician writes that some in his profession may administer a ladle or 1 {{linktext|cyathus}} ({{convert|45|ml|USfloz|abbr=on}}) of mandrake reduction, made from the root boiled in wine until it shrivels to a third, before performing surgery.{{Refn|Disoscrides 1.571 gives "Some persons boil down the roots in wine to a third, strain it.. using one cyathus.. to [insominiacs or] persons about to be cut or cauterized".{{sfnp|Randolph|1905|p=514}} Though cast in third person, possibly "Dioscorides administered", himself, according to Finger.}} Pliny the Elder also repeats that a 1 cyathus dose of mandragora potion is drunk {{efn|The Latin text gives "{{lang|la|bibitur}}" rendered "It is drunk.. before incisions and punctures" by Randolph,{{sfnp|Randolph|1905|p=514}} though the Bostock&Riley translation phrases it as "It is given".}} by the patient before incisions or punctures are made on his body.{{Refn|name="plinius25.93"}}{{sfnp|Randolph|1905|p=514}} A simple juice ({{lang|grc|ὀπός}}) can be produced by mashing the root or scoring and leeching out, or a reduction type ({{lang|grc|χύλισμα}}, {{lang|grc|{{linktext|χυλός}}}}) made by boiling, for which Dioscorides provides distinguishing terms, though Pliny lumps these into "juice" ({{lang|la|sucus}}). Just the stripped bark may be infused for a longer period, or the fruits can be sun-dried into a condensed juice, and so forth.{{sfnp|Randolph|1905|p=507}} The plant is supposedly strong-smelling. And its use for eye remedy is also noted.{{Refn|name="plinius25.93"|Plinius Liber XXV. XCIII.{{cite wikisource|author=Plinius |chapter=Liber XXV.XCIII |title=Naturalis_Historia |wslink=Naturalis_Historia/Liber_XXV#XCIII |chapter-url=https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Naturalis_Historia/Liber_XXV#XCIII}}}}

Both authors acknowledge that there were male and female mandragora. Pliny states there was the white male type and the dark female type of mandragora.{{Refn|name="plinius25.93"}} However, he also has a different book-chapter on what he presumes to be a different plant called the white eryngium, also called centocapitum, which also are of two types, those resembling the male and female genitalia, which translators note might also be actually referring to the mandragora (of Genesis 30:14).{{Refn|name="plinius22.09"}} If a man came into possession of a phallic mandrake (eryngium), this had the power to attract women.{{Refn|name="plinius22.09"}} Pliny contends that Phaon of Lesbos Island, by obtaining this phallic root was able to cause the poetess Sappho to fall in love with him.{{Refn|name="plinius22.09"|Plinius Liber XXV. XCIII.{{cite wikisource|author=Plinius |chapter=Liber XXII.IX |title=Naturalis_Historia |wslink=Naturalis_Historia/Liber_XXV#XCIII |chapter-url=https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Naturalis_Historia/Liber_XXII#IX}}}}

A parallel has been noted between the lore of the mandrake harvested from a hangman, and the unguent which Medea gave to Iason, which was made from a plant fed with the body fluid from chained Prometheus.{{sfnp|Harris|1917|pp=356–357}}{{sfnp|Simoons|1998|pp=121–122}}

The ancient Greeks also burned mandrake as incense.{{Cite web|last=Carod-Artal |first=F. J. |date=2013 |title=Psychoactive plants in ancient Greece |url=https://nah.sen.es/en/130-journals/volume-1/issue-1/241-psychoactive-plants-in-ancient-greece |access-date=2021-02-17 |website=nah.sen.es}}

Two references to {{transl|he|duḏāʾim}} ({{lang|he|דּוּדָאִים}} "love plants"; singular: {{transl|he|duḏā}} {{lang|he|דודא}}) occur in the Jewish scriptures. The Septuagint translates {{lang|he|דודאים}} as {{langx|grc-x-koine|μανδραγόρας|mandragóras}}, and the Vulgate follows the Septuagint. Several later translations into different languages follow Septuagint (and Vulgate) and use mandrake as the plant as the proper meaning in both the Genesis 30:14–16{{sfnp|Randolph|1905|pp=503–504}} and Song of Songs 7:12-13. Others follow the example of the Luther Bible and provide a more literal translation.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Sir Thomas Browne, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica, however, suggests the dudaʾim of Genesis 30:14 refers only to the opium poppy (as a metaphor describing a woman's breasts.).}}

The {{transl|he|dud̲āʾim}} was considered an aphrodisiac{{Refn|Hastings, "love philtre", citing Genesis 3:14–18}} or rather a treatment for infertility,{{sfnp|Randolph|1905|pp=503–504}} as in Genesis 30:14. The anecdote concerns the fertility of the wives of Jacob, who engendered the Twelve Tribes of Israel headed by his many children. Though he had a firstborn son Reuben by Leah which was a marriage forced upon him, his favorite wife Rachel, Leah's younger sister, remained barren and coveted the dudaʾim. This plant was found by the boy Reuben who supposedly entrusted it to Leah, who would barter it in exchange for allowing her to spend a night in Jacob's bed.{{Refn|{{Blockquote|And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.|the Bible|King James Version, Genesis 30:14–16{{cite web|title=Genesis 30:14–16 (King James Version)|url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2030:14-16&version=KJV|publisher=Bible Gateway|access-date=6 January 2014}}}}}}

However, the herbal treatment does not seem to work on Rachel, and instead, Leah, who had previously had four sons but had been infertile for a long while, became pregnant once more, so that in time, she gave birth to two more sons, Issachar and Zebulun, and a daughter, Dinah.Genesis 30:14–22 Thus Rachel had to endure several more years of torment being childless, while her sister could flaunt her prolific motherhood, until God intervened, allowing for Rachel's conception of Joseph.

The final verses of Chapter 7 of Song of Songs (verses 12–13), mention the plant once again:

{{Blockquote|{{lang|he|נַשְׁכִּ֙ימָה֙ לַכְּרָמִ֔ים נִרְאֶ֞ה אִם פָּֽרְחָ֤ה הַגֶּ֙פֶן֙ פִּתַּ֣ח הַסְּמָדַ֔ר הֵנֵ֖צוּ הָרִמֹּונִ֑ים שָׁ֛ם אֶתֵּ֥ן אֶת־דֹּדַ֖י לָֽךְ׃ הַֽדּוּדָאִ֣ים נָֽתְנוּ-רֵ֗יחַ וְעַל-פְּתָחֵ֙ינוּ֙ כָּל-מְגָדִ֔ים חֲדָשִׁ֖ים גַּם-יְשָׁנִ֑ים דּוֹדִ֖י צָפַ֥נְתִּי לָֽךְ:}} }}

{{Blockquote|Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.

The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.|the Bible|King James Version, Song of Songs 7:12–13{{cite web|title=Song of Songs 7:12–13 (King James Version)|url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song%20of%20Songs%207:12-13&version=KJV|publisher=Bible Gateway|access-date=6 January 2014}}}}

File:Sloane278, fol.48v-elephans&draco&mandragora.jpg

In the Christian allegorical bestiary Physiologus, the chapter on the elephant claims that the male becomes minded to create an offspring, it leads its mate to the growing ground for the female to find the mandragora and come into estrous, the female then brings the root to the male which in turn become inflamed and they mate, making the female immediately pregnant.{{sfnp|Simoons|1998|pp=109–110}}{{sfnp|Randolph|1905|pp=502–503}} The elephants are illustrated in e.g., Sloane 278.{{harvp|Druce|1919|p=62}}, and p. 58 (Plate VIII)

Philippe de Thaun's bestiary in Anglo-Norman verse has a chapter on the "mandragore", which states it consists of two kinds of roots, and must be extracted by the method of using a dog. He proports it to be a cure of all illnesses, save death{{harvp|Simoons|1998|p=380}} (n189 to pages 124–125)

Josephus (circa 37-100) of Jerusalem instructed on a method of using a dog as surrogate to uproot the dangerous herb used in exorcism. The herb has been equated to the mandragora in subsequent scholarship. According to Josephus, it was no easy task for the harvester, because it will move away from the hand which will grab it, and though it can be stopped by pouring a woman's urine or menstrual blood on it, touching it will cause certain death. Thus in order to safely obtain it: {{blockquote|A furrow must be dug around the root until its lower part is exposed, then a dog is tied to it, after which the person tying the dog must get away. The dog then endeavours to follow him, and so easily pulls up the root, but dies suddenly instead of his master. After this, the root can be handled without fear.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Post |first=George E. |author-link=George Edward Post |entry=mandrake |editor-last=Hastings |editor-first=James |editor-link=James Hastings (priest) |title=A Dictionary of the Bible: Volume III: (Part I: Kir -- Nympha)|entry-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4RbvnQEACAAJ&pg=PA234 |page=234 |access-date=28 May 2014 |date=October 2004 |publisher=University Press of the Pacific |isbn=978-1-4102-1726-4}}}} Here Josephus only refers to the plant as Baaras, after the place where it grows (in the valley Wadi Zarqa covering the north side of Machaerus,{{Refn|Macherus, Machärus{{rp|11)}}}} in present-day Jordan), and thinks the plant is a type of rue (of the citrus family) however, it is considered to be identifiable as mandrake based on textual comparisons (cf. {{section link||Alraun}}).

File:Mandrake LJS 46 16r.jpg

In the past, mandrake was often made into amulets which were believed to bring good fortune, cure sterility, etc. In one superstition, people who pull up this root will be condemned to hell, and the mandrake root would scream and cry as it was pulled from the ground, killing anyone who heard it. Therefore, in the past, people have tied the roots to the bodies of animals and then used these animals to pull the roots from the soil.

File:Lippmann(1894)-p004-alraun&hund.png

According to the European folklore (including England{{sfnp|Harris|1917|p=356}}), when the root is dug up, it screams and kills all who hear it, so that a dog must be attached to the root and made to pull it out. This piece of lore goes back centuries to Josephus's described method of sacrificing the dog to procure his baaras,{{sfnp|Harris|1917|p=365}}{{sfnp|Simoons|1998|pp=121–124}} as already described above.

It was a medieval embellishment that the root shrieked when extracted, and so was the lore that mandrake grew from the spots where criminals spilled their fluids. Neither of these were registered by the ancient Greek or Latin authors{{efn|Pliny (or Josephus), and Theophrastus.{{sfnp|Simoons|1998|pp=121–124}}}}

The mandrake is represented as shining at night like a lantern, in the Old English Herbarium (c. 1000).

File:Tacuinum Sanitatis Mandrake Dog.jpg (1474).]]

In medieval times, mandrake was considered a key ingredient in a multitude of witches' flying ointment recipes as well as a primary component of magical potions and brews.Hansen, Harold A. The Witch's Garden pub. Unity Press 1978 {{ISBN|978-0-913300-47-3}} These were entheogenic preparations used in European witchcraft for their mind-altering and hallucinogenic effects.{{Cite book|title=The encyclopedia of psychoactive plants: ethnopharmacology and its applications|last=Raetsch|first=Ch.|publisher=US: Park Street Press|year=2005|pages=277–282}} Starting in the Late Middle Ages and thereafter, some believed that witches applied these ointments or ingested these potions to help them fly to gatherings with other witches, meet with the Devil, or to experience bacchanalian carousal.{{cite book| last=Peters |first=Edward| contribution=Sorcerer and Witch| editor-last=Jolly |editor-first=Karen Louise

|editor2-last=Raudvere |editor2-first=Catharina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GzitzV4fSWgC&q=errores+gazariorum+cathars&pg=PA233|title=Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Middle Ages | isbn=978-0-485-89003-7 | year=2001 |pages=233–37 | publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|display-editors=etal}}

Romani people use mandrake as a love-amulet.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpWMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA82|title=Herbal Magick: A Guide to Herbal Enchantments, Folklore, and Divination|author=Gerina Dunwich|date=September 2019 |publisher=Weiser Books |isbn=978-1-63341-158-6 }}

File:Perger(1861)Alraun-p268-fig-C.jpg collection, Nürnberg.}}}}]]

{{See also|Kobold#Mandrake dolls}}

The German name for mandrake is {{lang|de|Alraun}}, or female case {{lang|de|{{linktext|Alraune}}}} as already stated, from MHG {{lang|gmh|alrûne}}, OHG {{lang|gmh|alrûn}} ({{lang|gmh|alruna}}.{{Refn|The form alruna is also attested in the Glossaria Augiensia of Reichenau Abbey, 13th cent., ed. Mone, cited by Grimm DM, Anmerkungen.}}). The name has been connected to the female personal name OHG Al(b)rûn, Old English {{lang|ags|Ælfrūn}}, Old Norse {{lang|non|Alfrún}}, composed of elements {{lang|de|Alb/Alp}} 'elf, dream demon' + {{lang|de|{{linktext|raunen}}}} "to whisper"; a more persuasive, though not clinching, explanation is that it derives from *ala- 'all' + *rūnō 'secret' hence "great secret". Grimm explains that it passed from the original meaning of a prophetess type of evil-spirit (or wise woman), into the mandrake or plant-root charm.

The form {{lang|de|allerünren}} (or {{lang|de|allerünken}}) is attested as the Dithmarschen dialect for standard diminutive {{lang|de|alrünchen}}, and in the narrative, the doll is carefully locked in a box, since touching it will impart a power to multiply the dough many times over.{{harvp|Müllenhoff|1845}}. "CCLXXXV. Das Allerürken", pp. 209–210.

The alraune doll was also known by names such as {{lang|de|glücksmännchen}}) and {{lang|de|galgenmännlein}}. The doll, according to superstition, worked like a charm, bringing its owner luck and fortune.{{rp|319}} The {{lang|de|glücks-männchen}} might be a wax doll "ridiculously dressed up". There is also the {{lang|de|mönöloke}}, a wax doll dressed up in the name of the devil,{{harvp|Müllenhoff|1845}}. "CCLXXXIV. Mönöloke", p. 209. which is considered a parallel or variant of the alrun doll.

Because true mandrake does not grow native in Germany, Alrun dolls were being made from cane-roots or false mandrake (German: Gichtrübe;{{sfnp|Praetorius|1663|p=158}} Bryonia alba of the gourd family), recorded in the herbal book by the Italian Pietro Andrea Mattioli (d. 1577/78). The roots are cut approximately to human-like shape, then replanted in the ground for some time. If hair is desired, the root is pockmarked using a sharpened dowel and millet grains pushed into the holes, and replanted until something like a head of hair grows.{{Refn|name="mattioli-german"|Mattioli's herbal tome, Book 4, Chapter 21, cited by {{harvp|Praetorius|1663|p=158}}}}{{Refn|Mattioli (1563), Das Vierdte Buch von der Kreuter, "Vom Alraun Cap. LXXV", requoted by Marzell.}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Gichtrube{{sfnp|Praetorius|1663|p=158}} answers to Bryonia alba, and while the latter quote from Mattioli stating "{{lang|de|Brionienwurtz}}" may seem ambiguous as to species, Mattioli elsewhere describes the type that grows in Hungary and Germany to be black-berried (not red), which is sufficient as identifier.}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Praetorius in his Anthropodemus: Neue Welt-Beschreibung, Volume 2 gives a different German name,{{lang|de|schwarz Stickwurgel}}. Mattioli lists the German names {{lang|de|Stickwurtz, Teufelskürbtz}} (latter prob. "devil gourd") in his Latin treatise entry for this plant. The present-day common name in German seems to be Weiße Zaunrübe.}}

The root or rhizome of an iris, gentian or tormentil (Blutwurz) was also purposed for making Alraun dolls. Even the alpine leek (German: Allermannsharnisch; Allium victorialis) was used.{{rp|316}} The doll formerly owned by Karl Lemann of Wien (cf. fig. right; purchased by Germanisches Nationalmuseum in 1876 where it now remains) had been appraised in the past as having the head made of bryony root, and the body of an alpine leek.

A pair of vintage alraune kept in the Austrian imperial and royal (now national) library, described as being untampered naturally grown roots, belonged to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (d. 1612).{{harvp|Perger|1861|pp=266–268}}, Fig. A and B.{{harvp|Wolfthal|2016}} Fig. 8-8

German sources repeat the recipe of harvesting the mandrake (Alraun) by sacrificing a dog, but demand a "black dog" should be used.{{Refn|Mattioli, op. cit.}}{{Refn|Andreas Libavius Singularium Pars II (1599), under "Exercitatio de agno vegetabili Scythiae" (Vegetable Lamb of Tartary)、p, 313.{{sfnp|Schlosser|1912|p=28}}}} This has passed into German literature,{{Refn|{{harvp|Grimmelshausen|1673}}, Galgen-Männlein, p. 4 notes that Alraun requires a black dog, just like Josephus prescribes for extracting Baraas{{sic}}, then elaborates on Josephus's method in the Annotatio.{{sfnp|Grimmelshausen|1673|pp=7–8}}}}{{Refn|{{harvp|Praetorius|1663}} Saturnalia ("Saturnalia: That Is, A Company of Christmastide Antics"), pp. 166–167 also cite Josephus, The Jewish War Book 7, Ch. 25 and explain the procedure for unrooting the Baaras (correct spelling).}}{{Refn|Praetorius's Anthropodemus: Neue Welt-beschreibung volume 1, ch. 5 on "Plant-people" discusses the alraun and black dog, but Grimm's citation only includes volume 2, ch. 8 on the "Wood-man", with some bits of information.}} and into folklore, as compiled by the Brothers Grimm in Deutsche Sagen, No. 83 "Der Alraun".{{Refn|name="Grimm-DS&DW-alraun"|Grimms' DS No. 83, redacted in Grimm DM 4te Ausgabe, Band II, Kap. XXXVII}}{{Both|Grimmelshausen (Simplicissmus) Galgen-Männlein and Praetorius Saturnalia: Compagnie Weihnachts-Fratzen are cited sources for Grimms' No. 83 and provide most of the content. But some details are not covered by these two, as Grimms used other sources, incl. Gabriel Rollenhagen's Indianische Reisen.}} The Grimm version has the black dog tied by the tail,{{Refn|name="Grimm-DS&DW-alraun"}} but this is not a constant reflected in all the sources, nor does it match the illustrated depictions show above.

German folklore assigns the alias name {{lang|de|Galgenmännlein}} ("little man of the gallows") to the mandrake, based on the belief the plant springs from the ground beneath a hanged man where his urine or semen had dripped into ground.{{sfnp|Simoons|1998|pp=121–122}} A more elaborate set of condition had to be met by the hanged man to produce the magic herb in version given by the Grimms' DS, which essentially amalgamates the formulae from two of its sources.{{Refn|name="Grimm-DS&DW-alraun"}}

According to one source, when the hanged man was a hereditary thief ({{lang|de|Erbdieb}}), and the mother while carrying the child either stole or contemplated stealing before giving birth to him, and if died a virgin, then the fluids dripped down will cause a "{{lang|de|Galgn-Mänl}}" to grow there (Grimmelshausen alias Simplicissimus's Galgen-Männlein, 1673).{{sfnp|Grimmelshausen|1673|pp=3–4}} It later states the plant is the product combining the arch-thief's ({{lang|de|Erzdieb}}) soul and his semen or urine.{{sfnp|Grimmelshausen|1673|pp=22–23}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The Grimms cite Simplicissimus Galgen-Männlein. It is generally known Simplicissimus was a pseudo-author/character invented by Grimmelshausen. The work's title also mentions as informant or co-author an "Israel Fromschmidt [von Hugenfelss]" (Grimms' Fron- is a typo), but this personage is also an anagram pseudonym of Grimmelshausen. The date of authorship was solved from a chronogram as 1673.}} The other source states that when an innocent man hanged as a thief releases "water" from the pain and torture he endured, the plant with plantain-like{{efn|German: Wegerich.}} leaves like will grow from that spot. And collecting it requires only that it takes place on a Friday before dawn, with the collector stuffing his ears with cotton and sealing them with wax or pitch, and making the sign of the cross three times while harvesting (Johannes Praetorius, Satrunalia, 1663).

The acquired alraun root needs to be washed with red wine, then wrapped in silk cloth of red and white, and deposited in its own case; it must be removed every Friday and bathed, and new white shirt be given every new moon, according to the Grimms' collated version,{{Refn|name="Grimm-DS&DW-alraun"}} but sources will vary on the details.{{Refn|Mattioli: washed with wine and water all Saturday long; {{harvp|Grimmelshausen|1673|p=4}}: wash with red wine, wrap in soft linen or silk, and bathe every Friday. Praetorius Saturnalia: wrap in white and red silk, encased, and prayed to.}}

And if questions are posed to the alraun doll, it will reveal the future or secrets, according to superstition. In this way, the owner becomes wealthy. It can also literally double small amounts of money each night by placing a coin on it. It must not be overdone, or the alraun will be tapped of its strength and may die.{{Refn|name="Grimm-DS&DW-alraun"}}{{Refn|Grimm, after {{harvp|Grimmelshausen|1673|p=3}} provides the monetary limits. A ducat (gold coin) will rarely succeed in doubling, and if the owner wants the doll to endure, a half thaler (silver coin) would be about the limit.}} The owner, it is also said, will be able to befriend everybody, and if childless will be blessed with children.{{Refn|Mattioli also remarks that the barren will become fertile. }}

When the owner dies, the youngest son will inherit ownership of the doll. In the father's coffin must be place a piece of bread and a coin. If the youngest son predeceases, then the right of inheritance passes to the eldest son, but the deceased youngest son must also receive his coin and bread in the coffin.{{Refn|name="Grimm-DS&DW-alraun"}}

It has been noted that the household kobold may be known regionally as Alraun[e] or Drak, with the same etymological relationship,{{Refn|Classification "I Drachennamen".}} The drak name does not descend [directly] from Latin draco ("dragon"), but from the mandragora, but folklore about fiery dragons then did get conflated with the notion of the house sprite, according to Heimito von Doderer (cf. also {{section link||Nomenclature}}) Doderer provides commentary that "field dragons" (tatzelwurm) and mandrake fused with the folklore of the house kobold.

{{interlanguage link|Heinrich Marzell|de}}'s entry in the HdA ventures that the alraun depicted as flying creature laying golden eggs is in fact a dragon,{{rp|47)}} though the two Swiss examples, the animal is unidentified ({{lang|de|Alräunchen}}], living in the woods at the foot of Hochwang near Chur), or the alrune is a red-crested bird, which others rumored might generate a thaler coin each day for the owner.{{Refn|Note that Polívka in his paper on the lore of kobolds born from an egg (much of it from Pommerania, now straddling Germany and Poland) makes connection to Wendian lore about a black hen hatching dragon (p. 55) similar to the well-known lore on the basilisk (passim), also noting that the Alraunmanchenn is the agent performing the luck- or gold-bringing task for the owner.}}

In France, there is also the tradition that the man-de-gloire (mandrake) is harvested from under a gibbet.{{sfnp|Harris|1917|p=372}}

There is testimony collected firsthand by Sainte-Palaye (d. 1781), in which a peasant claimed to have kept a man-de-gloire found at the base of a mistletoe-bearing oak. The creature was said to be a type of mole. It had to be fed regularly with meat, bread, etc., or suffer dire consequences (two who failed suffered death). But in return, whatever one gave to the man-de-gloire, a double amount or value was restored next day (even an écu of money), thus enriching its keeper.{{Refn|The ultimate source (which work or document by Palaye) is not clarified, and Rendel Harris quotes Palaye in French out of Pierre Adolphe Chéruel (1855) Dictionnaire historique.{{sfnp|Harris|1917|pp=372–373}}}}

An excerpt from Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual by nineteenth-century clergyman, occultist, and ceremonial magician Éliphas Lévi, suggests the plant might hint at mankind's "terrestrial origin:"

{{blockquote|The natural mandragore is a filamentous root which, more or less, presents as a whole either the figure of a man, or that of the virile members. It is slightly narcotic, and an aphrodisiacal virtue was ascribed to it by the ancients, who represented it as being sought by Thessalian sorcerers for the composition of philtres. Is this root the umbilical vestige of our terrestrial origin? We dare not seriously affirm it, but all the same it is certain that man came out of the slime of the earth, and his first appearance must have been in the form of a rough sketch. The analogies of nature make this notion necessarily admissible, at least as a possibility. The first men were, in this case, a family of gigantic, sensitive mandragores, animated by the sun, who rooted themselves up from the earth; this assumption not only does not exclude, but, on the contrary, positively supposes, creative will and the providential co-operation of a first cause, which we have REASON to call GOD.

Some alchemists, impressed by this idea, speculated on the culture of the mandragore, and experimented in the artificial reproduction of a soil sufficiently fruitful and a sun sufficiently active to humanise the said root, and thus create men without the concurrence of the female. Others, who regarded humanity as the synthesis of animals, despaired about vitalising the mandragore, but they crossed monstrous pairs and projected human seed into animal earth, only for the production of shameful crimes and barren deformities.pp. 312, by Eliphas Levi. 1896}}

The following is taken from Jean-Baptiste Pitois's The History and Practice of Magic (1870), and explains a ritual for creating a mandrake:

{{blockquote|Would you like to make a Mandragora, as powerful as the homunculus (little man in a bottle) so praised by Paracelsus? Then find a root of the plant called bryony. Take it out of the ground on a Monday (the day of the moon), a little time after the vernal equinox. Cut off the ends of the root and bury it at night in some country churchyard in a dead man's grave. For 30 days, water it with cow's milk in which three bats have been drowned. When the 31st day arrives, take out the root in the middle of the night and dry it in an oven heated with branches of verbena; then wrap it up in a piece of a dead man's winding-sheet and carry it with you everywhere.pp. 402-403, by Paul Christian. 1963}}

• {{annotated link|ginseng}} (name comes from "human" shape)
• {{annotated link|The Spirit in the Bottle}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|refs=

{{harvp|Steinmeyer|Sievers|1895}} AHD Gl. 3 alrûna, alruna p. 100; alrun p. 326; alrune, p. 536

{{cite encyclopedia|editor1-last=Ersch|editor1-first=Johann Samuel |editor1-link=Johann Samuel Ersch |editor2-last=Gruber|editor2-first=Johann Gottfried |editor2-link=Johann Gottfried Gruber |entry=Glücksmännchen |title=Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste |volume=1 |location=Leipzig |publisher=Brockhaus |year=1860|entry-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xQndsknDKBAC&pg=PA303 |pages=303–304}}

{{cite book|last=Bechstein |first=Ludwig |author-link=Ludwig Bechstein |others=Illustrated by Adolf Ehrhardt |chapter=182. Allerünken |title=Deutsches Sagenbuch |location=Leipzig |publisher=Georg Wigand |year=1853 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AU4WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA167 |pages=167–168}}

{{cite book|last=Breuer |first=Dieter |author-link= |title=Simpliciana: Schriften der Grimmelshausen-Gesellschaft XXVI (2004). in Verbindung Mit Dem Vorstand der Grimmelshausen-Gesellschaft |publisher=Peter Lang |date=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BisUo40PymUC&pg=PA64 |page=64 |isbn=9783039106264}}

{{cite encyclopedia|editor1-last=De Cleene|editor1-first=Marcel |editor1-link=|editor2-last=Lejeune |editor2-first=Marie Claire |editor2-link= |title=Compendium of Symbolic and Ritual Plants in Europe: Herbs |volume=2 |location=Ghent |publisher=Man & Culture |year=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g5GBAAAAMAAJ&q=%22pisdiefje%22 |page=336|isbn=9789077135044}}

{{cite book|last=Doderer |first=Heimito von |author-link=Heimito von Doderer |editor-last=Schmidt-Dengler |editor-first=Wendelin |editor-link=:de:Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler |title=Die Wiederkehr der Drachen |publisher=C.H.Beck |year=1996 |orig-date=1959 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0EgXbsOENJcC&pg=PA33 |page=33 |isbn=978-3-406-40408-5 }}; repr. of: {{cite journal|last=Doderer |first=Heimito von |title=Die Wiederkehr der Drachen |journal=Atlantis: Länder, Völker, Reisen |volume=31 |year=1959 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gQYYAQAAMAAJ&q=Alraundrache |page=112}}

{{cite encyclopedia|editor1-last=Kluge |editor1-first=Friedrich |editor1-link=Friedrich Kluge |editor2-last=Seebold |editor2-first=Elmar |editor2-link=Elmar Seebold |entry=Alraun |title=Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache |edition=25 |location= |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |year=2012 |orig-date=1899 |entry-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6FSSDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 |page=35 |isbn=9783110223651 }}; cf. {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=GDsf4ncE5d8C&pg=PA37 |2=6th edition, Band. 1}} (1899)

{{cite book|last=Finger |first=Stanley |author-link= |title=Origins of Neuroscience: A History of Explorations Into Brain Function |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_GMeW9E1IB4C&pg=PA159

|page=159|isbn=9780195146943}}

{{cite book|last=Folkard |first=Richard |author-link= |title=Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics: Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore of the Plant Kingdom |place=London |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington |date=1884 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MzslAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA428 |page=428}}

{{cite book|last=Ginzberg |first=Louis |author-link=Louis Ginzberg |others=Translated by Henrietta Szold; Paul Radin |title=The Legends of the Jews: Notes to volumes 1 and 2: From the creation to the exodus |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Jewish Publication Society of America |year=1925 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k9GLITx7dp4C&pg=PA298 |page=298}}

{{cite web|url=https://www.gnm.de/objekte/alraunmaennchen |author=Germanisches Nationalmuseum |author-link=Germanisches Nationalmuseum |title=Alraunmännchen |work=Ihr Museum in Nürnberg |date= |access-date=2024-10-01}}

{{cite book|last=Greenough |first=James Bradstreet |author-link=James Bradstreet Greenough |title=Words and Their Ways in English Speech |place=New York |publisher=Macmillan |date=1901|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dXsLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA340 |pages=340–341}}

{{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Grimm|Stallybrass tr.|1883}}|last=Grimm |first=Jacob |author-link=Jacob Grimm |others=Translated by James Steven Stallybrass |chapter=XVI. Wise Women §Alarûn|title=Teutonic Mythology |volume=1 |publisher=W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen |year=1880 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F9E3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA404 |pages=404–405}}; German: {{cite book|last=Grimm |first=Jacob |author-link=Jacob Grimm |chapter=XVI. Weise Frauen |title=Deutsche Mythologie |edition=4 |volume=1 |location=Göttingen |publisher=W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen |year=1875 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=85GLFD-dUEoC&pg=PA334 |pages=334–335}}

{{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Grimm|Stallybrass tr.|1888 }}|last=Grimm |first=Jacob |author-link=Jacob Grimm |others=Translated by James Steven Stallybrass |chapter=(Notes to) XVII. Wights and Elves §Elves, Dwarves |title=Teutonic Mythology |volume=4 |publisher=W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen |year=1888 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uy1LAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1399 |at=p. 1399, note to Vol. 2:405}}; German: {{cite book|last=Grimm |first=Jacob |author-link=Jacob Grimm |chapter=(Anmerkung zu) XVI. Weise Frauen |title=Deutsche Mythologie |edition=4 |volume=3 |location=Göttingen |publisher=W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen |year=1878 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VD7aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA115 |at=p. 115, Anmerk. zu Band 1: S. 334, 335}}

{{harvp|Grimm|Stallybrass tr.|1888}} {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=uy1LAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1435 |2=Vol. 4: 1435, note to Vol. 2: p. 513n}}: "The allerürken{{sic}}.."; German: {{harvp|Grimm|1878}}. {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=VD7aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA148 |2=Band 3: 148, Anmerkung zu Band 1, S. 424}}.

{{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Grimm|Stallybrass tr.|1883}}|last=Grimm |first=Jacob |author-link=Jacob Grimm |others=Translated by James Steven Stallybrass |chapter=XXXVII. Herbs and Stones §Mandrake, Alraun |title=Teutonic Mythology |volume=3 |publisher=W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen |year=1883b |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBwAAAAAQAAJ |pages=1202–1203}}; German: {{cite book|last=Grimm |first=Jacob |author-link=Jacob Grimm |chapter=XXXVII. Kräuter §Alraun |title=Deutsche Mythologie |edition=4 |volume=2 |location=Berlin |publisher=Ferd. Dummlers Verlagsbuchhandlung |year=1876 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zWQJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA1005 |pages=1005–1007}}

{{harvp|Grimm|Stallybrass tr.|1883b}}, {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ektAAAAIAAJ&pg=513 |2=p. 513, n1}}; German: {{cite book|last=Grimm |first=Jacob |author-link=Jacob Grimm |chapter=(Anmerkung von) XXXVII. Kräuter und Steine |title=Deutsche Mythologie |edition=2 |volume=3 |location=Göttingen |publisher=W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen |year=1875 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VD7aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA122 |pages=352–353}}, note to text in Grimm (1877) 2: 1007.

{{cite book|editor=Grimms |editor-link=Brothers Grimm |chapter=83. Der Alraun |title=Deutsche Sagen |volume=1 |location=Berlin |publisher=Nicolai |year=1816 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SRcFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA135 |pages=135–137}}

{{cite book|last=Hatsis|first=Thomas |author-link=|chapter=4. Roots of Bewitchment |title=The Witches' Ointment: The Secret History of Psychedelic Magic |location= |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2015 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=omAoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT110　|pages= |isbn=9781620554746}}

{{cite dictionary|ref={{SfnRef|Marzell|1927}} |last=Marzell |first=Heinrich |author-link=:de:Heinrich Marzell |entry=Kobold |editor1-last=Bächtold-Stäubli |editor1-first=Hanns |editor1-link=:de:Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli |editor2-last=Hoffmann-Krayer |editor2-first=Eduard |editor2-link=Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer |title=Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens |volume=Band 1 Aal-Butzemann |location=Berlin |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |date=1987 |orig-date=1927 |url=https://archive.org/details/handworterbuch-des-deutschen-aberglaubens-vollstandig-band-01-bis-10-berlin-1987/page/n1827/mode/2up |pages=312–324|isbn=3-11-011194-2}}

Weiser-Aall, Lily (1933) "{{URL|1=https://archive.org/details/handworterbuch-des-deutschen-aberglaubens-vollstandig-band-01-bis-10-berlin-1987/page/n1827/mode/2up |2=Kobold}}", HdA, 5:29–47

{{Cite journal |last1=Jiménez-Mejías |first1=M.E. |last2=Montaño-Díaz |first2=M. |last3=López Pardo |first3=F. |last4=Campos Jiménez |first4=E. |last5=Martín Cordero |first5=M.C. |last6=Ayuso González |first6=M.J. |last7=González de la Puente |first7=M.A. |date=1990-11-24 |title=Intoxicación atropínica por Mandragora autumnalis: descripción de quince casos [Atropine poisoning by Mandragora autumnalis: a report of 15 cases] |journal=Medicina Clínica |volume=95 |issue=18 |pages=689–692 |pmid=2087109 |name-list-style=amp }}

{{cite book|author=Josephus |author-link=Josephus |others=Translated by William Whiston |chapter=The Jewish War VII.VI.3 |title=The Works of Flavius Josephus: The Learned and Authentic Jewish Historian and Celebrated Warrior. With Three Dissertations, Concerning Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, James the Just, God's Command to Abraham, &c. and Explanatory Notes and Observation |location=Baltimore |publisher=Armstrong and Plaskitt, and Plaskitt & Company |year=1835 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=1AMVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA569 |page=569}}

{{Cite book |last=Leland |first=Charles Godfrey |author-link=Charles Godfrey Leland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eGh884SrW3kC&pg=PA221 |title=Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition |date=1892 |publisher=T. F. Unwin}}

{{cite book|last=Levenson |first=Alan T. |author-link=Alan Levenson |chapter=1. Joseph. Favored Son, Hated Brother |title=Joseph: Portraits Through the Ages |publisher=U of Nebraska Press, 2016 |year=2019 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=13OyDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |page=1|isbn=9780827612945}}

Lexer (1878). "{{URL|1=https://woerterbuchnetz.de/?sigle=Lexer&lemid=A00993|2=al-rûne}}", Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch

{{cite book|last=Libavius |first=Andreas |author-link=Andreas Libavius |title=Singularium Andreae Libavii Pars Secunda...|location=Francofurti |publisher=Kopffius |year=1599 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7B6kpQiXkIC&pg=PA313 |page=313}}

{{cite book|last=Lippmann |first=Edmund Oskar von |author-link=Edmund Oskar von Lippmann |title=Über einen naturwissenschaftlichen Aberglauben: nach einem Vortrage gehalten in der Naturforschenden |place= Halle a. Saale |publisher=M. Niemeyer |year=1894 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AG8IkB4IjzAC&pg=PA4　|page=4}}

{{cite book|last=Marzell |first=Heinrich |author-link=:de:Heinrich Marzell |chapter=6. Kapitel. Heren- und Zauberpflanzen |title=Die heimische Pflanzenwelt im Volksbrauch und Volksglauben: Skizzen zur deutschen Volkskunde |place=Leipzig |publisher=Quelle & Meyer |year=1922 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hQ5FAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA95 |pages=95–96}}

{{cite book|last=Matskevich |first=Karalina |author-link=|chapter=3. The Mothers in the Jacob Narrative (Gen. 25.19-37.1) § The dûdāʾim of Reuben |title=Construction of Gender and Identity in Genesis: The Subject and the Other |place=|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2019 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=776EDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA185 |page=185 |isbn=9780567673770}}

{{cite book|last=Mattioli |first=Pietro Andrea |author-link=Pietro Andrea Mattioli |chapter=Vom Alraun Cap. LXXV. |title=New Kreüterbuch: Mit den allerschönsten vnd artlichsten Figuren aller Gewechß, dergleichen vormals in keiner sprach nie an tag kommen |place=Prague|publisher=Melantrich von Auentin und Valgriß |year=1563 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4bhEAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA467 |pages=467–468}}

{{cite book|last=Mattioli |first=Pietro Andrea |author-link=Pietro Andrea Mattioli |chapter=Vitis alba, siue Bryonia |title=De Plantis epitome vtilissima, Petri Andreae Matthioli Senensis... novis plane, et ad vivum expressis iconibus, descriptionibusque... nunc primum diligenter aucta, et locupletata, à D. Ioachimo Camerario... Accessit... liber singularis de itinere ab urbe Verona in Baldum montem plantarum ... |place=Franfurt am Main |publisher=Johann Feyerabend |year=1586 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NMtFdsqq6e8C&pg=PA987 |page=987}}

{{cite book|author=R |chapter=VIII. Teutsche Glossare und Glossen. 61. Glossaria Augiensia |editor-last=Mone |editor-first=Franz Joseph |editor-link=:de:Franz Joseph Mone |title=Anzeiger für Kunde des deutschen Mittelalters|volume=8 |location=Kralsruhe |publisher=Christian Theodor Groos |year=1839 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CXZLAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA397 |page=397}}

{{cite book|last=Perger |first=Anton Franz Ritter von |author-link=:de:Anton von Perger |chapter= |title=Über den Alraun|location= |publisher=Schriften des Wiener-Alterthumsvereins |date=May 1861 |url=https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/berichte_mitteilungen_altertums_vereines_wien1861/0302/image,info |at=p. 268, Fig. C}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=ljxmAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA268 alt etext] @ books.google

{{cite book|author=Philippe de Thaun |author-link=Philippe de Thaun |editor-last=Wright |editor-first=Thomas |editor-link=Thomas Wright (antiquarian) |chapter=The Bestiary of Philipee de Thaun |title=Popular Treatises on Science Written During the Middle Ages: In Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman and English |location=London |publisher=Historical Society of Science |year=1841 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-RYJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA101 |page=101-102}}. For example, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=-RYJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA74 Cocodrille, p. 85]" corresponds to folio 50r of [http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100062419814.0x000001 Cotton MS Nero A V] digitized @ British Library.

{{Cite journal |last1=Piccillo |first1=Giovita A. |last2=Mondati |first2=Enrico G. M. |last3=Moro |first3=Paola A. |year=2002 |title=Six clinical cases of Mandragora autumnalis poisoning: diagnosis and treatment |journal=European Journal of Emergency Medicine |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=342–347 |doi=10.1097/00063110-200212000-00010 |pmid=12501035 |name-list-style=amp }}

{{cite book|author=Pliny the Elder |author-link=Pliny the Elder |others=Translated by Bostock, John Bostock; Riley, Henry Thomas |chapter=Book XXII, Chap. 94. Mandragora, Circæon, Morion, or Hippophlomos; Two varieties of it; Twenty-Four Remedies |title=The Natural History of Pliny |volume=4 |location=London |publisher=Henry G. Bohn |year=1856 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NnRiAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA138 |pages=138–140}}

{{cite book|author=Pliny the Elder |author-link=Pliny the Elder |others=Translated by Bostock, John Bostock; Riley, Henry Thomas |chapter=Book XXV, Chap. 94. Mandragora, Circæon, Morion, or Hippophlomos; Two varieties of it; Twenty-Four Remedies |title=The Natural History of Pliny |volume=5 |location=London |publisher=Henry G. Bohn|year=1856 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NnRiAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA138 |pages=138–140}}

{{cite journal|last=Polívka |first=Georg |author-link=Jiří Polívka (linguist) |others=Johannes Bolte |title=Die Entstehung eines dienstbaren Kobolds aus einme Ei |journal=Zeitschrift für Volkskunde |volume=18 |date=1928 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GYKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA42 |pages=41–56}}

{{cite book|last=Praetorius |first=Johannes |author-link=:en:Johannes Praetorius (writer) |chapter=Propositio VII |title=Saturnalia, das ist eine Compagnie Weihnachts-Fratzen oder Centner-Lügen |trans-title=Saturnalia: That Is, A Company of Christmastide Antics |location=Leipzig |publisher=Joh. Wittigau |year=1663 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LRdVAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA155 |pages=155, 156 !--155–190-->}} ((Also figures A, B of male and female mandrakes, Imperial Library, Vienna, pp. 183, 189）

{{cite book|last=Praetorius |first=Johannes |author-link=Johannes Praetorius (writer) |others=Illustrated by Thomas Cross (fl. 1632-1682) |chapter=XV. Von Pflantz-Leuten |title=Anthropodemus Plutonicus. Das ist, Eine Neue Welt-beschreibung Von allerley Wunderbahren Menschen |volume=1 |location=Magdeburg |publisher=In Verlegung Johann Lüderwalds |year=1666 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OzJmAAAAcAAJ&q=Hund&pg=RA2-PA184|pages=172, 184 }}

{{cite book|last=Praetorius |first=Johannes |author-link=Johannes Praetorius (writer) |chapter=VIII. Von Holz-Menschen |title=Ander Theil der Neuen Welt-Beschreibung |volume=2 |location=Magdeburg |publisher=In Verlegung Johann Lüderwalds |year=1677 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DPmUIWHAAOIC&pg=PA215　|pages=215,216!--215–233-->}}

{{cite book|last=Preus |first=Anthony |author-link= |chapter=6. Drugs and Pyschic States in Theophrastus' Historia plantarum |editor1-last=Fortenbaugh |editor1-first=William Wall |editor1-link= |editor2-last=Sharples |editor2-first=Robert W. |editor2-link=Robert Sharples (classicist) |title=Renaissance Posthumanism |location=New Brunswick, NJ |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1988 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XIfDpu6_0BcC&pg=PA79 |page=79|isbn=9781412839730 |series=Rutgers Univ. studies in classical humanities 3}}

{{cite book|last=Rochholz |first=Ernst Ludwig |author-link=:de:Ernst Ludwig Rochholz |chapter=268. Die Alrune zu Buckten |title=Schweizersagen aus dem Aargau: Gesammelt und erlauetert |volume=2 |place=Aarau |publisher=H.R. Sauerlaender |date=1856|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gLA_AAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA43 |page=43}}

{{cite book|last=Scholte |first=Jan Hendrik |author-link= |title=Zonagri Discurs von Waarsagern: Ein Beitrag zu unserer Kenntnis von Grimmelshausens Arbeitsweise in seinem Evigwährenden Calendar mit besonderer Berücksichtiging des Eingangs des abentheuerlichen Simplicissimus |place=Amesterdam |publisher=Johannes Müller |date=1921 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_uwMAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA2-PA79 |page=79}}

{{cite book|last=Taylor |first=Joan E. |author-link=Joan E. Taylor |title=The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea |place=|publisher=OUP Oxford |date=2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c91oAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA317 |pages=317–318 |isbn=9780191611902}}

{{cite book|author=Theophrastus |author-link=Theophrastus |others=Translated by Arthur Hort |chapter=IX.8.7 |title=Enquiry Into Plants |volume=2 |place=New York |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |date=1016 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.183504/page/258/mode/2up |pages=258–259 |series=The Loeb Classical Library}}

{{Cite journal |last1=Ungricht |first1=Stefan |last2=Knapp |first2=Sandra |last3=Press |first3=John R. |year=1998 |title=A revision of the genus Mandragora (Solanaceae) |journal=Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, Botany Series |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=17–40 |url=https://archive.org/stream/bulletinofnatura28natulond#page/16/mode/2up |access-date=2015-03-31 |name-list-style=amp }}

{{cite book|editor-last=Vernaleken |editor-first=Theodor |editor-link=:de:Theodor Vernaleken |chapter=60. [Alräunchen] (informant: Chr. Tester in Chur) |title=Mythen und bräuche des volkes in Oesterreich: als beitrag zur deutschen mythologie, volksdichtung und sittenkunde |place=Wien |publisher=W. Braumüller |date=1859|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZUKAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA260 |page=260}}

{{cite journal |last=Wedgwood |first=Hensleigh |author-link=Hensleigh Wedgwood |title=On False Etymologies |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KKxUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA67 |year=1855 |issue=6 |page=67}}: {{URL|1=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3924121;view=1up;seq=79= 2=e-text}} @ HathiTrust (US only)

{{cite book|last=Wolfthal |first=Diane |author-link= |chapter=8. Beyond Human: Visualizaing the Sexuality of Abraham Bosse's Mandrake |editor1-last=Campana |editor1-first=Joseph |editor1-link= |editor2-last=Maisano |editor2-first=Scott |editor2-link= |title=Renaissance Posthumanism|location= |publisher=Fordham Univ Press |year=2016 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R5SUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT231 |pages=|isbn=9780823269570}}

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• {{cite journal|last=Druce |first=George C |author-link= |title=The Mediæval Bestiaries, and Their Influence on Ecclesiastical Decorative Art |journal=Journal of the British Archaeological Association |volume=25 |number=1 |year=1919 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mzRNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA41|pages=41–82 |doi=10.1080/00681288.1919.11894541}}
• {{cite book|last=Grimmelshausen |first=Jacob Christoffel von |author-link= |author-mask=Grimmelshausen, Jacob Christoffel von (pseudonyms: Simplicissmus, Israël Fromschmidt von Hugenfeltß) |title=Simplicissimi Galgen-Männlin |place= |publisher= |year=1673 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f19jAAAAcAAJ|pages=}}
• {{cite journal|last=Harris |first=J. Rendel |author-link=J. Rendel Harris |title=The Origin of the Cult of Aphrodite |editor-last=Guppy |editor-first=Henry |editor-link= |editor-mask=Guppy, Henry (Librarian of John Rylands Library) |journal=Bulletin of the John Rylands Library |volume=3 |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1917 |issue=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZc_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA373 |pages=354–381|doi=10.7227/BJRL.3.4.2 }}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Müllenhoff |editor-first=Karl |editor-link=Karl Müllenhoff |title=Sagen, Märchen und Lieder der Herzogthümer Schleswig Holstein und Lauenburg |location=|publisher=Schwerssche Buchhandlung |year=1845 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=138BAAAAQAAJ |pages=}}
• ——(1899). {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=znaLPAeek88C&pg=PA4 |2=Reprint}}. Siegen: Westdeutschen Verlagsanstalt
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• {{cite book|last=Simoons |first=Frederick J. |author-link= |chapter=Chapter 4. Mandrake, a Root Human in Form |title=Plants of Life, Plants of Death, Frederick J. Simoons |location= |publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press |year=1998 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KEUAbrBoeBAC&pg=PA121 |pages=101–135|isbn=9780299159047 }}
• {{cite book|editor1-last=Steinmeyer |editor1-first=Elias |editor1-link=Elias von Steinmeyer |editor2-last=Sievers |editor2-first=Eduard |editor2-link=Eduard Sievers |title=Die althochdeutschen Glossen |volume=3 |location=Berlin |publisher=Weidmann |year=1895 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4RdSAQAAMAAJ&q=alruna&pg=PA100 |pages=}}

{{refend}}

{{refbegin}}

• Heiser, Charles B. Jr (1969). Nightshades, The Paradoxical Plant, 131-136. W. H. Freeman & Co. SBN 7167 0672-5.
• Thompson, C. J. S. (reprint 1968). The Mystic Mandrake. University Books.
• Muraresku, Brian C. (2020). The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name. Macmillan USA. {{ISBN|978-1-250-20714-2}}

{{refend}}

{{refbegin}}

{{Commons category|Mandrake (mythological plant)}}

{{Wikispecies|Mandragora}}

• [http://www.erowid.org/plants/mandrake/ Erowid Mandrake Vault]
• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Mandrake}}
• [http://www.wildflowers.co.il/english/plant.asp?ID=10 Mandragora in Wildflowers of Israel]

{{refend}}

Category:Deliriants

Category:Solanaceae

Category:Medicinal plants

Category:Herbal and fungal hallucinogens

Category:Magic substances

Category:Mythological plants

Category:Mythological human hybrids

Category:Plants in the Bible

Category:Pareidolia