mandrakes called love-apples
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
From the old notion that they were aphrodisiacs. Hence Venus is called Mandragoritis, and the Emperor Julian, in his epistles, tells Calixenes that he drank its juice nightly as a love-potion.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “mandrakes called love-apples” mean?
From the old notion that they were aphrodisiacs. Hence Venus is called Mandragoritis, and the Emperor Julian, in his epistles, tells Calixenes that he drank its juice nightly as a love-potion.
Is “mandrakes called love-apples” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.