Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-10-11
'Eit[lerBrin@ himBaCk-
@Lay hinL0W



cts love. according to old saying that
makes the world go round and apparently
. this full time job has kept the mysterious
dispenser of the tender passion fairly busy
Too busy in fact to give personal advice to
the lovelorn on how 10 win the hearts OF UNI
responsive sweethearts.
In consequence, respondent maids and
SWANS too, from time mmemorial have sought
TO lure the objects OF their unrequited affec-
tions by means of love philtres, magic charms
and amuets. Usually this has proved an UNI
profitable business and they have hoped
against hope and left no record of their heart
break
OF arresting interest therefore is the story
Of Dionysias, girl of Egypt who loved and
lost some 1000 years ago. Her story has been
brought to light by Professor Campbell Bon
ner, of the University of Michigan, from
small oval, brown, ronstone love charm
amulet II bears the figure of the Goddess
Isis. the great Egyptian Love Goddess as we'll
as Mother Goddess, incarnation Of love and
wisdom. On IL Dionysas herself had scratched
this unloverlike sentiment:
EITHER bring him back or lay
him lOiD."
Whether Dionysas was a disappointed
sweetheart or deserted sister-wife is not
clear, but she proved that Congreve's line,
Hell hath no fury like woman scorned" was
For the words lay him low as explained
by Professor Bonner mean ito be put to bed
with illness" technical term used in magic
to harm an enemy. The amulet apparently
had failed Dionysias and so she scratched her
ultimatum with a needle or sharp instrument
on the tickle amulet for posterity to ponder.
That she had pinned her faith on the
magical power of the love charm is evidenced
by the inscription on IT deciphered by
Professor Bonner. IT reads:
Bring back Achllas, son OF Serapias TO
Dionysias, daughter of Serapias"
Professor Bonner points out that both the
man and the woman are identified by the
mothers name. This was a practice in love
charms at the time.
The case OF Dionysias may not have been
a passing love affair but a brother and sister
marriage, common in dynastic Egypt. Which
ever II was, the love-sick Dionysias had not
gotten her errant Achillas back promptly.
However. her story decphered by Pro-
fessor Bonner before the American Philosophy
cal Society gives convincing evidence that the
girls of those days went out TO get their man
with the same thoroughness that has dstn-
gushed their sisters in love before and since.
1t also furnishes another example Of the
popular belief in the power Of amulets, love-
charms and phitres which have exercised an
important influence on peoples throughout the
world
For from prehistoric times the demand for
such charms has flourished and in the middle
ages workers in magic sprang up to supply
images in wax. seals adorned with mystical
attributes and love potons guaranteed to win
the kisses of the indifferent swain or the
chilly demoselle.
These love potions generally COM
pounded of wine mixed with various kinds of
herbs and portions of birds and animals re-
duced TO powder.
Even for a person violently smittcn with
the grand passion they bit complicated
and then there was the added difficulty of
persuading the loved one TO drink them
After the sixteenth century the popularity
of the love philtre went into a partial decline
and the lovelorn of the eighteenth century
were offered easier recipes. supposedly equally
powerful. Here is one from Magical Secrets
to Make Oneself Beloved from a manuscript
of that time:
TO win the love Of person. rub your