Lured into bread: Women in the medieval period would knead DOUGH on their body before baking it and serving it to their husbands in the hope it would improve their sex lives, historian reveals
- Dr Eleanor Janega was speaking on new History Hit podcast Betwixt the Sheets
- She said some women would make bread from dough kneaded on their bodies
- Would then serve it to their husband in the hope it would act as an aphrodisiac
- Some medieval women also believed that honey was an aphrodisiac
When we think of people who lived in the Middle Ages, it is usually the crushing poverty and high infant mortality that stand out.
But now a historian of the medieval period has revealed something less well-known: the ploys that women used to get their other halves into bed.
Speaking on a new podcast, Dr Eleanor Janega said that one bizarre method involved wives kneading dough on their naked bodies before baking it to turn it into bread and then serving it to their husbands.
Some medieval women also believed that honey was an aphrodisiac and would smother it ‘all over’ their bodies before putting it ‘in things’ and then serving the foods to their other halves.
The historian also quoted from a bizarre ‘penitential guide’ – questions priests asked members of their congregation to get them to admit their sins – to highlight an even more obscure aphrodisiac.
Written by 10th century bishop Burchard of Worms, it described how ‘some women’ would put a ‘live fish’ in their vagina before ‘waiting until it is dead’ and then cooking it and serving it to their husband.
However, she said the bishop’s claims that women actually used the method were ‘probably made up’.
When we think of people who lived in the Middle Ages, it is usually the crushing poverty and high infant mortality that stand out. But now a historian of the medieval period has revealed something less well-known: the ploys that women used to get their other halves into bed
Dr Janega was speaking on new History Hit podcast Betwixt the Sheets.
The expert is the author of new book the Middle Ages: A Graphic History, which was published last year.
Speaking of the popular aphrodisiacs, she told host Kate Lister: ‘There are a lot of options here, and interestingly a lot of them have to do with eating.
‘A lot of the time what it will be is introducing ways of getting your husband to kind of eat something that has been in contact with your body.
Speaking on a new podcast, Dr Eleanor Janega said that one bizarre method involved wives kneading dough on their naked bodies before baking it to turn it into bread and then serving it to their husbands
‘So you will see quite often there will be a thing where it is like, when you are making bread, you knead the dough on your body, taking bread and kneading it down one’s naked body and then baking it.
‘Or similarly putting honey all over one’s body and then kind of like taking the honey off and putting the honey in things.
Dr Janega is the author of The Middle Ages: A Graphic History
‘Honey plays a really large role in terms of aphrodisiacs and stuff.
‘Quite benign ones will be things like ‘take rose petals and grind them and put them with honey and serve that to people’ so is there is this idea of sweetness being an aphrodisiac.
‘But people will get mad at you for rubbing honey all over your body and scraping it off and feeding it to your husband.
She then quoted from Burchard of Worm’s guide, which she said was a ‘how-to book’ for priests to ask their congregation “what have you been doing, what have you been up to.”
Reading out the Bishop’s words, she said: ‘Have you done what some women are want to do?
‘They take a live fish and put it in their vagina, keeping it there for a while until it is dead.
‘Then they cook or roast it and give it to their husbands to eat, doing this in order to make the men be more ardent in their love for them.
‘If you have, you should do two years of penance on the appointed fast days.’
However, the historian immediately poured scorn on the notion that his strategy would have been pursued by any women.
‘Here is what I mean about hostile witnesses and how you have to be really careful,’ she said.
‘So here is a dude, and he is a bishop… and in theory these men are meant to be celibate. When you see things like this you think, “yeah you really don’t have sex”.
‘The idea that a woman would take a live fish and be like “this is what I’m doing now, like in that goes, I’ll just wait until its dead and then cook it and feed it to my husband”.
‘This is probably made up, this is probably not real,’ she added.
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