A darkly feminine blend of deep purple violets in a hypnotic chypre of sueded dark leathers, aged patchouli, midnight-black amber, and a narcotic swirl of opium.
"She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said — ‘I love thee true’.
She took me to her Elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!’ "
- John Keats (1819)
Deadly Nightshade is also called Atropa Belladonna - 'the beautiful lady who cuts the threads of life.' In the Middle Ages, Belladonna was equated with witchcraft and aggressive female sexuality. The maenods of the orgies of Dionysus would ingest Belladonna and would either throw themselves into the arms of male worshipers or tear them apart and eat them. Roman priests were known to have drank an infusion of Belladonna before making supplications to Bellona, their Goddess of War, for a victory in battle.
Art: Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses by John William Waterhouse,1891