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Spanish fly
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Spanish fly

Alternative name for a European blister beetle Lytta vesicatoria, once used in powdered form as a dangerous diuretic and supposed aphrodisiac.



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Among his surviving holograph manuscripts is an essay on the relative efficacy of different aphrodisiacs: viper wine is "powerfull," cantharides (better known today as Spanish fly) "mighteleye provokes, butt is dangerous," and foods such as lamb's testicles, sparrow's brains, "All younge meates," chestnuts, and melons are effective provokers of lust.
"Pleasure reconciled to virtue": William Cavendish, Ben Jonson, and ... by Raylor, Timothy / Renaissance Quarterly
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