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National Geographic
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- National Geographic
The original sirens in mythology weren't the seductresses we know today
Sirens torment Ulysses with their enchanting song in Herbert James Draper's 1909 painting titled 'Ulysses and the Sirens.' Draper portrays the Sirens as sexualized mermaids, consistent with other Edwardian era depictions of the creatures. © Ferens Art Gallery / Bridgeman Images For thousands of years sirens have lured sailors, haunted coastlines—and shapeshifted through myth and media. Here's how they evolved to the seductive mermaids of our modern imagination. The Greek hero Odysseus famously faces many travails as he attempts to return home following the Trojan War, from giant cannibals to enigmatic enchantresses. But one challenge stands out as perhaps the most evocative, dangerous, and enduring of them all: the sirens, with their hypnotic and mesmerizing song, who call to passing sailors. To stop is certain death. They're powerful and mysterious figures and even now, of all the creatures from Greek myths, audiences simply can't get enough of them. Sirens have been a fixture of the Western imagination since the time of Homer and the composition of The Odyssey in the 8th century B.C. They appear in the works of ancient Roman writers like Pliny the Elder and Ovid, and one even appears in Dante's Divine Comedy. They fascinated painters of the 19th century and now lend their name to television shows and the "siren-core" fashion aesthetic touted by social media creators. (Dante's 'Inferno' is a journey to hell and back.) But these mythological creatures have shifted forms dramatically over the centuries, transforming with the times to reflect society's complicated and ever-changing relationship with desire. In modern popular culture, sirens are alluring creatures of the sea, most commonly women, often sporting shimmering mermaid tails. But their ancient Greek roots weren't fishlike at all; instead, they were bird-bodied creatures associated with death. Here's how sirens have evolved over time, and why their song stays so loud in popular culture. A attic terracotta status from Greece 300 BCE shows Sirens in their original, bird-woman form. Photograph by Peter Horree, Alamy Stock Photo This artwork titled 'A Siren and a Centaur' shows how classical mythology and artistic imagination have blended together to reshape Sirens iconography. The piece portrays a bird-like siren (left) and centaur (right) in an imaginative and dynamic scene. Photograph by ART Collection, Alamy Stock Photo Homer's Odyssey is the sirens' earliest appearance. Thought to have been composed sometime in the 8th century B.C., the poem follows the winding path of the hero Odysseus as he returns home to Ithaca and his long-suffering wife from the Trojan War. Along the way, he faces Greek gods, marvels, and monsters, including the sirens. The sorceress Circe warns him about the creatures, telling him that they 'bewitch all passersby. If anyone goes near them in ignorance, and listens to their voices, that man will never travel to his home.' Odysseus plugs his men's ears with wax, so they won't be lured—but he leaves his own ears free and commands his men to bind him to the ship's mast, so he's able to hear their promises as they tempt him with the prospect of knowledge and tales of heroic deeds. (The Odyssey offers monsters and magic—and also a real look into the ancient world.) But the Odyssey is far from the only story featuring the sirens. They also appear in the Argonautica, a 3rd century B.C. epic poem following Jason and the Argonauts in their search for the Golden Fleece, where sirens are described as daughters of the river god Achelous and the muse Terpsichore. The musician Orpheus snatches up his lyre to drown out their song—but not before one member of the crew throws himself in the ocean. Tradition has it that the names of those sirens were Parthenop, Ligeia and Leucosia. Perhaps the siren's most important distinguishing feature—and the one that remains to this day—is their voice. 'It's a hypnotic voice, it lures people, makes them forget everything, in a lot of cases makes them fall asleep,' says Marie-Claire Beaulieu, associate professor of classical studies at Tufts University. 'Essentially, people become so hypnotized that they forget everything.' What do sirens symbolize in Greek culture? 'When the ancients say sirens, they mean a bird-bodied woman,' says Beaulieu. Closely associated with death, sirens' bird legs and wings show that they're liminal creatures who dwell betwixt and between. Their connection with the sea, which the ancient Greeks considered profoundly dangerous, and their wings, situate them somewhere between earth and air. Sirens were a fixture of ancient Greek funerary art, such as stele, a type of grave marker. For example, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts holds a funerary plaque from the 7th century B.C. depicting a mourning scene, in which two women flank a funeral couch that holds a corpse. Crouched underneath is a siren. Some sources, including Euripides' 5th century B.C. play Helen and Ovid's 8th century A.D. poem Metamorphoses, associate the sirens with Persephone, the goddess of spring carried off by Hades, god of the underworld, to become his queen. Some stories say they were given wings to seek Persephone. According to Beaulieu, som e sources, including the Argonautica , show sirens as the daughters of one of the Muses. 'Except that in a way, they're the Muses of death, instead of the Muses of life, because they lure people to death with this singing,' says Beaulieu. This mural from the 14th century shows a Siren playing music. During this period, the enchantresses were depicted as both bird-women and mermaids. Photograph by Heritage Image Partnership Ltd, Alamy Stock Photo How the iconography of sirens has evolved Sirens retained their bird bodies into the time of the Roman Empire and well beyond; Pliny the Elder includes them in the 'Fabulous Birds' section of his Natural History, written around A.D. 77, claiming they lull men to sleep with their song and then tear them to pieces. (Though he's a skeptic that they exist.) But over the course of the Middle Ages, the siren transformed. More and more they began exhibiting fishtails, not bird bodies. The two types coexisted from the 12th through 14th centuries at least, Beaulieu explains, but eventually the mermaid-like creature emerged as dominant. That shift is probably thanks in part to the strong Greek and Roman tradition of unrelated sea gods like Triton, as well as the sirens' association with water. But it's also thanks in no small part to the influence of Celtic folklore traditions. 'The blending is a super interesting syncretism of cultures,' says Beaulieu, pointing to 14th century tradition about St. Brendan the Navigator, an early Irish Christian whose journeys parallel those of Odysseus. Naturally, he encounters a siren on his odyssey—only this one is wholly recognizable to modern audiences as a mermaid. How Christianity has shaped Greek mythology As the physical appearance of the sirens began to shift, so did their symbolic meaning. The sirens of ancient Greece were considered beautiful—but they tempted Odysseus with songs of glory, not simply sex. Ancient Greeks were more concerned with power dynamics, so a man having sex with a subordinate woman wasn't a problem. 'You get into trouble when you have a goddess having sex with a mortal, for instance,' explains Beaulieu. "That's part of what would have given the sirens their menace." But medieval Christianity saw sex and sirens differently. They became symbols of temptation itself, a way to talk about the lures of worldly pleasures and the deceptive, corrupting pull of sin. Hence the appearance of a siren in Dante's 14th century Divine Comedy. The very same creature who tempted Odysseus comes to Dante in a dream and identifies herself as 'the pleasing siren, who in midsea leads mariners astray.' In the end, his guide and companion through the underworld (the epic poet Virgil) grabs her, tears her clothing, and exposes the 'stench' of her belly showing the medieval siren is sexually alluring but repulsive. Those medieval temptresses are unmistakably the roots of modern sirens, with their dangerously attractive songs. The association between sirens, mermaids, and temptation only grew tighter in the 19th century, when painters returned again and again to creamy-skinned, bare-breasted sirens with lavish hair. There is no better example than John William Waterhouse's turn-of-the-century painting The Siren, where a lovely young woman gazes down at a stricken, shipwrecked young sailor who looks both terrified and enthralled. The sirens of modern-day popular culture Millennia later, the sirens continue to resonate. They're even inspiration for a fashion aesthetic: sirencore, a beachy and romantic look with just a little hint of menace. Modern creatives, meanwhile, are still turning to the sirens as a source of inspiration and a rich symbol for exploring power, gender, and knowledge. Netflix's new release Sirens, which adapts Molly Smith Metzler's 2011 play Elemeno Pea and stars Julianne Moore, explicitly grapples with the mythological figure. Director Nicole Kassell told The Hollywood Reporter, 'I love the idea of analyzing the idea of what a siren is, and who says what a siren is—the sailor. It's very fun to get to go back and consider it from a female lens.' Black sirens navigate the challenges of modern-day sexism and racism in Bethany C. Morrow's 2020 A Song Below Water; a Puerto Rican immigrant falls in love with a merman on turn-of-the-century Coney Island in Venessa Vida Kelley's 2025 When The Tides Held The Moon. For many writers, sirens are an opportunity to turn old tales and stereotypes on their head, using characters who've long been reviled and distrusted for their controversial power. The Sirens by Emilia Hart is one such modern-day retelling, which weaves between the modern day, and the 19th century transportation of Irish women convicts to Australia. 'I thought this mythological creature was the perfect way to give my female characters some power back into this historical narrative,' she explains. 'I wanted to make this general comment on how we think about women and how we have this idea of women as being temptresses, and we demonize them and we overly sexualize them, as a way of trying to explain or perhaps diminish their power,' she says. In the hands of modern-day writers, the sea can become a place of transformation, freedom, and potential. And sirens can be restored to a place of power and wisdom—and, yes, a bit of danger too.
The Irish Sun
3 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Ghislaine Maxwell's brother fears she will be KILLED in jail ‘like Epstein'… as he vows to free sex trafficker sister
GHISLAINE Maxwell's brother is afraid she will be killed in prison "like Jeffrey Epstein". Ian Maxwell, 68, is hoping to get his Advertisement 6 Ghislaine Maxwell (in black) pictured with her brother Ian (right) and her parents Robert and Elisabeth in 1990 Credit: Bridgeman Images 6 Ian Maxwell fears his sister will be killed in prison Credit: AP 6 The disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell posing with husband Jeffrey Epstein Credit: PA Ian said he fears for her life behind bars in Tallahassee's federal prison, and warned she's no longer safe inside the overcrowded facility. Worried about her every day, he told the Daily Mail: 'There's such overcrowding in Tallahassee that higher-category prisoners are being placed there and it's becoming a facility that is more dangerous – we've got to get her out of there. 'Normally she spends a lot of time in the prison library helping other prisoners with things like form filling, but she has to go from A to B and isn't always surrounded by guards. 'It's a possibility someone might get to her. I don't want to be dramatic but you can't discount it. Look what happened to Epstein.' Advertisement Read more on Jeffrey Epstein Maxwell, 63, is During her three-week trial in 2021, jurors heard prosecutors describe While her legal appeals have been thrown out by multiple courts, Ian insists the fight is far from over to get the disgraced British socialite out. The brother revealed her legal team is plotting a last-ditch effort involving new evidence and an explosive habeas corpus filing. Advertisement Most read in The US Sun Breaking He admitted hopes that the US Supreme Court will hear her case are slim. Trump blasts 'are we still talking about this creep-' over Epstein as mystery swirls around 'missing CCTV & client list' 'It's not a done deal,' he said. 'About 10,000 petitions are lodged each year and they only hear 200 to 250 cases.' But if that fails, the family says they'll take another legal route. Advertisement 'If they don't hear Ghislaine's case… we will go another route and file a writ of habeas corpus which allows a prisoner to challenge their imprisonment on the basis of new evidence, such as government misconduct.' The family have long argued Maxwell was made a scapegoat for Epstein's crimes and treated harshly to satisfy public outrage after the convicted paedophile died in his cell in 2019. 'I fully believe my sister is innocent and that she will be released some day in the future,' Ian said. The Maxwell family has consistently claimed she was denied a fair trial. Advertisement And now they're In a recent statement, the family said: 'Our sister Ghislaine did not receive a fair trial. 'Her legal team continues to fight her case in the courts and will file its reply in short order to the government's opposition in the US Supreme Court. 'If necessary, in due course they will also file a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court, SDNY. Advertisement 'This allows her to challenge her imprisonment based on new evidence, such as government misconduct that would have likely changed the trial's outcome.' 6 Maxwell, 63, was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein lure underage girls into a web of abuse Credit: AFP 6 Convicted paedophile Epstein died in prison in 2019 Credit: Rex Judges have already rejected the defence team's claim that she "should never have been prosecuted" because of the "weird" 2007 plea deal, but the family appears undeterred. Advertisement It also comes amid reports that A source close to Maxwell exclusively told The Sun on Sunday there's a 'window of momentum' in her favor. The insider said: 'Those close to her believe it's unfair that she alone is paying for Epstein's crimes and call into question much of the evidence against her. 'Now her legal team feel as if they have a rare window of momentum so they are set to take up her case with the President.' Advertisement Meanwhile, renewed political pressure is mounting over the unresolved mysteries surrounding Epstein's sick empire. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has claimed a 'Somewhere in the Treasury Department… locked away in a cabinet drawer, is a big Epstein file that's full of actionable information,' Wyden said on the Senate floor. He has urged federal authorities to investigate nearly $1.1 billion in suspicious wire transfers linked to Epstein, as well as his connections to Russian banks and the trafficking of women from Eastern Europe. Advertisement Although the Biden administration has dismissed claims of hidden records as 'fantasies' and 'political theatre,' calls for transparency around Epstein's finances and ties to powerful individuals continue to grow. 6 Maxwell's legal team is plotting a last-ditch effort involving new evidence Credit: AFP
Scottish Sun
3 days ago
- Scottish Sun
Ghislaine Maxwell's brother fears she will be KILLED in jail ‘like Epstein'… as he vows to free sex trafficker sister
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) GHISLAINE Maxwell's brother is afraid she will be killed in prison "like Jeffrey Epstein". Ian Maxwell, 68, is hoping to get his convicted sex trafficker sister out of jail using new evidence. 6 Ghislaine Maxwell (in black) pictured with her brother Ian (right) and her parents Robert and Elisabeth in 1990 Credit: Bridgeman Images 6 Ian Maxwell fears his sister will be killed in prison Credit: AP 6 The disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell posing with husband Jeffrey Epstein Credit: PA Ian said he fears for her life behind bars in Tallahassee's federal prison, and warned she's no longer safe inside the overcrowded facility. Worried about her every day, he told the Daily Mail: 'There's such overcrowding in Tallahassee that higher-category prisoners are being placed there and it's becoming a facility that is more dangerous – we've got to get her out of there. 'Normally she spends a lot of time in the prison library helping other prisoners with things like form filling, but she has to go from A to B and isn't always surrounded by guards. 'It's a possibility someone might get to her. I don't want to be dramatic but you can't discount it. Look what happened to Epstein.' Maxwell, 63, is currently serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein lure underage girls into a web of abuse stretching back to the 1990s. During her three-week trial in 2021, jurors heard prosecutors describe Maxwell as "dangerous". While her legal appeals have been thrown out by multiple courts, Ian insists the fight is far from over to get the disgraced British socialite out. The brother revealed her legal team is plotting a last-ditch effort involving new evidence and an explosive habeas corpus filing. He admitted hopes that the US Supreme Court will hear her case are slim. Trump blasts 'are we still talking about this creep-' over Epstein as mystery swirls around 'missing CCTV & client list' 'It's not a done deal,' he said. 'About 10,000 petitions are lodged each year and they only hear 200 to 250 cases.' But if that fails, the family says they'll take another legal route. 'If they don't hear Ghislaine's case… we will go another route and file a writ of habeas corpus which allows a prisoner to challenge their imprisonment on the basis of new evidence, such as government misconduct.' The family have long argued Maxwell was made a scapegoat for Epstein's crimes and treated harshly to satisfy public outrage after the convicted paedophile died in his cell in 2019. 'I fully believe my sister is innocent and that she will be released some day in the future,' Ian said. The Maxwell family has consistently claimed she was denied a fair trial. And now they're reportedly banking on a controversial 2007 agreement Epstein struck with the Department of Justice to shield his co-conspirators from prosecution. In a recent statement, the family said: 'Our sister Ghislaine did not receive a fair trial. 'Her legal team continues to fight her case in the courts and will file its reply in short order to the government's opposition in the US Supreme Court. 'If necessary, in due course they will also file a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court, SDNY. 'This allows her to challenge her imprisonment based on new evidence, such as government misconduct that would have likely changed the trial's outcome.' 6 Maxwell, 63, was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein lure underage girls into a web of abuse Credit: AFP 6 Convicted paedophile Epstein died in prison in 2019 Credit: Rex Judges have already rejected the defence team's claim that she "should never have been prosecuted" because of the "weird" 2007 plea deal, but the family appears undeterred. It also comes amid reports that Maxwell is pursuing a pardon from Donald Trump, following the closure of the US probe into Epstein's death and financial dealings. A source close to Maxwell exclusively told The Sun on Sunday there's a 'window of momentum' in her favor. The insider said: 'Those close to her believe it's unfair that she alone is paying for Epstein's crimes and call into question much of the evidence against her. 'Now her legal team feel as if they have a rare window of momentum so they are set to take up her case with the President.' Meanwhile, renewed political pressure is mounting over the unresolved mysteries surrounding Epstein's sick empire. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has claimed a 'big' Epstein file 'full of actionable information' is gathering dust in the Treasury Department — information that could shine more light on the financier's global sex trafficking network. 'Somewhere in the Treasury Department… locked away in a cabinet drawer, is a big Epstein file that's full of actionable information,' Wyden said on the Senate floor. He has urged federal authorities to investigate nearly $1.1 billion in suspicious wire transfers linked to Epstein, as well as his connections to Russian banks and the trafficking of women from Eastern Europe. Although the Biden administration has dismissed claims of hidden records as 'fantasies' and 'political theatre,' calls for transparency around Epstein's finances and ties to powerful individuals continue to grow.
National Geographic
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- National Geographic
How did Jane Austen die? Even after two centuries, nobody knows.
This portrait of Jane Austen was created based on her sister's watercolor sketch of the novelist—the only authenticated portrait of her. 250 years after her birth, the celebrated novelist's death remains a medical mystery that generations of experts have tried to solve. Photograph by Stefano Bianchetti, Bridgeman Images When Jane Austen died on July 18, 1817, at the age of 41, she left behind only six complete novels—and one of the most vexing medical mysteries of all time. No one knows what exactly caused her death. But Austen experienced a curious assortment of symptoms late in life, ranging from recurring fevers and fatigue to stomach issues and concerns over her changing complexion. The enduring mystery has piqued the interest of scholars and armchair sleuths alike, who have proposed a variety of medical conditions to explain her death, including cancer and accidental poisoning. (Murder or madness: What really killed Edgar Allan Poe?) The act of posthumously diagnosing Austen is part of a larger cottage industry of retrospective diagnosis, the practice of applying modern medical knowledge to diagnose someone from the past. But can it shed any insight into Jane Austen's life—and solve the mystery of her death? Born on December 16, 1775, Jane Austen appears to have had a relatively healthy childhood and young adulthood. 'Jane Austen was vigorous and active until her attacks of ill health in the last year or so of her life,' says Juliette Wells, professor of literary studies at Goucher College and guest co-curator of A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 at The Morgan Library & Museum. 'Until then, her letters include many mentions of enjoying dancing, often for hours at a time, as well as long country walks.' (Jane Austen never wed, but she knew how to play the marriage game.) Austen's health took a turn around the age of 40 in 1816 while she was finishing the novel Persuasion. Her symptoms, which included rheumatism and fatigue, came and went, and she reported them in a series of surviving letters. On March 23, 1817, Austen described her complexion to her niece Fanny Knight as 'black and white and every wrong colour,' and observed, 'Sickness is a dangerous indulgence at my time of life.' Two weeks later, she complained in a letter to her brother Charles of having been 'too unwell the last fortnight to write anything that was not absolutely necessary.' She was 'suffering from a bilious attack attended with a good deal of fever.' Around that same time, her niece Caroline Austen visited and noticed the 'alteration' in her aunt. 'She was very pale, and her voice was weak and low, and there was about her a general appearance of debility and suffering; but I have been told that she never had much acute pain.' 'Jane made her will in late April, several months before she died––suggesting an understanding that her condition was serious,' notes Devoney Looser, Regents' Professor of English at Arizona State University and author of Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane. The next month, Austen and her sister Cassandra moved to Winchester, England, where the novelist sought medical care for an unknown illness. 'The treatment was not effective, and Jane died […] in Cassandra's arms,' Wells says. (A guide to Regency Bath on the anniversary of Jane Austen's birth.) 'I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed,' Cassandra wrote two days after her sister's death. 'She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow.' Jane Austen's surviving letters, and those of friends and family, serve as the main sources for information about her death. But those letters don't give a full picture. In the wake of Jane's death, Cassandra destroyed many of her sister's letters, likely to protect her privacy and reputation—and unwittingly opening the door to rampant speculation. Did Jane Austen have Addison's disease or lupus? What caused Jane Austen's death? One of the most prevalent theories, first proposed in 1964 by surgeon Zachary Cope, is that Austen lived with Addison's disease, a condition in which the adrenal glands can't produce hormones such as cortisol. Addison's disease causes symptoms like the fatigue and skin darkening that Austen's letters describe. But there is one problem with that theory. In 2021, emeritus consultants at London's St. Thomas' Hospital with an interest in Jane Austen lore Michael Sanders and Elizabeth Graham pointed out that Addison's disease in Austen's era was typically caused by tuberculosis. 'Jane had no chest or orthopaedic problems to suggest TB, and both her doctors, Curtis and Lyford, would have been familiar with the diagnosis,' they wrote. Instead, they proposed a different autoimmune disease, lupus, which would account for Austen's 'rheumatism, facial skin lesions, fever and marked fluctuation of these symptoms.' Did Jane Austen die of cancer? Others, including biographer Carol Shields, believe cancer was a 'very likely cause' of the novelist's death, speculating that breast cancer may have run in Austen's family. Looser agrees that cancer appears to be 'a more plausible diagnosis,' since it 'was not uncommon' in Austen's era. If Austen had cancer, the risk of it metastasizing would have been high. 'The only available cancer treatment, surgery, was very risky in Austen's day,' Looser observes. 'It relied on being able to identify and excise the tumor, at a time when surgery itself could kill, due to the risk of infection.' Other theories include Hodgkin's lymphoma. Jane Austen scholar Annette Upfal considered Austen's full medical history and concluded that the author may have suffered earlier in life than most believe, noting 'she was particularly susceptible to infection, and suffered unusually severe infective illnesses, as well as a chronic conjunctivitis that impeded her ability to write.' In 2017, the British Library raised new questions about Austen's health when it tested three pairs of glasses that may have belonged to her and found that the glasses all had different lens strengths. According to the library, a consulting optometrist examined the results and said it was possible that Austen may have developed cataracts. He also floated a theory that those cataracts were caused by 'accidental poisoning from a heavy metal such as arsenic,' which was prevalent in the 19th century. Looser considers this 'the least credible theory.' The glasses were 'found in her writing desk' but 'may or may not have been hers.' And though Austen was 'described [as] having weak eyes,' poor vision can have many causes—not just arsenic-induced cataracts. 'So you can see how this is a leap and a stretch––from desk to glasses to vision problems to arsenic poisoning,' she says. Why it's so hard to diagnose historical figures In addition to examining old letters and belongings, scholars may also leverage surviving medical casebooks and physician's notes to diagnose historical figures. But even these shouldn't be taken at face value, notes Mindy Schwartz, professor of medicine at The University of Chicago. 'What they prioritize, what they leave out––these texts show the biases of the time and the priorities that the physicians had when creating them.' It also shows the limited resources of the time. For example, physicians in Austen's era would have made a clinical diagnosis, which took into account the patient's history and a physical examination. But this probably wouldn't have yielded a definitive diagnosis because many conditions have overlapping symptoms. 'We didn't have microbiology, CAT scans, or blood work [at the time of her illness], so it would have been hard to make an accurate diagnosis,' says Schwartz. Osamu Muramoto, senior scholar at Oregon Health & Science University's Center for Ethics in Health Care, also points out, 'Human beings are evolving, microorganisms are evolving, genes are evolving. So how can we say that disease X from 200 years ago is the same disease X as today?' Even if you could posthumously diagnose historical figures, there is some debate over whether you should. 'Some people might be concerned that this is an invasion of privacy,' explains Steven Joffe, Art and Ilene Penn Professor of Medical Ethics & Health Policy and chair of the department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. 'In my opinion, those privacy considerations diminish with time.' However, he adds, ethical considerations nonetheless should factor into any retrospective diagnosis. For example, any genetic conditions have implications for the person's surviving descendants. Muramoto also points out that there's a risk in making diagnoses that carry reputational harm because they are considered taboo, such as sexually transmitted infections. At the same time, making retrospective diagnoses about historical figures can help normalize conditions that have long been stigmatized. 'Let's say you can convincingly show that Abraham Lincoln had major depression,' Joffe theorizes. 'To me, that is actually quite de-stigmatizing because it shows how somebody can have major depression and yet be one of the most influential people in American history.' Making these diagnoses can also help recontextualize the historical figure's life and work. Take 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Muramoto says. 'He spent almost a decade with very, very poor health, mental illness, dementia.' Muramoto thinks tertiary syphilis is the likely diagnosis, saying it 'would explain, in my view, the paranoid tone of his later writings.' This is likely not the case for Jane Austen. 'I wouldn't say her novels reflect the state of her health,' cautions Looser. Nonetheless, she adds, when Austen's symptoms were intensifying, she was starting to write Sanditon, an unfinished novel that 'features a send up of hypochondriacs and quack medicine.' We might never know why Jane Austen died. But we do know that she could poke fun at illness, Looser says, 'even in the face of her own growing physical problems.'
National Geographic
04-06-2025
- General
- National Geographic
Sinful. Poisonous. Stinky? How tomatoes overcame their wicked reputation
Tomatoes were reviled for centuries—so how did we come to embrace them? This small New Jersey town claims to have played a major role. Once called the "poison apple," tomatoes were thought to be supernatural and sinful—especially because of their red color. Photograph by The Maas Gallery, London / Bridgeman Images While Salem, Massachusetts gets all the hype for its infamous 1692 witch trials, there's another city called Salem—this time in New Jersey—that's tied to a rather legendary tale where tomatoes were the enemy. (Witch hunts were common in the 17th century. Here's what made Salem infamous.) There are many myths and legends about how the tomato was once seen as the so-called 'poison apple,' but how it lost its evil reputation and became a beloved piece of produce is a complicated story. According to historian Andrew F. Smith, author of The Tomato in America: Early History, Culture, and Cookery, the tale involves a farmer and horticulturist who went to brazen lengths to prove the tomato was safe to eat. Aristocrats would fall ill or die when they consumed tomatoes—but it was the plates they were eating on that posed the problem. Photograph by O. F. Cook, Nat Geo Image Collection In 1544, Italian herbalist Pietro Andrea Mattioli classified the tomato as both a nightshade and a mandrake—a category of food known as an aphrodisiac. The tomato was often referred to as a 'love apple' and kept at arm's length. Later in 1597, prominent English herbalist and botanist John Gerard called tomatoes 'corrupt' and 'of rank and stinking savor' in his book, Herbal. This statement essentially sealed the tomato's fate in Great Britain and later the American colonies. By the 18th century, the tomato was nicknamed the 'poison apple' because aristocrats would fall ill or die after consuming them. But it wasn't the consumption of the tomato that triggered their illness or death. Instead, it was the plates the wealthy used to dine on—specifically the pewter plate. These plates contained high levels of lead that, when mixed with the natural acidity of the tomato, caused lead poisoning. (How the simple fork almost tore apart the fabric of society.) In his book, Smith notes that some of the earliest references of tomatoes in American colonies were in the late 18th century, but people were growing the fruit out of curiosity, not eating them. 'For those who came to America in the colonial period, it just wasn't on their agenda,' says Smith. The rise in tomatoes with myth and folklore According to Smith, large-scale immigration to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—particularly from Italians, who brought with them the invention of pizza—contributed to the eventual consumption of tomatoes. (Think you know who invented pizza? These foods have surprising global origins.) But it was Robert Gibbon Johnson, a farmer and horticulturist from Salem, New Jersey, who had a lasting impression on the general public's opinion of tomatoes. According to legend, Johnson stood on the Salem's courthouse steps in 1820, eating a basket full of tomatoes for all the public to see. When he didn't die of poison, word spread that tomatoes were safe to eat. Despite there being no record of Johnson's actions on the courthouse steps in Salem, that didn't stop this New Jersey town from playing along with the tale. Photograph by Justin Locke, Nat Geo Image Collection Smith did find evidence that Johnson actually grew tomatoes, so 'it's certainly possible that his work encouraged others to consume,' he says. But Smith notes that a lot of other folks were growing tomatoes at the time, so this isn't the sole reason the fruit became popular. By the 1830s, an array of tomato cookbooks and recipes were being published in America. Rich Guido, executive director and librarian of the Salem County Historical Society, believes this tall tale is typical of a small rural town that's passionate about their local history, even if the story may have a lot of half-truths. 'We've always had a connection with history and being a rural agricultural community—that's why the tomato story really comes into play,' says Guido. How the tomato lives on in Salem Although there is no physical evidence or documentation of Johnson's tomato trial, that hasn't stopped people from embracing this tale. Sickler eventually recounted the story to Harry Emerson Wildes, an American sociologist and historian, who wrote about it in his 1940 book, The Delaware. Stewart Holbrook added further embellishment to the event in his 1946 book, Lost Men of American History. On January 30, 1949, CBS radio gave the narrative even more notoriety when it broadcast a reenactment of Johnson famously eating a tomato on the show, You Are There; Sickler acted as a historical consultant for the show. In New Jersey's Salem, from 1989 till 2022, the town held the Salem Tomato Festival, where locals and visitors would watch reenactments of Johnson's event, wear costumes, and, of course, eat tomatoes. However, according to Guido, the festival was put on hold when it was revealed that Johnson was a slaveholder to Amy Hester Reckless. As to why Salem and New Jersey embraced this legendary tale as the obscure history of the Garden State, Curtis Harker, records manager at the County of Salem, thinks it's the love of the Salem tomato—which also involved a certain ketchup company at one point. (How Henry Heinz used ketchup to improve food safety.) 'It's a combination of the love of the huge flavorful Salem tomato plopped on a hamburger, Heinz Company's citywide aroma making ketchup in Salem City for 100 years until 1977, and the amusing story of Johnson bravely eating a tomato on the courthouse steps,' he says. Although the lore around Johnson has been tarnished by his slaveholding, the tomato continues to maintain its grip on this small New Jersey town.
