'Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor,' said Professor Sprout. 'The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?'
Hermione's hand narrowly missed Harry's glasses as it shot up again.
'The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it,' she said promptly.
"Precisely. Take another ten points,' said Professor Sprout. 'Now the Mandrakes we have have here are still very young.'
She pointed to a row of a deep trays as she spoke and everyone shuffled forward for a better look. A hundred or so tufty little plants, purplish green in colour, were growing there in rows. They looked quite unremarkable to Harry, who didn't have the slightest idea what Hermione meant by the 'cry' of the Mandrake.
'Everyone take a pair of earmuffs,' said Professor Sprout.
There was a scramble as everyone tried to seize a pair that wasn't pink and fluffy.
'When I tell you to put them on, make sure your ears are completely covered,' said Professor Sprout. 'When it is safe to remove them, I will give you the thumbs-up. Right - earmuffs on.'
Harry snapped the earmuffs over his ears. They shut out sound completely. Professor Sprout put a pink fluffy pair over her own ears, rolled up the sleeves of her robes, grasped one of the tufty plants firmly, and pulled hard.
Harry let out a gasp of surprise that no one could hear.
Instead of roots, a small, muddy and extremely ugly baby popped out of the earth. The leaves were growing right out of his head. He had pale green, mottled skin, and was clearly bawling at the top of his lungs.
Professor Sprout took a large plant pot from under the table and plunged the Mandrake into it, burying him in the dark, damp compost until only the tufted leaves were visible. Professor Sprout dusted off her hands, gave them all the thumbs-up and removed her own earmuffs.
'As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries won't kill yet,' she said calmly, as though she'd just don't nothing more exciting than water a begonia. 'However they will knock you out for several hours, and as I'm sure none of you want to miss your first day back, make sure your earmuffs are securely in place while you work. I'll attract your attention when it is time to pack up.' "
This was just to refresh peoples memories or to enlighten those who have never read The Chamber of Secrets, though why they would be interested in reading this if they haven't I don't know.
I was reading a book called "Murder, Magic and Medicine" by John Mann. And in the first part (Murder) I came across a chapter entitled "Classical poisons I: the tropane alkaloids" where I came across the mention of Mandrakes, or Mandragora.
Much of the following will come directly from the book:
It's first mentioned as being the third member of the Solanaceae family; the mandrake or Mandragora officinarum and how it has the most fantastic folklore associated with it's use. It mentions how it is indigenous to countries which border the Mediterranean Sea and how it's appearance with a Y-shaped root (I presume it means and upside-down Y) resembles the human form. According to the alchemist Paracelsus and his 'doctrine of signatures (what ever that means) a plants magical or curative properties could be predicted from it's appearance. So, the Mandrake, resembling the human form would favour reproduction of that form and as such has always been associated with the enhancement of fertility.
It even gives an example from the Bible: Genesis 30:14 (chapter 30 verse 14)
The eldest son of Jacob and Leah, Reuben, finds Mandrake in a wheat field. Rachael, the second wife of Jacob who is childless begs her sister Leah who is highly fecund (it sounds rude I know but it just means bountiful with child) 'Give me, I pray thee, of they son's mandrakes'
This next bit is the part where the link to Harry Potter becomes apparent.
It goes on to mention how "the major problem facing those who wished to use the mandrake was collection of the root." This goes on to be explained by a third century (BC) Greek pharmacist (Theophrastus) that precautions were established in the collection of the root which involved tracing a circle round the plant three times with a sword and cutting it while facing west. And later the Elder Pliny advised keeping windward to avoid the stench of the uprooted plant. It is not stated how these precautions came to be or if they were based on face, but they may have come about due to similar reasons that are soon described:
The root apparently became highly prized in medieval Europe, and Herbalists invented more and more fanciful and deterrent legends.
(Here it comes)
Typical of these (legends) was one that warned of the terrible shriek that issued from the mandrake as it was pulled from the ground. This sound was so awful that the collector upon hearing it would die.
I found it interesting that JK Rowling based her description of the plant on folklore and legends that already existed and not just on her own imagination, it seems quite fantastic that cultures used to believe things were real that fit so well into magical roles that we now think completely made up.
Now I have to be honest here in admitting that I didn't know that Mandrakes or Mandragora were actually real plants till reading this book.
The next parts have nothing really to do with the Harry Potter books but it's interesting and you might like to know about it.
Following the last excerpt from the book was how to avoid the fate of hearing the Mandrakes cry; "To avoid this fate, a dog was to be used (with a rope around its neck and attached to the plant) to uproot the Mandrake, while the collector blocked his ears with wax."
So did dogs have some magical properties that meant they weren't affected by the cry 'cause last time I checked they had even more sensitive hearing that humans, or did the collectors expect the dogs to drop dead and didn't they click when they dogs were still alive and kicking?
There are other precautions for extracting the Mandrake root but they aren't so plesant so I wont mention them here but it's noted that the mention of the mythical properties of the Mandrake is often used in literature, notably by Shakespeare:
Juliet feared the 'shrieks like mandrakes, torn out of the earth,
that living mortals, hearing them run mad'
Romeo and Juliet
The Duke of Suffolk yearning for revenge against the murder of the Duke of Gloucester:
"Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan"
Henry VI
"Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?"
Macbeth
"...Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou owedst yesterday."
Othello
"Give me to drink mandragora...
That I might sleep out this great gap of time
My Antony is away."
Antony and Cleopatra
