As you may have realised, Luigi and I were both in Izmir, Turkey, for the past few days. While there, we joined a trip to the ruins at Ephesus. And while there, I snapped this picture.
The thing on the right is quite obviously a pomegranate, still very much in evidence at juice stands everywhere. But what’s that thing on the left? A stylised palm? A radish? What?
A carrot?
Possibly, although those bulges seem odd in a carrot, to me.
Salep, from various Orchis roots? Nicked off an internet site: “The name “salep” is said to come from an Arabic expression meaning “fox testicles,” because of the orchid’s tubers, which are egg-shaped and resemble testes”. Orchis roots in England were once called `dogstones’.
Both pomegranate and salep are aphrodisiacs, What was this carved stone advertising?
And of course the word orchid … No, never mind.
And lots more: the `doctrine of signatures’ at work.