Theon to Philumene, my Mother, Greeting. Before all else I pray for your health. Receive four metretae [1 metreta = 39 liters] of fine aphrodisiac oil and having done so let me know. I do this not on our own account but rather on that of the camel men…
-Letter 1293, circa 117-138 CE, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. X
Two millennia later one still wonders about Theon’s aphrodisiacs and his camel men. Hajj Bashir supplied his drovers with several kilos of sugar for their tea, which if taken in excess W.K. Kellogg of Corn Flakes fame insisted “powerfully excited the genital organs”. As KhairAllah called out every morning before dawn, Itla’ Wa Irkab, Rise Up and Mount!, before we ate our millet porridge.