Mandrake

The mandrake appears in only two settings — a domestic exchange between Jacob's wives during wheat harvest, and a love-song's catalog of fragrant fruit. In both, the plant is associated with desire and the bedchamber.

Reuben's Find and the Wives' Bargain

During wheat harvest the boy Reuben brings mandrakes home from the field, and they become the currency in a barter between his mother and her sister: "And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray you, of your son's mandrakes. And she said to her, Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? And would you take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he will have sex with you tonight for your son's mandrakes. And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, You must enter me; for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes. And he had sex with her that night" (Gn 30:14-16). The plant changes hands once and a marriage-night is bought for it; the narrative treats it as something the barren wife wants and the fertile wife trades for a night with their shared husband.

The Mandrake in the Love-Song

In the Song of Solomon the mandrake is a fragrance among the lovers' offerings: "The mandrakes give forth fragrance; And at our doors are all manner of precious fruits, new and old, Which I have laid up for you, O my beloved" (S of S 7:13). The setting is the same — desire and the threshold — but the register is gift, not bargain.