Catullus: "We can make love so long as we have silphium."

I just read a really interesting article about the world's first recorded birth control industry--the trade of silphium (giant fennel) from the ancient Greek city of Cyrene. Interestingly enough, images of the plant were stamped onto coins--to the right is a coin with a silphium seed on it.

Look familiar?

As a future art teacher I will be dealing with adolescents who will cling to this type of image as a sort of visual language that is almost universal and very safe (and encourage them to move beyond it). I think it's amusing that the heart icon, which is one of our most cherished images, comes from a plant that inadvertently advocated free love. Maybe the Greeks were the original hippies. No wonder teenagers like it so much.

(The title is for you, S.)