The Voynich Ninja

I still had figs in mind, they look similar too. Just an idea.

So your other idea is testicles 

I agree that there is something genital about it, in which case some kind of castration may be intended. Still, for some reason I can't shake the thought that they represent fruits (like real fruits from trees). Maybe it's the little line at the end of each...

Your link to my Philomela post doesn't work anymore, I took it offline as I'm working on a revision (as you may have guessed).

Something you write is very interesting though. I can't look into it right now since it's already well past midnight here. But you say: 

Quote:On the next folio is a different story. We go from Philomela, which is more of a morality tale, to a story of gods associated with stars. Here we see Arcas about to shoot Callisto, who Juno had transformed into a bear.

Now this is about Morgan Library MS M.126. But if I didn't know any better, I'd say it's about Q13, because You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is Philomela and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is Callisto! These stories are in completely different books of the Latin Metamorphoses. Can it be a coincidence that these exact same stories appear in the same order here?

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(14-09-2020, 11:47 PM)Aga Tentakulus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I still had figs in mind, they look similar too. Just an idea.

Yeah I see how they could be figs.

Interesting, for two years I've been thinking this thread is about pearls, but it's about pears, as it turns out.

This is not the only illustration where a thing is held strangely. On folio You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and folio You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. an object also "slips away" from the figures.

For me they could also be Guava or Quince, too, if ever they are fruit.
There is a story behind Quince:
"
As a sacred emblem of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., a quince figured in a lost poem of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. that survives in a prose epitome: seeing his beloved in the courtyard of the temple of Aphrodite, Acontius plucks a quince from the "orchard of Aphrodite", inscribes its skin and furtively rolls it at the feet of her illiterate nurse, whose curiosity aroused, hands it to the girl to read aloud, and the girl finds herself saying "I swear by Aphrodite that I will marry Acontius"
"

I agree with bi3mw on the pose.
Whatever those things may be, the way she is holding them is a reflection of the very limited variety in Voynich nymph poses.
I do see the similarities with the pears in the tacuina, and especially in the fact that the pears there are also held in bunches of three.
Also the poses in the tacuina, although they are not quite the "brandish" displayed by the Voynich nymphs, are pretty similar.

If they are pears, Davidjackson mentioned cider but I would be more partial to pears being used for "eau-de-vie" distillation.
"Eau-de-vie" made from fruit is different from other grain liquors: mostly from pears, but also sometimes from other fruits. Eastern France, Southern Germany (there it is Obstler Schnapps I guess, but I believe for Schnapps the apple is more prevalent than the pear) and the Alps were (still are) the main places of production for these.
Considering they are 50-80° alcohol, as an antiseptic it would meet today's criteria!

(14-09-2020, 11:47 PM)Aga Tentakulus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I still had figs in mind, they look similar too. Just an idea.

By coincidence I just got a huge bag of fresh figs from someone whose fig trees were producing too much for them to handle. They are shaped a bit like pears as well.

This prompted me to look into the names for figs in Latin and Greek. Obviously, the Latin is ficus, like the scientific name of the various plants in the Ficus group. 
The Greek name though, is σῦκον (sûkon). This might not ring a bell at first, but it has an interesting etymological sibling.

See You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., " "from Middle French sycophante and directly from Latin sycophanta, from Greek sykophantes "false accuser, slanderer,"
The literal meaning is "one who shows the fig" or "revealer of figs". 

Currently it is thought that its origins lie in rude gestures made with three fingers, vaguely resembling a fig or female genitals. This is a modern explanation, however, which was not known in the past. They used to think it had something to do with literal figs. The modern English meaning of sycophant as a flatterer is also relatively recent. The meaning used to be a that of a false accuser, a slanderer.

Bottom line for possible VM image interpretation is twofold:

- "showing the fig/figs" is a vulgar gesture with genital connotations. In a number of languages, fig is still slang for genitals.
- sycophant means "one who shows figs"

I have a fig tree in my yard and it also produces so much I share the figs with neighbors. 


Koen, the etymology info you posted is very interesting.

Visually, the objects look more like pears or figs (except for that funny little line coming out of the end), but if it has linguistic connections to genitals, then maybe the classical tale of testicles is not quite so far-fetched.

Interesting!
We also use the word "Feige / Fige" in colloquial language.
"Lueg dir die Fige a" Look at the girl.
I thought "Feige" stands for girl, but I never considered the possibility of genitals. But I think it is possible. The word "Schnägg" snail does too.

What that 'star-woman' holds in her hand is not any fruit. What it seems to hold is some of those oval shapes with hairs that we see in the Rosette folio. Strange shapes that mixed with tubes seem the representation of the sphere of the stars.
 In this same sectión, misnamed biological or balneological,we see other 'star-women' with spindles that are an allegory of time, of the eternal movement of the stars. The stars go down the tubes to the Earth to fertilize the plants.











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