For centuries, the mandrake has lived somewhere between botany, myth and medicine. This strange, human-shaped root, likely the Mediterranean species Mandragora officinalis as described by the Ancient Greeks, was once believed to hold a life of its own. And, when pulled from the earth, emits a deadly shriek. Harvesters were said to loosen the soil by moonlight, tie the root to a dog, and flee before the creature was torn from the ground.
Mandrakes are a symbol of the uncanny: part plant, part human, and part something else entirely. This mandrake is an ode to the baby-like creature imagined in Pan's Labyrinth.
