Cinnamon

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come let us take our fill of love until the morning and abandon ourselves to delight.

This verse from the Hebrew Bible at first appears romantic, but the line that follows reads ‘My husband is not home.’ Written as a warning against the fatal temptation of adulterous women, cinnamon stood for all that is heady, pungent, erotic and dangerous.