It seems to be something akin to a universal solution to everything negative in folklore. Anyone happen to know why?
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itsallfolklore: The 1949, ‘Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend’ provides definitive articles crafted by experts in the field. It points out that pungent odor of this species of onion has inspired many people to believe it has ‘antiseptic qualities which scientists say it does not possess.’ It goes on to say, ‘It is widely credited with the power to drive away evil, whether demons, witches, vampires, or the evil eye, and is hung in houses and around the neck for this purpose.’ The article indicates this was/is held to be true in most parts of Indian. It cites Aristotle believed it to be a cure for rabies and that Pliny suggested that a magnet rubbed with garlic lost its power, documenting an ancient association of powers with garlic.
The article maintains that Roman soldiers ate garlic to give them courage in battle and that bullfighters of the Aymara Indians in Bolivia carried garlic, believing that a bull that smells it won’t charge. The article also suggests that Berbers baked garlic into bread to cure colds and used the plant generally to help with conception.
I’m not an authority on the folklore of garlic, but if I were to initiate research into the plant in folk belief, I would start with this standard source. The plant’s pungent smell inspired many different cultures – across time – to attribute properties to it that it did not necessarily have. These beliefs are not necessarily historically connected to one another (some may be, while others are likely separate phenomena); rather the properties of garlic inspired diverse people to view it in a similar way, as a protection against evil (and sometimes able to demagnetize a magnet!).
Trophallaxis: Small addition to previous responder:
Before germ theory, it was a widely held belief, that certain diseases are caused by corrupted air: look at malaria (literally, Bad Air), or Daniel Defoe’s account of the 1665/66 plague of London, where he ridicules germ theory in favour of ‘bad air theory’ (hilarious btw).
It was also widely held that ‘purifying the air’ with various types of smoke, etc. helps against disease. Now garlic does not only have a pungent odour, but a major component of the odour is allyl methyl sulfide, a volatile which is absorbed in the bloodstream and breaks down slowly: as a result, it gets excreted in relatively large quantities in the lungs and on the skin, leading to the long-lasting, characteristic body odour associated with eating garlic. It is reasonable to assume, that this trait was important to people who generally believed that air can be purified from disease by odorous compounds and herb smoke.
grass_skirt: This belief isn’t quite universal; it’s almost the opposite case in Chinese Buddhist culture.
From Muller’s *Digital Dictionary of Buddhism*, entry on 五辛 *wuyin* (“the Five Pungent [Roots]”):
>The five forbidden pungent roots, for which lists vary according to the text. There are various lists, and it is often the case that the definitions of the terms given in the list are difficult to distinguish from each other, as is the case of the five terms given in the Sutra of Brahmāʼs Net: 大蒜, 革蔥, 韮蔥, 蘭蔥, 興渠; other lists include 蔥, 薤, 韮, 蒜, 薑. They generally include such pungent plants as leeks, scallions, **garlic**, onions, ginger, and chives. If eaten raw they are said to cause irritability of temper, and if eaten cooked, to act as an aphrodisiac; moreover, the breath of the eater, if reading the sutras, **will drive away the good spirits**.
Note: the aphrodisiac effect is here a reason for practitioners (especially monastics) to *avoid* such roots, just to be clear.
Whaddaya Say?