Mother, let me tell you a secret
Your flowers always died in my hands
And I hated being the goddess of spring
Something you could never understand
And I know how you see me
Your broken, corrupted child of light
But mother, I wanted pomegranates...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Persephone Ambrose was proud to say that she was a direct descendant of a 17th century Italian woman named Giulia Tofana. Giulia lived in a time where women had very few opportunities and even fewer rights. Their options were marriage or squalor. A perfect fairytale ending was deemed impossible for any woman to achieve in a patriarchal society... Until a fairy godmother emerged and presented women with a third option: Widowhood. For women stuck in loveless and abusive marriages, becoming a widow would grant them freedom and a chance to escape. A touch of death could give them life.
A fact that is hidden from normie history books is that Giulia Tofana was an outcast with a power that would be passed down her family tree. But Giulia decided that she wouldn't use her power to simply grow pretty flowers, like many men would expect of a young woman like herself. No, she would grow the plants she needed to create deadly poisons and offer women across Italy a chance at liberty and independence.
Poison is a woman's weapon, and no one did it better than Giulia. She was an apothecary, selling cosmetics to women in order to enhance their beauty and to avoid suspicions over her most popular product. Aqua Tofana was sold in a bottle or powder case advertised as a healing ointment for blemishes. The recipe behind the highly desired item was lead, arsenic and belladonna. Clueless husbands would be left unaware that their ultimate demise was tucked away amongst their wife's beauty routine.
The tasteless, colourless liquid was virtually undetectable and was so discreetly proficient in killing its victims. Just a few drops could send the victim straight into Death's awaiting hands, leaving doctors to believe they had died from a mysterious illness and their wives to continue on as liberated widows. Giulia admitted that her poison had killed over 600 men.
History differs on how she met her end. One version of the story says that one of her customers got cold feet and ended up revealing her plans of murder to her husband, revealing the crimes of Giulia and her trusted accomplices. She was subjected to horrific torture and then supposedly executed in 1659. However, many historians believe she died peacefully in her sleep in 1651 with no one aware of her poisoning abilities.
Whatever way her chapter ended, the story carried on. Giulia's legacy was passed through future generations and she was remembered as the pioneer of their family. Each new generation became an expert in poisons, growing their own plants to supply their business. Belladonna, or Deadly Nightshade, was their iconic ingredient and their talent for growing it was unrivalled. No one could make it more deadly than the Tofanas and Aqua Tofana was their specialty.
Persephone's mother was named after the plant that brought their family so much success and Belladonna would go on to grow their notoriety even more. Her book, 'Pick Your Poison' provided detailed recipes for many of the deadly poisons that her family has perfected over the centuries. But the deadliest of them all, Aqua Tofana, was kept as a family secret to be passed down like a precious heirloom. The only person alive who knows the recipe is Belladonna and she will pass that knowledge on to her daughter.
