o • Window "The harem images offer an 'open sesame' to an alluring and tantalizingly forbidden world, seen as infinitely desirable to the instinctual primitive presumably inhabiting all men." -- Ella Shohat, Unthinking Eurocentrism (1994) • Womb, vagina -- Gilles Neret, Erotica 20th Century (2001) Origins: Popularized through Arabic mythology,44 open sesame is widely thought to have been "inspired by the fact that the pods of the sesame plant burst open when the enclosed seeds reach maturity."45 The name of the seed is over 4,000 years old and is "one of the few to have entered modern languages from the ancient Egyptian (sesemt)."46 However, vocal commands such as "open sesame" seem to hark back to ancient sonic technologies. Some researchers are convinced, for example, that sound vibrations were manipulated to levitate heavy stones during the building of the Great Pyramid. Umberto Eco suggests: "It is known that the Chaldean priests operated sacred machines by sounds alone, and the priests of Karnak and Thebes could open the doors of a temple with only their voice -- and what else could be the origin, if you think about it, of the legend of Open Sesame?"47 See sesame for a discussion on how the word is related to the Egyptian seshemu, "sexual intercourse." From time immemorial, artists have shaped the female's sex "into an 'open sesame,' a doorway to another world . . . what [Rodin] called 'the eternal tunnel.' The sublime passage between these thighs leads us, via the pleasures of love, from woman to Genesis, from the carnal to the sacred."48 Facts: The magic phrase open sesame gained renown, of course, from The Arabian Nights. However, an authentic translation of the magic phrase is "Simsim."49 "Open sesame" has been called the "original password" 0 and the "international password."51 "Open Sesame" is a magician's stage name in the novel The Fabulist by Stephen Glass (200 ). If the words occur in a dream, they denote "a 'key' one has been looking for; a solution or means to accomplish something." 44 J.J. Dewey, The Lost Key of the Buddha (200 ) 45 François Fortin, The Visual Food Encyclopedia (1996) 46 Najmieh Batmanglijm, Silk Road Cooking (2002) 47 Foucault's Pendulum (1988) 48 Gilles Neret, Erotica 20th Century (2001) 49 Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (1988) 50 Stephen L. Nelson, Quicken 2000 for Windows for Dummies (1999) 51 William H. Chafe, Never Stop Running (1998) 52 Mary Summer Rain, Mary Summer Rain's Guide to Dream Symbols (1996)