In Neapolitan it is called "accio," a word derived from the Latin " apium" and confirming the phonetic rule that sees the "p" followed by two vowels turn into double " c" as from sapio to saccio, from sepia to seccia. It is often feminized into ' a laccia.

We are talking about celery, the " king of the garden," considered since ancient times the most powerful of aphrodisiacs, as is confirmed by the adage below:

"Let us tell the truth if man knew.
With what ardor the celery endows him,
In his giardin would produce messe.
And if by chance to woman was known
The charge that celery gives to 'man.
Would look for him from Palermo to Como,
What about the Romans and the Samnites.
they used it for horse care
And then to make one's failures hard."

Celery, a term derived from the Greek "Selinon," was a sacred plant for the Hellenes and was effigyed on the coins of the Sicilian city of Selinunte, an important center for the production and marketing of this vegetable.

Hippocrates used to repeat :" Celery be your food!"

Pliny reports that the Greeks refrained from 'using it in cooking because they thought it was sacrilege to such a valuable plant.

Homer himself attributes divine properties to it. Achilles, in fact, thanks to celery heals his own horse.

The ancient Romans favored it at the table and even used it to compose wreaths for diners and keep them away from alcoholic intoxication.

Throughout the Middle Ages its therapeutic virtues were universally recognized. In the 400s Michael Savonarola advised against eating it to women who wanted to keep themselves chaste, lest they be incited to coitus.

In the 1700s in France celery was widely used as an erotic stimulant. Apparently Madame Pompadour used it against her frigidity, to increase libido and sensuality.

The famous gastronome Grimod de la Reyniere wrote : " One cannot hide the fact that celery is a plant..."