Nepenthe — "against sorrow". This drug changes grief to mirth, melancholy to joyfulness and hatred to love. Having taken it, people are incapable of sorrow. The allusion comes from Homer's Odyssey: he tells the story of the wedding feast of the daughter of Helen and Menelaus; the guests begin to reminisce about the Trojan Wars and then started to weep, so Helen drugged their wine with nepenthe. "Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though his mother and his father died, not though men slew his brother or dear son with the sword before his face, and his own eyes beheld it." Helen (the daughter of Zeus) was given the drug by Polydamna, the wife of Thone of Egypt.
There is a suggestion that the drug came from some species of pitcher plant; it may also have been opium or some type of marijuana.
Last modified 7 March 2015