Nepenthe
Nepenthe /nɪˈpɛnθiː/ (Ancient Greek: νηπενθές, nēpenthés) is a fictional medicine for sorrow – a "drug of forgetfulness" mentioned in ancient Greek literature and Greek mythology, depicted as originating in Egypt.[1]
The carnivorous plant genus Nepenthes is named after the drug nepenthe.
In the Odyssey
The word nepenthe first appears in the fourth book of Homer's Odyssey:
ἔνθ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἄλλ᾽ ἐνόησ᾽ Ἑλένη Διὸς ἐκγεγαυῖα: |
|
—Odyssey, Book 4, v. 219–221[2] |
Analysis
Figuratively, nepenthe means "that which chases away sorrow". Literally it means 'not-sorrow' or 'anti-sorrow': νη-, ne-, i.e. "not" (privative prefix),[3] and πενθές, from πένθος, penthos, i.e. "grief, sorrow, or mourning".[4] In the Odyssey, nepenthes pharmakon (i.e. an anti-sorrow drug) is a magical potion given to Helen by Polydamna the wife of the noble Egyptian Thon; it quells all sorrows with forgetfulness. Prior to the 20th Century it was accepted that Indian Hemp was the nepenthe[5]. Quoting this passage in his 2015 novel Boussole (Compass), French writer Mathias Énard identifies nepenthe with opium.[6] Likewise, in Forbidden Drugs, Philip Robson, Senior Research Fellow and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, writes: "What else could Helen of Troy’s nepenthe have been but opium?"[7] Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides believed nepenthe to be the medicinal herb Borage.
References
- νηπενθές. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
- Homer; Murray, A.T. (translator) (1919). "4.219-221". Odyssey. "4.219-221". Homer, Odyssey (in Greek). At the Perseus Project.
- νη-. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
- πένθος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
- "The American cyclopaedia: a popular dictionary of general knowledge. Edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana : Ripley, George, 1802-1880 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
- Compass, trans. Charlotte Mandell (NY: New Directions, 2017), pp. 73–74.
- Philip Robson (1999). Forbidden Drugs. Oxford University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-19-262955-5.