Potions and Plants: Mythic, Magical and Medicinal

"Homer’s Odyssey is about living and surviving, so it is not surprising that this poem is preoccupied with all kinds of foodstuffs including meats, grains, and wine. Intriguingly, Homer’s Odyssey also presents a gamut of herbs, drugs and other substances. These include the exquisitely sweet, apathy-inducing lotus fruit, Helen’s opiate that removes all moral awareness and Circe’s drug that transforms Odysseus’ men into pigs – as well as its antidote, the divine herb called Moly. Homer presents