Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants (36 page)

“Those who will recognize the work of witches / plant thistle, blessed by priests along the fence / also the herb moly / do not cut elder and hazel / let the ferns wave / and the mistletoe sponge [
live
] off the apple”

—J
OHANNES
P
RAETORIUS
,
B
LOCKSBERG
V
ERRICHTUNG
[T
HE
P
ERFORMANCE AT
B
LOCKS
M
OUNTAIN
, 1668

Homer only briefly describes moly, the divine magical plant of Hermes. With this moly, which is classified in the original text as a pharmakon, Odysseus protected himself from the sorceress Circe, who had transformed his men into pigs (Schmiedeberg, 1918). The plants of Hermes (Mercury)
⁹⁷
were harvested in the garden of Circe; thus it was a magical plant that was transformed into a nearly homeopathic medicine by the messenger of the gods.

[Hermes] bent down glittering for the magic plant and pulled it up, black root and milky flower—a
molü
[moly] in the language of the gods—fatigue and pain for mortals to uproot; but gods do this, and everything, with ease.

—H
OMER
,
T
HE
O
DYSSEY
(X.342–346)

Generations of alchemists, Hellenists, philologists, pharmacologists, and ethno-botanists have attempted to uncover the botanical identity of the Homeric magical plant. Theophrastus, the “father of botany,” already endeavored to establish the identity of the stock plant.

Panacea, the heal-all herb, grows in greatest abundance and best on the rocky soil near Psophis, moly near Phenos, and on the mountain Cyllene. They say that this plant is like the moly mentioned by Homer; that it has roots like an onion and leaves like the sea holly and that it is used against spells and magic, but it is not, as Homer said, difficult to dig up (Theophrastus,
On Plants
IX.15).

Dioscorides wrote that the sea holly,
Eryngium maritimum
L. (Umbelliferae), which was treasured as an aphrodisiac, was also called
moly
(Rätsch, 1995: 228ff.).

Eryngion, some call it
erynge,
others
eryneris
,
karyos
[nut],
gorginion
[gorgon herb],
hermion
[sharp arrow, thorn],
Origanon chlunion
[wild boar marjoram],
myrakanthos
[thousand–thorn],
moly,
the Egyptians call it
krobsysos,
the prophets
sisteros,
the Romans
capitulum carduus
[thistle-head], also
carterae
. The Dacians
sikupnoex,
the Spaniards
contucapeta,
the Africans
cherdon, oreian chloen
[mountain plant], also
chida,
belongs to the thorn bushes (
Materia medica
III.21).

Eryngion, known as witches’ thistle (
Eryngium campestre
L.; also called snakeroot), “when warmed it cools the infections caused by ergot poisoning [
ignes sacer
= Saint Anthony’s fire]” (
Medicina antiqua
45, fol. 154r).

The mysterious plant called
halikákabon
or
halicacabum
belongs to the group of psychoactive plants known as moly whose botanical identity remains uncertain.

There is besides another kind [of strychnine], with the name of halicacabos, which is soporific, and kills quicker than even opium, by some called morion and by others moly, yet praised by Diocles and Evenor, by Timaristus indeed in verse with a strange forgetfulness of harmless remedies, actually because it is, they say, a quick remedy for strengthening loose teeth to rinse them in wine and halicacabos. They added a proviso, that the rinsing must not go on for too long, for delirium is caused thereby. … The root of halicacabos is taken in drink by those who, to confirm superstitious notions, wish to play the inspired prophet, and to be publicly raving in unpretended madness. The remedy for it, which I am happy to mention, is a copious amount of hot hydromel [honey wine, mead]. Nor will I pass over this: that halicacabos is so antipathetic to the nature of the adder, that if its roots be brought near it, numbs that very power of theirs to kill by stupefaction. Therefore, when pounded it is a help for those who have been bitten” (Pliny,
Natural History
XXI.180–182).

In late antiquity it was assumed that the mandrake was a gift of the Greek-Egyptian god Hermes Trismegistos, the god of alchemy (Fowden, 1993) and that it was well suited for the invocation of ghosts and for the alchemists. Because Hermes/Mercury was sometimes depicted with an opium capsule in the art of antiquity, moly could also be designated as
Papaver somniferum
L.

Bauhinius believed the famous magical plant was rue (
Ruta graveolens
L.). Stannard saw
Peganum harmala
L.in the hermetic moly (1962); he apparently bases this on a section by Dioscorides.

Wild rue. Some designated the wild peganon,
⁹⁸
including ones in Cappadocia and in Asian Gallatin, as
moly.
It is a shrub out of which a root with many branches develops, it has leaves much bigger and tender as the other peganon [rue] and is of a penetrating scent, a white flower, on the tip of which are small heads, bigger than the cultivated peganon, usually made up of three parts, in which a three-cornered, light yellow seed is found, which is also utilized. In late fall the seeds become ripe and are finely chopped and mixed with honey, wine, chicken gall, saffron
[Crocus sativus],
and fennel juice
[Foeniculum vulgare]
as a remedy for infirmity. Some also call the same plant
harmala,
the Syrian
besasa,
the Egyptians
epnubu,
the Africans
churma,
but the Cappadocians call it
moly
because it on the whole demonstrates a similarity with
moly,
because it has a black root and white flowers. It grows on hilly and infertile soil (
Materia medica
III.46).

Moly has been speculated to be maritime squill
⁹⁹
(
Urginea maritima
[L.] Baker; syn.
Scilla maritima
L.) (Rahner, 1957).

The most renowned of plants is, according to Homer, the one that he thinks is called by the gods moly, assigning to Mercury its discovery and the teaching of its power over the most potent sorceries. Reports say that it grows today in Arcadia round Pheneus and on Cyllene; it is said to be like the description of Homer with a round, dark root of the size of an onion and with the leaves like the squill, and not difficult to dig up. Greek authorities have painted its blossom yellow, though Homer wrote that it is white. I have met a herbalist physician who said that the plant was also to be found in Italy, and that one could be brought for me from Campania within a few days, as it had been dug out there in spite of the difficulties of rocky ground, with a root thirty feet long, and even that not entire, but broken off short (Pliny,
Natural History
XXV.26–27).

In early antiquity the word
moly
probably meant something like “magic plant” or “entheogen.” It was used as a kind of general term for psychoactive, magically used plants, very similar to the words
haoma
and
soma.
¹⁰⁰
In the Middle Ages moly was also known under the name
immolum
and belonged to the gynecological medicines.

According to the testament of Homer, it is the most famous of all plants. He also attributed its discovery to Mercury [Hermes] and called it a remedy against the evil eye and witchcraft. It has a round and black root the size of an onion. … The low growing plant
Immolum album
entirely allays the pain of the womb when laid on top (
Medicina antiqua
49, fol. 62v).