Nepenthe
Greek nēpenthes, “no-sorrow”
- Known today as
- Unidentified; opium is the favorite guess.
- Kind
- Compound, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- morphine, cannabis
- Poisoning
- Opioid poisoning
- Earliest authority here
- Homer (fl. c. 8th century BC)
Revised October 3, 2026: Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Nepenthe: what does modern science say?
Candidates proposed include opium, the Egyptian kyphi, and cannabis; none can be proved.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- Helen’s drug in the Odyssey lulls pain and anger and brings forgetfulness of every sorrow; most commentators since the eighteenth century have taken it for opium, which Greek and Roman medicine used as a soporific and analgesic, but it cannot be identified with any known substance for certain.
- Checked against ChEMBL
- morphine: ChEMBL’s curated mechanism: agonist Mu-type opioid receptor.
- scopolamine: ChEMBL’s curated mechanism: antagonist Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M1.
- Syndrome
- Opioid poisoning
- Standing
- A literary drug.
- Homer, Odyssey IV.219–232. Read in part · the text read
- Scarborough, J. (1995). “The opium poppy in Hellenistic and Roman medicine,” in Drugs and Narcotics in History. Cambridge University Press. Abstract read · the text read
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Nepenthe: what lore surrounds it?
The drug of forgetting; Homer’s other magic plant, moly, black-rooted and milk-white in flower, is the herb Mercury gives Ulysses against Circe, who drugged his men “to make them forget their homes.”
Nepenthe: what did the older authorities say?
- Homer
- In the fourth book of the Odyssey, Helen drugs the wine with an herb given her by Polydamna, wife of Thon, a woman of Egypt, which banishes all care and sorrow, so that none who drank it could shed a tear that day, though his father and mother dropped down dead, or he saw a brother or a son hewn in pieces before his eyes.
Sources
- Homer, Odyssey IV. Read in part · the text read
- Crocq, M.-A. (2007). Historical and cultural aspects of man’s relationship with addictive drugs. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience 9: 355–361. Read in full · the text read
- Hajar, R. (2016). Intoxicants in society. Heart Views 17: 42–48. Read in full · the text read
- Kakridis, F. I. (2011). [Nepenthe.] Psychiatriki 22: 17–23. Abstract read · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the fifty-entry sample
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- The mechanism read against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37): curated mechanisms and measured activity
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 6 cited: 2 read in full, 2 read in part, 2 abstract read. 2 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Nepenthe.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/nepenthe.
- MLA
“Nepenthe.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/nepenthe. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Nepenthe. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/nepenthe
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See Also
Poisoned alike: opioid poisoning
Opium poppy · Mithridate · Paregoric · Laudanum · Theriac · Dover’s powder · Diascordium · the syndrome, with all of them →
Also in Homer
Peony in Homer · Moly in Homer · Sulfur in Homer · everything Homer names →
Nearby in the alphabet
Nettle seed (Urtica dioica) · Nasturtium, that is, garden cress (Lepidium sativum) · Niter, pills of (potassium nitrate) · Myrrh (The resin of Commiphora myrrha) · Nutmeg and clove (Myristica fragrans and Syzygium aromaticum) · Myrobalans (T) · Oak galls (Round growths raised on oaks by gall wasps) · Mustard seed (The English follows the 1674 text as “mustard”)
Historical description, not medical advice.