Via The Greek Reporter.. makes for interesting reading
Probably one of the best known Odyssey tales is the story of Odysseus’ journey to the land of the sorceress Circe, an iconic character in the poem. In the pages of the Odyssey the land is described as an island, while today it is thought to be in Lazio, central Italy.
But … it is not geography that interests us today.
The mysterious adventure of Odysseus.
Within the pages of the Homeric masterpiece, the Odyssey, you will find many fantastic and fictional elements, one of them being the transformation of Odysseus’ men into pigs by the sorceress Circe.
In the course of the tale, Odysseus is helped by Hermes (the messenger god), who gives him a plant antidote, which saves our hero from a sad fate. So Odysseus, protected by the natural remedy, faces the sorceress, who, being unable to change him into a pig, surrenders and frees all his men from her spell.
The End…actually, not the end!
If we analyze carefully, there is a small detail that might connect this spell and its antidote to the real history of the times.
In fact, once in the sorceress’s palace, the faithful followers of Ulysses are offered a sacred drink, a symbol of spirituality and divine worship: the Kykeon.
Kykeon, based on LSD
Etymologically, in Greek, it means “blended mixture”. The classical material base for its preparation was simple: in fact, it was composed of water, rye flour, and some wild mint.
Read more
https://greekreporter.com/2023/04/11/odyssey-homer-ancient-lsd/
