Day 4 Magical Herbs and Circe

                                                Circe "The loveliest of all immortals"

The Goddess of Magic, Circe used herbs and magic potions to transform her enemies into animals.

 She was well known for her knowledge of herbs and drugs.

 In one well known story in Homer's Odyssey  she invited Oddyssues' crew for a meal...only to turn them all into pigs.

One can only guess the potions and recipes that Circe used....

Perhaps....    

Deadly NightShade

The foliage and unripe fruit of most nightshades contain dangerous levels of a steroid alkaloid, solanine. The ripe berries are the least toxic part of these plants but may be deadly under some circumstances

Deadly nightshade has gone by many names, including belladonna, Devil's cherries, Naughty Man's cherries, Devil's Herb, Great Morel, and Dwayberry. It was once known as Dwale. The origin of the word is unknown; one scholar believes it is derived from the Scandinavian word dool, which means sleep. Others believe dwale is derived from the French word deuil, which means grief. The atropain the scientific name refers to one of the Greek Fates, Atropos, who held the shears which cut the thread of human life. Belldonna is thought to refer to the practice of Italian ladies using the juice of the plant to dilate their pupils-this gave their eyes greater brilliancy. However, it could also refer to a superstition which says that the plant can take on the form of an enchantress of great beauty. It is also thought that the priests of the goddess Bellona drank an infusion of the herb before invoking the aid of this goddess of war.

Its poisonous nature is quite well known and has been used throughout the centuries. Poisoning by belladonna has the curious symptom of a complete loss of voice, along with continuous movements of the fingers and hands and bending of the trunk. It is supposedly the plant which poisoned Marcus Antonius' troops during the Parthian wars. In the History of Scotland, there is the tale that Macbeth poisoned an army of invading Danes using a liquor infused with deadly nightshade. It was given to the Danes during a truce, so they did not suspect poison. When they fell into a deep sleep, the Scots fell upon them and murdered them easily.

Snowdrops which in Homer's Odyssey were called Moly and contain the substance Galantamine that Circe DID use

                                                        and Mullein...whose Deity is Circe 

with the addition of poppy seeds

Within their fleshy leaves and stems, but most of all in their unripe seed capsules flows a white, milky juice, which the ancients knew as 'opion' (2). This substance has been used medicinally, ritually and recreationally for thousands of years and indeed has changed the course of history to no small extent. Its gifts are a double edged sword though, promising relief from physical and emotional pain, yet if taken regularly it traps the body and mind into addiction and self-delusion, causing destruction, dependence and even death to those that succumb to its seductive powers. Nevertheless, as Paracelsus put it so many centuries ago: all things are poisonous; it is a matter of dosage whether a substance kills or cures. 

and of course Madragora...also known as "Brain Thief"

Turner alludes to these 'puppettes and mammettes,' and says, 'they are so trymmed of crafty theves to mocke the poore people withall and to rob them both of theyr wit and theyr money.' But he adds: 'Of the apples of mandrake, if a man smell of them thei will make hym slepe and also if they be eaten. But they that smell to muche of the apples become dum . . . thys herbe diverse wayes taken is very jepardus for a man and may kill hym if he eat it or drynk it out of measure and have no remedy from it.... If mandragora be taken out of measure, by and by slepe ensueth and a great lousing of the streyngthe with a forgetfulness.' The plant was fabled to grow under the gallows of murderers, and it was believed to be death to dig up the root, which was said to utter a shriek and terrible groans on being dug up, which none might hear and live. It was held, therefore, that he who would take up a plant of Mandrake should tie a dog to it for that purpose, who drawing it out would certainly perish, as the man would have done, had he attempted to dig it up in the ordinary manner.There are many allusions to the Mandrake in ancient writers. From the earliest times a notion prevailed in the East that the Mandrake will remove sterility, and there is a reference to this belief in Genesis xxx. 14 Steeped in wine  with honey.... this is Dark Ali's recipe for Circe's Potion that turned men into animals :)