Nepenthe
Nepenthe is a fictional medicine for sorrow – a "drug of forgetfulness" mentioned in ancient Greek literature and Greek mythology, depicted as originating in Egypt.
The carnivorous plant genus Nepenthes is named after the drug nepenthe.In the ''Odyssey''
The word nepenthe first appears in the fourth book of Homer's Odyssey:Analysis
Figuratively, nepenthe means "that which chases away sorrow". Literally it means 'not-sorrow' or 'anti-sorrow': νη-, ne-, i.e. "not", and πενθές, from πένθος, penthos, i.e. "grief, sorrow, or mourning". In the Odyssey, nepenthes pharmakon is a magical potion given to Helen by Polydamna the wife of the noble Egyptian Thon; it quells all sorrows with forgetfulness. Quoting this passage in his 2015 novel Boussole, French writer Mathias Énard identifies nepenthe with opium. Likewise, in Forbidden Drugs, Philip Robson, Senior Research Fellow and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, writes: "What else could Helen of Troy’s nepenthe have been but opium?" Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides believed nepenthe to be the medicinal herb Borage.
