Ancient World Review

The Hallucinogenic Honey That Poisoned A Greek Army

"When bees feed on the pollen of rhododendron flowers, the resulting honey can pack a hallucinogenic punch." Source: Atlas Obscura.

"It’s called mad honey, and it has a slightly bitter taste and a reddish color. More notably, a few types of rhododendrons ... contain grayanotoxin, which can cause dramatic physiological reactions in humans and animals. Depending on how much a person consumes, reactions can range from hallucinations and a slower heartbeat to temporary paralysis and unconsciousness."

"The intoxicating effects of mad honey have been known for thousands of years. Not surprisingly, there have been many famous episodes of human inebriation caused by its consumption. Xenophon, Aristotle, Strabo, Pliny the Elder and Columella all document the results of eating this 'maddening' honey, believed to be from the pollen and nectar of Rhododendron luteum and Rhododendron ponticum. According to Xenophon, an invading Greek army was accidentally poisoned by harvesting and eating the local Asia Minor honey, but they all made a quick recovery with no fatalities. Having heard of this incident, and realizing that foreign invaders would be ignorant of the dangers of the local honey, King Mithridates later used the honey as a deliberate poison when Pompey's army attacked the Heptakometes [1] in Asia Minor in 69 BCE. The Roman soldiers became delirious and nauseated after being tricked into eating the toxic honey, at which point Mithridates's army attacked." Source: Wikipedia.

[1] "In about 65 BCE, Pompey's army was approaching Colchis.  Mithridates' allies there, the Heptakometes, were described by Strabo as 'utterly savage' mountain barbarians, dwelling in tree forts and living on 'the flesh of wild animals and nuts.'  The tribe was feared for attacking wayfarers - suddenly leaping down on them like leopards from their tree houses.  The Heptakometes may have received specific orders from Mithridates on how to ambush the Roman army.  What we do know for a fact is that they gathered up great numbers of wild honeycombs dripping with toxic honey and placed them all along Pompey's route.  The Roman soldiers stopped to enjoy the sweets and immediately lost their senses.  Reeling and babbling, the men collapsed with vomiting and diarrhea and lay on the ground unable to move.  The Heptakometes easily wiped out about one thousand of Pompey's men." - Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor. (Source: Roman Times)

Taking mad honey sounds like a dangerous way to get loaded. According to the Drug Classroom, "[t]he core symptoms of mad honey poisoning include nausea, vomiting, salivation, headache, blurred vision, sweating, weakness, circumoral paresthesia, tongue numbing, fainting, drowsiness, drunkenness, tingling, and seizures." The toxins in the honey can also cause "1st to 3rd degree heart block, asystole, and myocardial infarction."

The Voyage around the Erythraean Sea

"The Periplus Maris Erythraei (or ‘Voyage around the Erythraean Sea’ [the modern Red Sea]) is an anonymous work from around the middle of the first century CE written by a Greek speaking Egyptian merchant." (Source: Washington University) The document describes "the maritime trade-routes following the north-south axis from Egypt down the coast of East Africa as far as modern day Tanzania" and "the routes of the east-west axis running from Egypt, around the Arabian Peninsula and past the Persian Gulf on the west coast of India." The complete translation of this fascinating resource on the ancient sea trade can be found here. A detailed map of the Erythraean Sea in the 1st Century can be found here.

The Aphrodite Of Knidos

Note: The Aphrodite of Knidos is the "first monumental female nude in classical sculpture," according to the University of Chicago. The Amores, a Greek dialog attributed to the rhetorician and satirist Lucian [~125-180 AD], but probably written by someone else, describes a visit to view the statue in its temple at Knidos:

"...we entered the temple. In the midst thereof sits the goddess -- she's a most beautiful statue of Parian marble -- arrogantly smiling a little as a grin parts her lips. Draped by no garment, all her beauty is uncovered and revealed, except in so far as she unobtrusively uses one hand to hide her private parts. So great was the power of the craftsman's art that the hard unyielding marble did justice to every limb....The temple had a door on both sides for the benefit of those also who wish to have a good view of the goddess from behind, so that no part of her be left unadmired. It's easy therefore for people to enter by the other door and survey the beauty of her back. And so we decided to see all of the goddess and went round to the back of the precinct. Then, when the door had been opened by the woman responsible for keeping the keys, we were filled with an immediate wonder for the beauty we beheld."-- Amores, Pseudo-Lucian.

Mystery Greek Artifact Goes On Rare Display

"A 7,000 year old bird-like statue, which has puzzled Greek archaeologists for decades has gone on rare display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens." Source: Tornos News.

"Dubbed the '7,000-year-old enigma' the 36 cm granite statuette dating back to the late Neolithic era has been brought out of the museum’s hidden storerooms as part of the 'The Unseen Museum' exhibition for visitors to view artifacts from the closed storerooms, which have some 200,000 antiquities not on daily display."

In The Footsteps Of Minoan Worshippers At Zominthos

Video from 2009.

"A new dimension to the cult [of Zeus] at the palace of Zominthos and its beginnings in the Paleopalatial period (1900-1700 BC) was discovered this year during the annual excavation of the Archaeological Society conducted on Psiloritis [Mount Ida] by the Honorary Head of Antiquities, Dr Efi Sapouna-Sakellarakis." Source: Archaeology News Network.

Zominthos Area 26, 2012 season.

"...both the labyrinthine building [the palace] and the ceremonial artefacts that have come to light are proof of the site’s importance and its centuries-long religious role in the cult of Zeus.

"Established about halfway between Knossos and the Ideon Andron, Zominthos was for the Minoans the site that could replace the sacred cave in the winter months of the year, when access to it became difficult.

Funerary Rites In Ancient Greece

A video presented at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.

"The ancient Greek conception of the afterlife and the ceremonies associated with burial were already well established by the sixth century B.C.," according to the Met's Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History. "...The Greeks believed that at the moment of death, the psyche, or spirit of the dead, left the body as a little breath or puff of wind. The deceased was then prepared for burial according to the time-honored rituals. Ancient literary sources emphasize the necessity of a proper burial and refer to the omission of burial rites as an insult to human dignity (Iliad 23: 71)."

These rites consisted of three stages. The body was washed, anointed, dressed and "placed on a high bed within the house." After a period of mourning and ritual lamentations, the body was then carried to the cemetery in a pre-dawn procession.

"Immortality lay in the continued remembrance of the dead by the living. From depictions on white-ground lekythoi, we know that the women of Classical Athens made regular visits to the grave with offerings that included small cakes and libations."

Cemetery From Prehistoric & Historic Times Unearthed In Greece

"A cemetery was excavated this summer by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Euboea at the site Makria Rachi of Karavos [1] in Aliveri. This proved to be a real palimpsest in terms of the region’s archaeological data, since during a rescue survey carried out on a private plot of land, it was found that the cemetery had been in continuous use for over 2,500 years." Source: Archaeology News Network.

[1] I haven't been able to find any information about this particular site, but I think it was a small settlement in the area.

2018 Excavations At The Ancient City Of Phanagoria Completed

Video from 2014.

"The 15th excavation season in ancient city of Phanagoria, in the Russian territory of Krasnodar, has yielded generous finds this year." Source: Archaeology News Network.

The finds included "a Hellenistic-era stone-built vaulted tomb [and a] mud-brick tomb of the 1st century AD [containing] seven sarcophagi with the remains of adults and children [and] elegant vessels of Roman glass, including high-quality red lacquer ware [and other] grave goods."

"... One of the large sarcophagi contained the remains of young man with a long rider's sword, the wooden hilt still embedded in the hand of the deceased warrior. Such weapons were often depicted on the Bosporan funeral stelae as the main weapon of the Bosporan horsemen.The blade was well suited for chopping blows, which is important for a warrior who fought on horseback."

Note: "Phanagoria ... was the largest ancient Greek city on the Taman peninsula, spread over two plateaus along the eastern shore of the Cimmerian Bosporus." (Wikipedia)

"The city was a large emporium for all the traffic between the coast of the Maeotian marshes and the countries on the southern side of the Caucasus. It was the eastern capital of the Bosporan Kingdom, with Panticapaeum being the western capital. Strabo described it as a noteworthy city which was renowned for its trade..."

According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Phanagoria "was founded in the middle of the 6th century BC by colonists from the Ionic city of Teos, and in the 5th century BC it became part of the Bosporan Kingdom." In later centuries it wisely aligned itself with Rome:

"During the Mithridatic Wars, the town allied with the Roman Republic and withstood a siege by the army of Pharnaces II of Pontus. It was at Phanagoria that the insurrection broke out against Mithridates VI of Pontus, shortly before his death; and his sons, who held the citadel, were obliged to surrender to the insurgents. An inscription found during excavations testifies that Queen Dynamis honored Augustus as 'the emperor, Caesar, son of a god, the god Augustus, the overseer of every land and sea.' The loyalty to Rome allowed Phanagoria to maintain a dominant position in the region until the 4th century, when it was sacked and destroyed by the invading Huns." (Wikipedia)

Related:

Archaeologists unearth Persian King Darius I's grave marker (Russian language only)

Golden Treasures of Phanagoria

Sappho Of Lesbos, "The Most Iconic Lesbian Poet In History," Wasn't A Lesbian After All?

"Sappho of Lesbos (c. 620-570 BCE) was a lyric poet whose work was so popular in ancient Greece, and beyond, that she was  honored in statuary and praised by figures such as Solon and Plato. Very little is known of her life and of the nine volumes of her work which were widely read in antiquity only fragments survive. Contrary to popular opinion on the subject, her works were not destroyed by closed-minded Christians seeking to suppress lesbian love poetry but were lost simply through time and circumstance." Source: Ancient History Encyclopedia.

The popular image of Sappho as the "original lesbian" is relatively modern. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (2rd ed. revised), "Her sexual inclinations have occasioned much speculation from antiquity to the present. From Attic comedy onward she was credited with an implausible selection of male lovers. [Emphasis added] She is described as a lover of women only in post-Classical times, and in later European tradition was often regarded as heterosexual." The truth is that hardly anything is known about her personal life or her work other than the fact that she was highly regarded during her time. As for her supposed lesbianism, the truth may have been far different:

"Even Sappho’s sexuality, which for modern readers is the most famous thing about her, has been controversial from the start. However exalted her reputation among the ancient literati, in Greek popular culture of the Classical period and afterward Sappho was known primarily as an oversexed predator—of men. This, in fact, was the ancient cliché about 'Lesbians': when we hear the word today we think of love between women, but when the ancient Greeks heard the word they thought of blow jobs. In classical Greek, the verb lesbiazein—'to act like someone from Lesbos'—meant performing fellatio, an activity for which inhabitants of the island were thought to have a particular penchant." Source: "Girl, Interrupted," Daniel Mendelsohn, The New Yorker.

The strong possibility that Sappho, "the most iconic lesbian poet in history," may have actually been a notorious heterosexual man-eater famous for her knob jobs is absolutely hilarious and all too typical of the way real history so often turns out to be the exact opposite of what everybody thinks they know.

The Temple Of Poseidon At Sounio, Greece

"Cape Sounion ... is the promontory at the southernmost tip of the Attic peninsula, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of the town of Lavrio (ancient Thoricus), and 70 kilometres (43 mi) southeast of Athens. It is part of Lavreotiki municipality, East Attica, Greece." Source: Wikipedia.

"Cape Sounion is noted for its Temple of Poseidon, one of the major monuments of the Golden Age of Athens. Its remains are perched on the headland, surrounded on three sides by the sea."

"The original, Archaic-period temple of Poseidon on the site, which was built of tufa, was probably destroyed in 480 BC by Persian troops during Xerxes I's invasion of Greece. Although there is no direct evidence for Sounion, Xerxes certainly had the temple of Athena and everything else on the Acropolis of Athens, razed as punishment for the Athenians' defiance. After they defeated Xerxes in the naval Battle of Salamis, the Athenians placed an entire captured enemy trireme (warship with three banks of oars) at Sounion as a trophy dedicated to Poseidon." (Wikipedia)

"The temple  of Poseidon at Sounion was constructed in 444–440 BC. This was during the ascendancy of the Athenian statesman Pericles, who also rebuilt the Parthenon in Athens. It was built on the ruins of a temple dating from the Archaic period."

"Archaeological evidence indicates that Sounion was a sacred area as far back as the Bronze Age," according to Ancient Greece. "... An inscription confirms that the temple was dedicated to Poseidon, and it was built upon the remains of an even earlier poros [a type of stone named after the Poros islands] temple whose foundations are still visible. This Archaic temple was razed by the Persians in 490 BCE [Wikipedia says it was 480 BC] when it still under construction. Very little is known about this earlier temple, but it is certain that it was a revered landmark, visible from afar as sailors approached or left the safety of the Attica harbors. The newer temple closely follows the size and plan of the more ancient one."

Video from 2016.