Recreational consumption of opium in hellenistic world: Parmenon from byzantium’s i fragment (parmeno i)

Author(s):  A.M. Belikov, candidate of Sciences, The Leningrad Regional Branch of the Saint-Petersburg University of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia, Murino, Russia, arseniyb@mail.ru

V.P. Krysanov, candidate of Sciences, associate Professor, The Leningrad Regional Branch of the Saint-Petersburg University of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia, Murino, Russia, klondiken@yandex.ru

Issue:  Volume 44, №22

Rubric:  Topical issues of world history

Annotation:  In the Ist fragment of Hellenistic iambographus Parmenon from Byzantium heavy alcohol drunkenness is compared with effects of opium consumption. In the article is considered the question does it mean that Hellenistic Greeks consumed opium for recreational purposes? Analysis of evidence provided by Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Nicander and some other authors demonstrates that in the 4th and 3d centuries B.C. opium was considered as dangerous poison which was often used for suicides. Practice of recreational consumption if ever existed was a marginal phenomenon which didn’t leave traces in the available sources. Of course, given the relative availability of opium in the ancient world and the Greeks' awareness of the psychoactive properties of some plant-derived substances, one cannot deny the possibility that some individuals could use opium for recreational purposes and even probably acquired some form of dependence on it. However, even if such practices existed, they were a rare and marginal phenomenon that left no traces in the sources that have come down to us.

Keywords:  opium, opium poppy (papaver somnieferum L.), Parmenon from Byzantium, consumption of psychoactive substances in the Hellenistic world.

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