| Mead: Honey Drink of the Gods In Euripides Bacchae, it is stated: “The plain flows with milk, it flows with wine, it flows with the nectar of bees.” (270) This reference to the word “nectar” leads researchers like Carl Ruck to conclude that a “magical honey drink” preceded the wine sacrament based on the writing of Plato in the Symposium where Plato is relating words of Diotima and proceeds to explain that it was at a party that the god Poros or Plenty, wanted nectar “(there was no wine in those days)” and went into the Garden of Zeus and fell asleep at a feast on the birthday of Aphrodite. I cannot find any reference though to nectar being “honey” in this instance in the Symposium as this is the only time it was used. Although it’s very possible that the connection exists. (271) There is a drug made of honey that is psychedelic, when honey grown by psychotropic plants is collected, however, I think this is dependent more on location in nature than something that can be intentionally cultivated in large quantities by ancient people. It would have required a high level or organization of which we hear nothing about in the ancient world. It doesn’t seem that bee-keeping was the first thing societies concerned themselves with. However, having said that, the Gurung people in Nepal live mostly in small villages in the vast Annapurna mountain ranges and climb to great lengths to collect a hallucinogenic honey that is said to be very nutritious but will intoxicate you with just a couple drops. (272) Mead is mentioned many times in ancient history in mythological texts. We know that mead today is made from fermented honey, however, it’s not certain that the mead that was being discussed in ancient poems and philosophical writings was the same mead that we know of today. In other words, like the pomegranate, the apple and the numerous other objects which occult the mushroom, mead may be no different in this regard. Sometimes it’s just referred to as a honey drink, and honey, along with milk is often used in relation to Soma in the Rig Veda. When considering this at first, it occurred to me that possibly the honey from Nepal was the psychoactive component being discussed, but it’s not likely people raised bees for honey, and this would have made this particular product extremely rare. It’s more likely that the mead or honey drink being discussed could have been the mushrooms ground up and left to be preserved in the honey. This would be the perfect way to conceal it. The idea of milk and honey could also go back to the sap of tree. The mushroom was the milk from the gods and the honey was the sap, which may have been though to help in mushroom production. What I find even more likely still, is that milk was mixed with the mushroom infused honey, in order to create a milky and sweet, non-mushroom tasting, elixir. |
When Zeus would intoxicate Kronos, Porphyry said, it was not with wine, but honey-drink that darkened the senses, for wine was not yet known. The following is an extract from On the Cave of the Nymphs in the 13th book of the Odyssey: “But the Persians, when they offer honey to the guardian of fruits, consider it as the symbol of a preserving and defending power. Hence some persons have thought that the nectar and ambrosia, which the poet pours into the nostrils of the dead, for the purpose of preventing putrefaction, is honey; since honey is the food of the Gods. On this account also, the same poet somewhere calls nectar golden; for such is the colour of honey (viz., it is a deep yellow). But whether or not honey is to be taken for nectar, we shall elsewhere more accurately examine. In Orpheus, likewise, Saturn is ensnared by Jupiter through honey. For Saturn, being filled with honey, is intoxicated, his senses are darkened, as if from the effects of wine, and he sleeps; just as Porus, in the banquet of Plato, is filled with nectar; for wine was not (says he) yet known. The Goddess Night, too, in Orpheus, advises Jupiter to make use of honey as an artifice. For she says to him: “When stretch'd beneath the lofty oaks you view Saturn, with honey by the bees produc'd Sunk in ebriety (note 9), fast bind the God. “This therefore, takes place, and Saturn being bound is emasculated in the same manner as Heaven.” (273) Farther along we read: “The priestesses of Ceres, also, as being initiated into the mysteries of the terrene Goddess, were called by the ancients’ bees; and Proserpine herself was denominated by them ‘honied’.” The God, likewise, who is in the occulted fashion, connected with generation (Saturn/Kronos), is a stealer of oxen. (The cow gods give us mushrooms, but they keep stealing the cows! What’s the deal here?) From Plato’s Symposium (203) we read about “nectar” again: “From what father and mother sprung?’ I asked. ‘That is rather a long story,’ she replied; ‘but still, I will tell it you. When Aphrodite was born, the gods made a great feast, and among the company was Resource the son of Cunning. And when they had banqueted there came Poverty abegging, as well she might in an hour of good cheer and hung about the door. Now Resource, grown tipsy with nectar—for wine as yet there was none—went into the garden of Zeus, and there, overcome with heaviness, slept. Then Poverty, being of herself so resourceless, devised the scheme of having a child by Resource, and lying down by his side she conceived Love. Hence it is that Love from the beginning has been attendant and minister to Aphrodite, since he was begotten on the day of her birth, and is, moreover, by nature a lover bent on beauty since Aphrodite is beautiful.” (270) 142-143 (271) Apples of Apollo, p. 71-72 (272) Shamanism and Drug Propaganda, p. 151 (273) Porphyry, The Cave of Nymphs, 7) in the Thirteenth Book of the Odyssey from the Greek of Porphyry Translated by Thomas Taylor 1917 |