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Treated Fungus May Be the Secret to Greece’s Ancient Eleusinian Mysteries - Archaeology Magazine
3 Articles
3 Articles
Treated Fungus May Be the Secret to Greece’s Ancient Eleusinian Mysteries - Archaeology Magazine
4th-century b.c. plaque depicting Eleusinian Mysteries, Eleusis, Greece ATHENS, GREECE—IFL Science reports that a team of researchers led by Romanos K. Antonopoulos and Evangelos Dadiotis of the National and Kapodistrian University were able to use a lye solution made with water and ash to remove the potentially deadly toxins from Claviceps purpurea, a fungus that can grow on barley, and convert them into psychoactive substances. Such hallucinog…
Ancient Greeks Used Processed Ergot Fungus in the Eleusinian Mysteries, Study Finds
A votive plaque depicting elements of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Credit: National Archaeological Museum, Athens / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain A new study is offering a fresh explanation for one of ancient Greece’s most enduring Eleusinian mysteries (Greek: Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια). Researchers say the secret drink used in the Mysteries may have contained a carefully prepared psychedelic derived from ergot fungus—processed in a way that reduced i…
A new study revisits the hypothesis that Claviceps purpurea, a grain-infested fungus that produces ergot alkaloids, was the psychedelic active ingredient in the kykeon, the holy elixir of the Eleusinian mysteries. Although archaeological evidence supports this connection, experimental data confirming the conversion of toxic ergopeptides into psychoactive lysergic acidamide derivatives into suspected antique preparations are still limited. The re…
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