Source-groundedThe Odyssey
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Helen’s grief-banishing drug

Published entity metadata

Read-only identity and editorial metadata.

Canonical name
Helen’s grief-banishing drug
Disambiguator
None
Kind
Item
Scope
Individual
Editorial note
No editorial note published.

Aliases

0

No aliases recorded.

Location presence

Phase 6 currently covers 24 processed books.

0

No presence observations in the processed scope.

Claims

1
·Direct

Helen’s drug prevents its drinker from shedding a tear for the rest of the day.

See evidence text
“Whoever drinks wine thus drugged cannot shed a single tear all the rest of the day”

Additional evidence

Evidence records not already represented by a claim.

1
·Direct
“This drug, of such sovereign power and virtue, had been given to Helen by Polydamna”

Passage preview

Book 4 · Passage 20

Then Jove’s daughter Helen bethought her of another matter. She drugged the wine with an herb that banishes all care, sorrow, and ill humour. Whoever drinks wine thus drugged cannot shed a single tear all the rest of the day, not even though his father and mother both of them drop down dead, or he sees a brother or a son hewn in pieces before his very eyes. This drug, of such sovereign power and virtue, had been given to Helen by Polydamna wife of Thon, a woman of Egypt, where there grow all sorts of herbs, some good to put into the mixing bowl and others poisonous. Moreover, every one in the whole country is a skilled physician, for they are of the race of Paeeon. When Helen had put this drug in the bowl, and had told the servants to serve the wine round, she said: