its parasitic infection by ergot. Samples of ergot The separation of the hallucinogenic agents by grown on L. temulentum and L. perenne collected in simple water solution from the non-soluble ergo-Germany, France, and Switzerland showed large tamine and ergotoxine alkaloids was well within the variation in their alkaloidal composition. Some range of possibilities open to Early Man in Greece.
contained substantial amounts of ergonovine to-An easier method still would have been to have re-gether with alkaloids of the ergotamine and ergo-course to some kind of ergot like that growing on toxine group.5 A species of ergot growing on darnel the grass Paspalum distichum, which contains only may have existed in ancient Greece that contained alkaloids that are hallucinogenic and which could mainly hallucinogenic alkaloids of ergot such as we even have been used directly in powder form. As I have found in ergot of Paspalum.
said before, P. distichum grows everywhere around In conclusion I now answer Wasson’s question.
the Mediterranean basin. During the many centu-The answer is yes, Early Man in ancient Greece ries when the Eleusinian Mysteries were thriving could have arrived at an hallucinogen from ergot.
and holding the antique Greek world enthralled, He might have done this from ergot growing on may not the hierophants of Eleusis have been wheat or barley. An easier way would have been to broadening their knowledge and improving their use the ergot growing on the common wild grass skills? For the Greek world as for us, the Mysteries Paspalum. This is based on the assumption that the are linked to Demeter and Kore, and they and herbalists of ancient Greece were as intelligent and Triptolemus are the famed mythical progenitors of resourceful as the herbalists of pre-Conquest Mex-cultivated wheat and barley. But in the course of ico.
time the hierophants could easily have discovered A H
Claviceps paspali growing on the grass Paspalum distichum. Here they would be able to get their hallucinogen direct, straight and pure. But I mention this only as a possibility or a likelihood, and not because we need P. distichum to answer Wasson’s question.
Finally we must also discuss an ergot parasitical to a wild grass called in scientific nomenclature Lolium temulentum L. In English this is most widely known as darnel or cockle or (in the Bible) tares, a weed that plagues grain crops. It is sometimes called
“wild rye grass”, an unfortunate name because wild rye has nothing to do with rye: the rye of “wild rye grass” is of utterly different etymology. In classic Greek darnel was aira and in classic Latin was lolium. Its name in French is ivraie and in German Taumellolch, both names pointing to a belief in its psychotropic activity in the folk knowledge of the traditional European herbalists. A citation for ivraie in ..  has been found, and it must go back much further than that.
Analysis of Lolium temulentum in my laboratory and an extended botanical, chemical, and pharmacological investigation by I. Katz4 showed that the plant itself contains no alkaloids nor does it possess any pharmacological activity. But the Lolium species ( L. temulentum and L. perenne) are notoriously prey to the Claviceps fungus. The psychotropic 4 Katz, I.: Contribution à Etude de l’ivraie enivrante ( Lo-5 Kobel, H., Sandoz Research Laboratories, Basel. Private lium temulentum L.). Thèse présentée a l’Ecole Poly-communication.
technique Federale, Zurich, .
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e are told that there once was a young Athe-priests and guides, a little more than a month’s nian who was much taken with the beauty of W
wages, plus the expense of the stay in Athens.
a courtesan in one of the brothels of Corinth. His Every step of the way recalled some aspect of an attempts to repay her favors in some special way ancient myth that told how the Earth Mother, the were continually frustrated by the madam, who in-goddess Demeter, had lost her only daughter, the sisted upon confiscating all private gifts. To give the maiden Persephone, abducted as she gathered flow-girl something that would be hers alone, he hit ers by her bridegroom, who was Hades or the lord upon the idea of offering her an immaterial, and of death. The pilgrims called upon Iakchos as they thereby inalienable, benefit: he would pay the ex-walked. It was he who was thought to lead them on penses for her introduction into the blessed com-their way: through him, they would summon back munity of those who had witnessed the secret relig-the queen Persephone into the realm of the living.
ious ceremony practiced at the village of Eleusis.