father, and fled to Arabia. The story told by Ovid is that she had conceived a criminal passion for her father, and that by deception she had taken her mother's place by his side one night. Lost in the desert and overcome by remorse, she had prayed the gods to grant that she should no longer remain among the living, nor be counted with the dead. Touched with pity for her, they changed her into the tree which yields the gum which to this day bears her name.
Nepenthe.
Nepenthe, or more correctly Nepenthes, is described by Homer in the Odyssey as an Egyptian plant which Helen, the wife of Menelaus, had received from Polydamna, wife of Thonis, King of Egypt. The word is compounded of ne, negation, and penthos, pain or affliction. Helen mixed it for Telemachus in "a mirth inspiring bowl" which would
Clear the cloudy front of wrinkled care,
And dry the tearful sluices of despair.
Its effects would last all through one day. No matter what horrors surrounded,
From morn to eve, impassive and serene
The man entranced would view the dreadful scene.
Much discussion of Homer's drug has of course resulted from his description of these effects. Was it a mere poetic fancy of Homer's and was the name his invention, or was there an Egyptian drug known in his time to which the properties he describes were attributed? Plutarch, Philostratus, and some other ancient commentators suppose that the poet is only
