Ophiussa

"Snake Plant" Pliny provided us with a description of this plant, which comes from the island of Elephantine on the Nile, renowned as the place where the mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) was found: The ophiussa on Elephantine in the same Ethiopia has a lead-colored and unsightly appearance and is said, when drunk, to produce such dread and such terror of snakes that people would kill themselves out of fear; this is why the desecrators of temples are forced to drink of it. Palm wine is an antidote. (24.163) This information inspired the film Young Sherlock Holmes (from the studio of Steven Spielberg). In this film, an Egyptian sect of murderers kills its victims by shooting an arrow that has been treated with an unidentified hallucinogen into the carotid artery. The victims experience such terrible visions, including snakes, that they commit suicide. Today, many people continue to believe that people will throw themselves out of windows because they have been driven to madness by psychedelics. This motif, which is quite popular in the yellow press, appeared in a novel that Leo Perutz (1882-1957) wrote in 1923, Der Meister des jungsten Tages [The Master of Judgment Day] (cf. Claviceps purpurea).

Literature Perutz, Leo. 1990. Der Meister des jungsten Tages. Reinbek: Rowohlt.