Around 3,000 years ago, the Eleusinian Mysteries were a sacred and mysterious cult that originated in the ancient Greek town of Eleusis and later became popular throughout the Roman Empire.
Members practiced secret rituals in honor of the fertility goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The ceremonies were held twice a year in the spring and fall.
They involved animal sacrifices, ritual bathing in the sea, fasting, and drinking a concoction called kykeon.
Written records show that the potion contained mint, barley, and water, but some scholars have suggested that it also included hallucinogenic substances.
Ancient priestesses from this cult in Greece and Rome may have used a highly toxic fungus, ergot, to create psychedelic hallucinations, according to a new study.
Researchers conducted laboratory experiments to determine how ancient people could consume ergot without becoming seriously ill.
Ingesting the fungus could cause convulsions, gangrene, and respiratory failure.
“The central question was whether toxic ergot could realistically have been processed into something psychoactive but not lethal using methods available in antiquity,” said Evangelos Dadiotis, a pharmaceutical scientist at the University of Athens.
“We used a simple lye [sodium hydroxide] preparation made from water and ash, a technology well known in the ancient world.”
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The research team attempted to make the fungus non-toxic while maintaining its hallucinogenic properties. First, they collected ergot from wild grasses in Greece.
Next, they pulverized it and boiled it in lye at different pH levels for varying lengths of time to figure out when exactly the toxins start breaking down.
Then, they used tools like nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and high-resolution mass spectrometry to measure chemical changes.
The team found that boiling ergot in lye for two hours at pH 12.5 was the optimal time for the toxins to break down. Only the non-toxic psychoactive compounds, LSA and iso-LSA, remained. The compounds are related to LSD.
Each gram of ergot produced approximately 0.54 milligrams of LSA and 0.48 milligrams of iso-LSA. An altered state of consciousness can be achieved at these amounts.
“Our findings demonstrate that toxic ergopeptides can be chemically transformed into psychoactive substances through an ancient process involving reaction in lye, a technique that could have been employed by the ceremonial priestesses of Eleusis,” wrote the research team.
While the lye mixture was prepared in ancient times, the researchers cannot confirm that it was used specifically to detoxify ergot. In addition, modern lab equipment was used in the experiments, and the ancient priestesses could have used a different type of ergot.
Traces of ergot extracts were found on a ceremonial vase from an Eleusinian site in Spain in 2002. In the future, the team hopes to analyze the residue from similar artifacts found in the ruins of Eleusis.
The results of the study were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
