Moly

In his classic of antiquity, The Odyssey, Homer gives an intriguing description of an herb called moly. The companions of Odysseus were enthralled by the spells of the witch Circe, and were transformed into pigs. Seeking to free his friends, Odysseus is given moly by Hermes, the messenger, who informs him that the herb will protect him from Circe's potions. Hermes warned the plant was, "dangerous for a mortal man to pluck from the soil, but not for the deathless gods."

According to Ptolemy Hephaestion, moly grew from the blood of a Giant killed on the island by Helios, one of Circe's friends. As this feat had been particularly dangerous and difficult, the flower's name was derived from the word for hard -malos. Homer describes the plant as having black roots and milk-white flowers. Despite this paucity of descriptive information, many have tried to identify the herb from among known species. Great efforts have been made, from Theophrastus over two millennia ago all the way to Linne and modern botanists, to find this legendary species.

Peganum harmala.

One candidate put forward is Syrian Rue - Peganum harmala. The plant features white flowers and a long history of ritual use due to the presence of the psychoactive alkaloid harmaline in its seed husks. Another possibility put forth by modern researchers is the snowdrop, which has anticholinesterase properties due to a presence of the alkaloid galantamine. Many intoxicating plants contain anticholinergic alkaloids like atropine and scopolamine, including deadly nightshade, datura, henbane and mandrake. An anticholinesterase will counter the symptoms produced by these plants, including amnesia, hallucinations and delusions. Perhaps Odysseus was given snowdrop to counteract the delusions of his poisoned friends.

Snowdrop.