1 74 i Flora Unveiled
Although Homer never cites poppies as the source of nepenthe pharmakon (literally, “no-
pain drug”), its effects are suspiciously like those of opium, the active ingredients of which are
morphine and codeine. On the other hand, Homer’s poetic and wildly extravagant claims
of nepenthe’s power to nullify all grief, no matter how horrific the provocation, may explain
why, several hundred years later, the literal- minded botanist, Theophrastus, insisted that there
was no known plant with the properties of Homer’s nepenthe. Nevertheless, Theophrastus, a
student and colleague of Aristotle’s who is generally recognized as the “Father of Botany,” did
report that a mixture of the juices of hemlock and poppy could induce an easy and painless
death.^68 Based on the latter description, we can infer that Theophrastus, like both Hippocrates
and Aristotle before him, was well aware of opium’s potent narcotic properties, a tradition that
extended at least as far back as the Bronze Age. Indeed, there is some evidence that, during
the Bronze Age, poppy juice was being traded in parts of the Near East. Poppy- shaped vessels
dating to 1500 bce have been found in Cyprus and Egypt, and they may have been used as
containers for the transport of “pharmaceutical preparations” based on poppy juice.^69
The Cataclysmic End of the Bronze AgeThe hegemony of the Mycenaean Palace societies over the Greek mainland, Crete, and
the Cyclades lasted for about 200 years. When the end came around 1200 bce, it came
swiftly and conclusively— not just weakening the Palace social order, but effectively ending
it. However, in those parts of the mainland outside the control of the palaces, the general
decline of Mycenaean society was more protracted and patchy.^70
The cause of the Mycenaean Palace implosion has been the subject of much speculation
and debate. Greek historians interpreted the ruins visible at numerous locations as the
direct result of invasions by Dorians from the north. However, there is no evidence for any
significant invasion of the mainland at the end of the Bronze Age. Based on the character-
ization of Mycenaean society as extremely war- like, later historians postulated that constant
internecine warfare between feuding princes brought about the destruction of the palaces,
causing large- scale dislocations of peasants suddenly deprived of their livelihoods. But the
archaeological evidence suggests that a much more stable situation existed on the mainland
until the very end of the Bronze Age.
In recent years, a more complex explanation has emerged, one that attributes the end of
the Bronze Age to “systems collapse,” a breakdown of the Mycenaean economic and social
systems triggered by multiple adverse factors, such as prolonged drought, overpopulation,
soil exhaustion, reliance on too few crops, earthquakes, and other adversities, which the
slow- acting bureaucracies were unable to mitigate. The effects were not limited to Greece.
Currently, the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization is believed to have been part of a
larger, regional collapse caused by multiple interconnected failures, including civil wars and
foreign invasions, the cutting of trade routes, and physical factors such as earthquakes and
drought— spelling the end of most Bronze Age palatial societies.^71
Whatever the exact causes of the Mycenaean collapse, all are agreed on the out-
come: widespread violence, the burning of palaces, and a certain amount of migration as
well. Troy VIIA, the Iliad- era city, was besieged and burned in the late thirteenth century
bce, and Mycenaean Greeks may have taken part in its sacking, as described by Homer in
the Iliad, although the story of the abduction of Helen is fictional. The violence associated