Moly (herb)

Moly (Greek: μῶλυ) is a magic herb mentioned in book 10 of Homer's Odyssey.^[1]

In the story, Hermes gave this herb to Odysseus to protect him from Circe's magic when he went to her home to rescue his friends.^[2] These friends came together with him from the island Aiolos after they escaped from the Cyclops. "The plant 'moly' of which Homer speaks; this plant had, it is said, grown from the blood of the Gigante killed in the isle of Kirke; it has a white flower; the ally of Kirke who killed the Gigante was Helios (the Sun); the combat was hard (Greek malos) from which the name of this plant".^[3] Homer also describes Moly by saying "The root was black, while the flower was as white as milk; the gods call it Moly, Dangerous for a mortal man to pluck from the soil, but not for the deathless gods. All lies within their power".^[4]

There has been much controversy as to the identification. Philippe Champault decides in favour of the Peganum harmala (of the order Rutaceae),^[5] the Syrian or African rue (Greek πἠγανον), from the husks of which the vegetable alkaloid harmaline (C₁₃H₁₄N₂O) is extracted. The flowers are white with green stripes. Victor Bérard relying partly on a Semitic root, ^[6] prefers the Atriplex halimus (atriplex, a Latin form of Greek ἀτράφαξυς, and ἅλιμος, marine), order Chenopodiaceae, a herb or low shrub common on the south European coasts. These identifications are noticed by R. M. Henry,^[7] who illustrates the Homeric account by passages in the Paris and Leiden magical papyri, and argues that moly is probably a magical name, derived perhaps from Phoenician or Egyptian sources, for a plant which cannot be certainly identified. He shows that the "difficulty of pulling up" the plant is not a merely physical one, but rather connected with the peculiar powers claimed by magicians.^[7] In Tennyson's Lotus Eaters the moly is coupled with the amaranth ("propt on beds of amaranth and moly").^[2]

Notes

1. ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 681 cites: Homer, Odyssey, x. 302-306
2. ^ ^{a b} Chisholm 1911, p. 681.
3. ^ HELIUS : Greek Titan god of the sun, http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Helios.html 
4. ^ Homer & Butler 1898, Book X.
5. ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 681 cites: Phéniciens et Grecs en Italie d'après l'Odyssée (1906), pp. 504 seq.
6. ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 681 cites: Victor Bérard Les Phéniciens et l'Odyssee, ii. 288 seq.
7. ^ ^{a b} Chisholm 1911, p. 681 cites: R. M. Henry Class. Rev. (Dec. 1906), p. 434.

References

• Homer; Butler, Samuel (1898), The Odyssey, Book X, http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Odyssey_(Butler) 

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Moly". Encyclopædia Britannica. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 681.