Moly (English:/ˈmoʊliː/,MOH-lee; Greek:μῶλυ,[mɔːly],MAW-loo) is a magical herb mentioned in book 10 ofHomer'sOdyssey.[1]
InHomer'sOdyssey,Hermes gave this herb toOdysseus to protect him fromCirce's poison and magic when he went to her palace to rescue his friends.[2] These friends came together with him from the islandAeolus after they escaped from theLaestrygonians.
According to the"New History" ofPtolemy Hephaestion (according toPhotius) andEustathius, the plant mentioned by Homer grew from the blood of theGiantPicolous killed onCirce's island, byHelios, father and ally of Circe, when the Giant tried to attack Circe. In this description the flower had a black root, for the colour of the blood of the slain Giant, and a white flower, either for the white Sun that killed him, or the fact that Circe had grown pale with terror. A derivation of the name was given, from the "hard" (Greekmalos) combat with the Giant.[3][4][5]
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".[6] SoOvid describes in book 14 of hisMetamorphoses: "A white bloom with a root of black".
There has been much controversy as to the identification, and some authors point out that as a fictional element of the story, it does not necessarily correspond to any real plant.
Kurt Sprengel believed that the plant is identical toAllium nigrum as Homer describes it.[7] Some also believe that it may have beenAllium moly, instead, which is named after the mythical herb. Philippe Champault decides in favour of thePeganum harmala (of the family Nitrariaceae),[9] the Syrian or African rue (Greekπἠγανον), from the seeds and roots of which the vegetable alkaloidharmaline is extracted. The flowers are white with green stripes.Victor Bérard (1906)[8] relying partly on a Semitic root,[10] prefers theAtriplex halimus[a]family Amaranthaceae – a herb or low shrub common on the south European coasts. These identifications are noticed by R. M. Henry (1906),[12] who illustrates the Homeric account by passages in the Paris and Leidenmagical papyri, and argues that moly is probably a magical name, derived perhaps from Phoenician or Egyptian sources, for a plant that 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.[12]
Medical historians have speculated that the transformation to pigs was not intended literally, but instead refers toanticholinergic intoxication whose symptoms includeamnesia,hallucinations, anddelusions.[13] This diagnosis would make "moly" align well with thesnowdrop, aflower of the region that containsgalantamine, ananticholinesterase that therefore might counteract anticholinergics. In 2024, a study suggested the possibility that the plant in question is, in fact, an ethnobotanical complex composed of several phylogenetically close species, which could have been used interchangeably due to their similar properties.[14]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Moly".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 681.
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