Kykeon Update

[DrBarton]

I've had some time to mull over the kykeon / witches' ointment connection and I have come to some conclusions that fit the known Eleusinian rituals a little better.

Kykeon, the drink described in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, is not the primary active in the Eleusinian ritual. According to the Hymn it consists of barley, water, and a mint. Some researchers have suspected that the recipe is incomplete or a red herring. I have now concluded that it was probably (more or less) complete but only a secondary enhancer. I would reconstruct kykeon as germinated barley, water, and mint which was then fermented for a few days before use.

Germinated barley is one of the highest natural (and non-toxic) sources of an enzyme that can cause the breakdown of starches into sugars (amylase?). When crushed, germinated barley is added to a grain slurry, it causes a rapid breakdown of the grain starches to sugars. This is how beer can be made without adding sugar. Thus germinated barley mixed with water and either naturally occuring wild yeasts, a little must from a previous batch of kykeon, a wooden yeast catcher (as was used by other ancient cultures though I do not know if the Greeks used it), or a single grape skin would start to ferment rapidly in the warm greek air.

This fermentation is not to produce a fully alcoholic beverage. It is used to create what Americans used to call near beer or naturally-brewed soda pop, specific kinds being root beer and sasparilla though this would probably be a mint beer. The drink, slightly chilled and coming out of a sealed vessel would be sweet, fizzy, and minty. It would also be essentially non-alcoholic (<0.5%). However, I can speak from experience in making similar drinks from fruit juices, it does contain a chemical that causes slight dizziness and skin flush in many people (this may be the effects of vitamin B12). I think that I have everything that I would need for this, I may give it a try and tell you what I think.

This kykeon would not have the direct Eleusinian Mystery effect but it would serve several functions. 1) It would distract the Initiates from the real Mystery drug. In fact, many would believe that kykeon was, indeed, the Mystery drug. 2) It would be something that each Initiate could do on the first day of the Mystery to give them a sense of personal involvement in the process. 3) It would add a symbolic connection to Demeter as barley is her representative plant. 4) The heavy dose of mint in the drink could provide some additional anti-nausea help to counteract the nausea that accompanies the use of so many alkaloids. 5) It would bring a quick flush to the skin that would aid the transdermal absorption of the real Mystery drug.

As in my previous post, my suggestion is that the real Mystery drug is essentially the same as the witches' ointment of european infamy. This would be some combination of henbane, mandrake, and belladonna mixed into olive oil. For lack of a better name, I will refer to this as Demeter's oil in the future.

The Eleusinian Mystery probably consisted of the following sequence of events:

1) The Initiates are brought into a complex over or near a cave. The cave is necessary as the ritual almost certainly involved a descent into the Underworld and a return from death.

2) The Initiates are started on a fast. It is possible that purging was used at this point but I rather doubt it. Three days of fasting should be enough to prep the Initiates.

3) The Initiates witness and/or participate in the production of kykeon. This may well have been placed in individual vases and sealed. In this case, a failure to produce an acceptable kykeon would have been taken as a sign that the Initiate was not ready to participate. Otherwise, a communal vessel would have been used. The sealing would not have been necessary but I like the fizz so I suspect that efforts to keep it would have been made. The kykeon was then left to ferment for two or three days.

4) During those two or three days, the Initiates fasted and listened to stories of the gods and especially of Demeter/Persephonne. Trips on solanums tend to be tinged with darkness (I suspect that the atropine effects is interpreted by the body as fear and this is reflected in the devil rather than angel visitations mentioned by witches' ointment users). While this would certainly help in convincing Initiates that they had been to the Underworld, the priests would have wanted to minimize the bad effects. Since witches's ointment makes the user quite suggestable (an effect of scopalamine which is making it a date-rape drug of choice in South America these days) the priests probably spent the fasting period building up a concrete and (fairly) positive image of the Underworld in the Initiate's minds.

5) On the second or third day, the Initiates were ready to undergo the ceremony. After the appropriate prayers, they drank of the kykeon. As that started to have an effect, the priests annointed the Initiates with Demeter's oil (probably applied with some kind of herbal brush such as the way hyssop is used frequently in the Torah. This would keep the priests from aborbing too much oil themselves.

6) Historically, the effects of witches' ointment are rapid. I suspect that the effects on Initiates who have been fasting for three days and are flush with kykeon would generally succumb to the effects very rapidly, perhaps even swooning into their spirit journey on the walk from the altar.

7) Once on their spirit journey, the Initiates would journey to the Underworld where they, presumably, met with Persephonne (Demeter in her dormant phase) and Hades in the Elysium fields. There, they would (as witches would later describe it) immerse themselves in the riches which Hades possessed and the sexual pleasures of the Afterlife.

8) After an uncertain time (reports involving witches' ointment suggest one to three days), the Initiates would return to their bodies and awaken having had one of the most spiritually important experiences of their lives.

9) Because of the set-up, Initiates would have easily come away with the belief that the experience was initiated through the special circumstances and the kykeon. This misdirection was probably key to keeping the secret of Demeter's oil through the centuries though, appearently, it did leak out eventually or, perhaps, the two evolved independantly.

10) Not all was beautiful though. The actual "descent" was probably dizzying with a strong sense of tunnel-vision. There would have also been a sense of fear (probably interpreted a awe and trembling at the presence of the gods) permeating the whole experience. In addition, there must have been bad trips on occaision. Witches' ointment uses occasionally resulted in somnabulistic wanderings and bizarre behavior. Werewolf ointment (a similar concoction) was specifically used to induce wild, violent "animalistic" behavior. These attacks by the gods on the unworthy would have been good incentive to the Initiated not to try the repeat the trip on their own.

[DrBarton]

Just by coincidence, I found a direct parallel (perhaps related?) to my concept of the creation of kykeon. Chapter 8 of Suraa: the Liquor and the Vedic Sacrifice by Madhavi Bhaskar Kolhatkar, describes the making of two types of suraa. Although suraa is generally condemned in the Vedas, there is one particular ritual in which it is sanctified and sacrificed. No particularly good reason is given for this but I would suggest that the suraa prepared here is a near beer and, therefore, does not produce the "dark" effects of a fully brewed suraa.

Anyway, the primary suraa (there is a second one which is a fermented milk and, therefore, not of concern here) is prepared by combining cooked rice, rice flour, crushed parched barley, sprouted barley, and other (variable) grains with water. Nagnahu (an herb of unspecified nature) is added. This mixture is then filtered and only the "scum" (I believe this means the liquid) is placed in a pot for fermentation. The pot is sealed with a lid and a portion of cooked rice and allowed to sit for three days. At the end of these three days, it may be used in the fire sacrifices (some texts allow for more days for fermentation). No real mention is made of anyone drinking the suraa. This process is nearly identical to the one that I proposed a few days a ago for the creation of kykeon!

Perhaps of additional interest. This ritual describes filtering the suraa through wool in a pot with many holes. A number of pots that would serve this function admirably have been found in minoan Crete. At least one associated with the Vinca Culture (~5200 BCE) has also been found. I have not yet researched cultware of the Eleusinian Mysteries but I suspect that similar pots were found there. Perhaps, the used of kykeon is also far older than we suspect.

[DrBarton]

To be honest, how long you let the brew ferment is probably mostly a matter of taste. My personal experience with near beers/wines is that the flavor takes a dramatic shift at about 5 to 7 days. Many fruit juices, for instance, simply don't taste the same anymore. Besides, one of the reasons for using near bear is to get the fizz and the (B12?) buzz without the alcohol that could have an antagonistic effect on the soma or witches' ointment.

Things should start calming down a bit this week. I'll see if I can't brew up a little kykeon this week.

[Maslow]

Dr. B! That's some crazy stuff you're playing with. You will see things that aren't there. IT's not the kind of trip where you can seperate reality from what you are seeing. I would not try such a drink and definately tell anyone thinking of trying it to reconsider but if they insisted...I would tell them to get a sitter.

When you brew with crushed malted barly be sure the water temp is held at around 150 for at least one hour to get the enzymes to convert the starch to sugar. There are several tricks to doing this but that would be another topic for sure.

With milk...if you add lactaid drops (30 drops per gallon of milk) or use that milk for lactose intollerant people...it has the enzymes that break the sugars down to aid in fermentation. That way you don't have to use the grains.

I would use brown rice also if your were going to use rice.

I agree with Brujo...let it ferment longer. The milk will seperate into 3 layers (Cheese/curd on top, liquid in the middle, and yogurt on the bottom). Siphon the liquid out and let setle in a secondary to furhter clear. Coconut milk does not have the yogurt...but you still get an interesting curd.

[DrBarton]

Dr. B! That's some crazy stuff you're playing with. You will see things that aren't there. IT's not the kind of trip where you can seperate reality from what you are seeing. I would not try such a drink and definately tell anyone thinking of trying it to reconsider but if they insisted...I would tell them to get a sitter.

Keep in mind that I'm talking about two separate parts. The kykeon, as described by Homer, if pretty inocuous. Sure it makes me a little dizzy but it doesn't have any hallucinogenic properties and almost no alcohol to interact with the witches' ointment.

As for the witches' ointment, you are correct. The ointment appears to contain (in the words of a shaman) powerful spirits, capable of bringing great benefits but also great sorrow and madness. I would not use it without some preliminary testing, a reasonable command of lucid dreaming, fasting and psychological preparation, and - as you say - a watcher. Obviously, many Europeans used the ointment without such precautions and, I suspect, many of them paid a heavy price.

When you brew with crushed malted barly be sure the water temp is held at around 150 for at least one hour to get the enzymes to convert the starch to sugar. There are several tricks to doing this but that would be another topic for sure.

I had thought more along the lines of 90-100 degrees overnight. I thought that I'd put it in my food dehydrator for lack of better warm spot here in an Ohio Winter.

With milk...if you add lactaid drops (30 drops per gallon of milk) or use that milk for lactose intollerant people...it has the enzymes that break the sugars down to aid in fermentation. That way you don't have to use the grains.

That is a clever idea! However, the way I read the suraa instructions, they are lactofermenting, making a soured grain milk. With a little malted barley in it to sweeten it up, this is probably kind of like a bizarre kefir or yogurt drink. My suspicion is that this suraa is more of a symbolic addition to the ceremony that an entheogenically-functional part.

I would use brown rice also if your were going to use rice.

This is the fancy version. I wasn't planning on using it for the suraa and I don't need it to seal my vessel but you're probably right. The brown rice would be more authentic.

I agree with Brujo...let it ferment longer.

Again, only if you want the alcohol and alcohol is probably antagonistic to the witches' ointment. If the Greeks and Indians had wanted a longer fermentation period, I think they would have been clearer that they were making a beer. I believe the indications are good that it is the near beer that they are striving for.

[Maslow]

Sounds like you've thought this out pretty well. Good luck to you.

I still say you should put the crushed grain up to 150 degrees Ferenhight and hold for at least an hour. If you're doing an overnight thing...here's what I do. Put my grain in a mesh bag, put this on top of a strainer, put this in an insulated cooler....I like to use the type with a drain spout. Pour Water that has been boiled, then cooled down to about 175 degrees. stir this up and get the temp to 155 as quickly as possible becasue the heat will kill those wonderful enzymes...sometimes I throw some ice cubes into it to help it cool down...just depends. Then I put the lid on the cooler and go to bed.

Wake up in the morning and I have sweet wort. Then I drain out of the cooler, sparge it (pour more 175 degree H20 over the grains), and boil to reduce liquid and further sterilize. If you are making beer....here's where you would add the hops

[DrBarton]

Okay, here is may preliminary evaluation of my attempt at making kykeon:

Recipe used
2 C Barley, Malted
2 C Barley, Pearled
6 C Water
1 Tbp Mint, Ground
Yeast

Procedure
1) Heated Water to boiling then allowed it to cool to ~100 degrees F.
2) Ground Barley to a rough flour with a coffee mill.
3) Stirred Barley flour into Water, making sure that all the clumps were broken up.
4) Placed Barley/Water in food dehydrator at ~115 degrees F, overnight.
5) Transfered Barley/Water to a capped container. Added mint and yeast. Shook thoroughly.
6) Set aside in a room temperature location for ~3 days.
7) Filtered first through a sieve then through a double layer of fine mesh cheese cloth.
8) Drank about 1 C.

Evaluation
1) The resulting mixture was very cloudy. Although a tannish color, it could certainly be called a milk. At this point, I'd like to mention that, because of this cloudiness, many mixtures of nuts and grains are called milks to this day.

2) The taste was noticiably sour but not unpleasantly so. I am not as familiar with grain fermentation as I am fruit fermentation. Perhaps this is what is referred to as a sour mash.

3) With or without filtration, I am reminded of the opaque beers of Africa. These are mostly lactofermentated (very low in alcohol, at least in the beginning) from corn, sorghum, or other grains and are only minimally filtered. In fact, drinkers of african beers have mentioned that their beer is more of a liquid meal than just a drink for them. The sourness is refreshing while the high carbohydrate content helps keep them working in the fields through the day. Russian farm workers have said much the same thing about Kvass which is a near beer (mostly lacto-)fermented from left-over rye bread.

Given that the eleusinian inititiates have just been through a 1+ day fast, this might be an important detail. Kykeon may provide the initiates with an extra energy boost to get them through the actual initiation. Note that witches' ointment trances are usually reported as lasting through the night but some are reported to have lasted several days. Having that energy boost may have been helpful in reducing complications.

4) As expected, I have noticed the "buzz" that I have come to expect with near beer. Although the initial strong buzz passed in about 15 minutes, a slight feeling of displacement continues along with some odd not-quite-tingling sensations in the arms. Even half-an-hour or so after imbibing a cup of the kykeon, I am experiencing a kind of sense of delay when I move. Not quite a sense of vertigo but something similar. I am also flushing though not strongly. At best, my cheeks are showing only slight blushing. Still, I can feel the flush. The effect may be a little stronger than I normally experience with the fruit juice soda that I make but that may simply be because I'm paying more attention to it. The effect seems to have built up over ~half-an-hour. At ~45 minutes, I'm finally noticing a diminution of the flush and some of the displacement effects.

As I drank this on a relatively full stomach, I can only guess at the effect on a fasting initiate. I can certainly guarantee that, although there are no noticeable hallucinatory effects, this "buzz" would certainly signal the onset of something momentous when combined with fasting, group programming, and anticipation. If you wanted to hide your true entheogen from discovery, say by annointing the initiate with witches' ointment a few minutes before or after drinking the kykeon, then it would be a very effective tactic. Even though the Greeks must have been familiar with the near-beer buzz, the diversion would be effective. I certainly know what to expect and I'm a skeptic and I'm still sitting here half expecting the full show to start any moment.

5) There is, for me, a rather annoying scratchiness in the back of my throat after drinking the kykeon. This may be an allergy that is specific to me. I experience a similar sort of scratchiness when I eat canned cherry pie filling in a pie. It is not a full blown allergy but it is annoying.

6) While there was some evidence of carbonation, it was minimal. This may have been a result of the fermentation time. It may also have been a result of relying more on a lacto- than a yeast-fermentation.

7) All-in-all, I found the drink neither pleasant nor unpleasant. The sourness and the mint go well together. If it weren't for the scratchiness in my throat, I might grow to like the taste of this drink. I should not that the scratchiness is irritating but minor. I rather doubt that I'd notice it much if I had an initiation ceremony going on around me.

On the whole, I'd say that this experiment adds further support to my theory of how kykeon fit into the Eleusinian Mysteries. The next step will be to actually test it out in conjunction with a witches' ointment. However, that step is going to take a lot of preparation on my part. I do not anticipate any probability of testing it out before this Summer/Fall 2006.

Disclaimer: To the best of my knowledge, kykeon, Belladonna, Henbane, and Mandrake are not controlled substances. This commentary should not, therefore, be construed as an endorsment of experimentation with controlled substances. Some of these substances are, however, potentially deadly. I do not, therefore, support the use of them without extensive preparation and research

[marcus]

Hi Dr. Barton,
your post is quite interesting. There are a couple of points I'd like to make though:
the pots with holes at their bottom in the Balcanic Vinca culture are a Copper Age creation and they are connected with the production of milk from sheeps/goats, cows. These milk animals are the results of man-made selective breeding and they began to spread in the third mill. b.c. This type of pot was used to make cheese and is very common indeed all over Europe during the following Bronze Age.
Your theory can be supported by the fact that Greeks and Romans knew magical ointments with the same properties of those used in the middle Ages. You can read the nice story of a young witch using it in Apuleius' beautiful book: The Golden Ass.
May I point out that this book by the Roman writer Apuleius is most impressive being the first psychedelic book ever written, as far as we know.
M.

[marcus]

Sorry I had forgotten...
Another source of info about the Kykeon is in Theophrastus (who took part in the mysteries himself). Since it was forbidden to give precise info about them he uses a special word to describe one of the ingredients of Kykeon. This word, which simply means water in ancient Greek, is "udor". It could be the anagram of the initials of the 4 really active components of Kykeon...
We know that some categories of folk were not allowed in the mysteries, amongst them the killers and the fools. Possibly because the priest feared the ill effects of Kykeon in mentally ill people. This is quite reasonable if they used solanaceous plants extracts.
If Kykeon was an oil how were the faithfull anointed? From Apuleius and from medieval witches we know that the absorbtion by body mucous membrane plays the major part. This kind of rather "intimate" anointment must be ruled out on this instance. Do you believe that this oil on hands and heads would have been enough?
About the effects of your drink (I must have a try myself...) we should not forget that we are quite spoiled. Being accustomed to alcoholic beverages, various smokes and the like on a daily basis, we tend to become rather hard headed.
If you think about it it's the same with sounds and colours. If you spend let's say a month in place where there are only natural noises and colours you will discover that your senses are much more sharpened.
I believe that this is what makes us feel some "minor" entheogens so mild to day.
M.

[DrBarton]

Hi Dr. Barton,
the pots with holes at their bottom in the Balcanic Vinca culture are a Copper Age creation and they are connected with the production of milk from sheeps/goats, cows. These milk animals are the results of man-made selective breeding and they began to spread in the third mill. b.c. This type of pot was used to make cheese and is very common indeed all over Europe during the following Bronze Age.

True. I made the point about these vessels only because they are specifically mentioned for the production of soma in the Rg-Veda. As far as using these pots for cheese production does: They are probably adequate for producing curds - at least the big curds without any additional filtration. With a hair filter, they would be good for straining out solids from liquids such as in wine or beer production. With a cloth filter, they would be good for cheese production. At least that's my understanding of the process. I'd have to try such vessels hands on to see how they actually work. Still, such pots would have been multi-functional, perhaps with only small changes in design.


Your theory can be supported by the fact that Greeks and Romans knew magical ointments with the same properties of those used in the middle Ages. You can read the nice story of a young witch using it in Apuleius' beautiful book: The Golden Ass.

This connection has been made in several places. H. R. Ellis Davidson in his God and Myths of Northern Europe mentions several examples of people transforming themselves or others into horses (I suspect that this is the origin of the nightmare). Interestingly, the use of witches' ointment as a punishment (similar to the effect in the Golden Ass) is known in Southwest America (I can't find the reference just now). Here, a witch punished a man by using datura on him, making him finally believe that he was a dog, then killing him. As with the zombie drug of Hati, it would appear that some people can, eventually, recover from the long-term psychoses that datura and the like can produce in strong doses.

May I point out that this book by the Roman writer Apuleius is most impressive being the first psychedelic book ever written, as far as we know.

I hadn't realized that. I'll have to take a look at it.

Another source of info about the Kykeon is in Theophrastus (who took part in the mysteries himself). Since it was forbidden to give precise info about them he uses a special word to describe one of the ingredients of Kykeon. This word, which simply means water in ancient Greek, is "udor". It could be the anagram of the initials of the 4 really active components of Kykeon.

I'd read of this but I didn't know the source. I'll have to check it out. Still, it would make sense to use water for kykeon so I'm not sure why there is the suspicion of an anagram.

We know that some categories of folk were not allowed in the mysteries, amongst them the killers and the fools. Possibly because the priest feared the ill effects of Kykeon in mentally ill people. This is quite reasonable if they used solanaceous plants extracts.

Quite right. I don't believe that the witches' ointment is a revelatory drug like DMT or LSD. I suspect that its effects are more on the hypnotic / dissociative side of how the mind works. However, once some peoples minds are dissociated, it can be hard to put them back together.

If Kykeon was an oil how were the faithfull anointed? From Apuleius and from medieval witches we know that the absorbtion by body mucous membrane plays the major part. This kind of rather "intimate" anointment must be ruled out on this instance. Do you believe that this oil on hands and heads would have been enough?

That I don't know and have to find out. However, the applications of witches' and werewolf ointments in european accounts suggests that they application doesn't have to be very large. I might suggest that an oil instead of an ointment was used and this was poured on the Initiates' heads. The flushed pores of the head would probably have greated enough contact surface for the effect. Plus, the hair would have kept it around for a longer period of absorption.

About the effects of your drink (I must have a try myself...) we should not forget that we are quite spoiled. Being accustomed to alcoholic beverages, various smokes and the like on a daily basis, we tend to become rather hard headed.

I'm not very hardened. I avoid most mood altering substances as I don't handle them very well. Actually, I suspect that the average greek kid was probably far more used to intoxicants than I am. Still, the effect on a fasting Initiate must have been fairly strong. Especially in the dark as the Initiates probably were (the temple where the initiations took place was full of columns and would not have been conducive to big theatrical performances of lighting).

Thanks for the comments and additional information.