The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization - Hardcover

Hillman, D. C. A., Ph.D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312352492 ISBN 13: 9780312352493

Verlag: Thomas Dunne Books, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

“The last wild frontier of classical studies.” ---The Times (UK)
The Chemical Muse uncovers decades of misdirection and obfuscation to reveal the history of widespread drug use in Ancient Rome and Greece. In the city-states that gave birth to Western civilization, drugs were an everyday element of a free society. Often they were not just available, but vitally necessary for use in medicine, religious ceremonies, and war campaigns. Their proponents and users existed in all classes, from the common soldier to the emperor himself.
Citing examples in myths, medicine, and literature, D. C. A. Hillman shows how drugs have influenced and inspired the artists, philosophers, and even politicians whose ideas have formed the basis for civilization as we know it. Many of these ancient texts may seem well-known, but Hillman shows how timid, prudish translations have left scholars and readers in the dark about the reality of drug use in the Classical world.
Hillman’s argument is not simply “pro-drug.” Instead, he appeals for an intellectual honesty that acknowledges the use of drugs in ancient societies despite today’s conflicting social mores. In the modern world, where academia and university life are often politically charged, The Chemical Muse offers a unique and long overdue perspective on the contentious topic of drug use and the freedom of thought.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

D. C. A. Hillman earned an M.S. in bacteriology and an M.A. and Ph.D in classics from the University of Wisconsin. His research has been published in the academic journal Pharmacy in History. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife and children.

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The Chemical Muse

Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization

By D. C. A. Hillman

St. Martin's Press

Copyright © 2008 D. C. A. Hillman, Ph.D.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-312-35249-3

Contents

Title Page, 
Copyright Notice, 
Dedication, 
Introduction, 
1. The Ancient Crucible, 
2. Ancient Medicines, 
3. Greeks, Romans, and Recreational Drugs, 
4. Promethean Euphoria, 
5. Drawing Down the Moon, 
6. The Divine Gift of Mind-Bending Intoxication, 
7. The Pharmacology of Western Philosophy, 
8. Democracy, Free Speech, and Drugs, 
Conclusion: The Western Pursuit of Happiness, 
Notes, 
Bibliography, 
Index, 
Copyright, 

CHAPTER 1

The Ancient Crucible

The Greek knew and felt the terror and horror of existence. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Two thousand years ago, life was nothing less than an endless struggle for survival. The cultural milieu of the ancient Greeks and Romans, something we now call Classical civilization, gave birth to venerated institutions and ideas like Western philosophy, the scientific method, and democratic governance, yet it was neither idyllic nor romantic. Antiquity saw the birth of humanism and political freedom, concepts that brought hope and prosperity to the West and ultimately sparked the Renaissance and Enlightenment, but the ancient world was very much a place of overwhelming anguish. Greece and Italy were home to renowned authors and statesmen like Pliny, the natural historian, Pericles, the democratic reformer, and Julian, the Roman emperor who tried in vain to break Christianity's stranglehold on state affairs, but in the midst of such psychologically liberating tendencies, distress and misery were accepted facts of life, cruel torments sent by a host of merciless gods. Men and women died a thousand preventable deaths in antiquity, where existence was oftentimes a sorrowful tragedy, a pitiful farce that opened with a chorus of grieving mothers and closed with the entire cast's premature exit.

Natural disasters, fatal diseases, and unending warfare dogged man's every step from womb to pyre like maddening Furies. Volcanoes, epidemics, and vicious combat brought death and destruction, claiming the lives of the famous and the infamous alike, along with history's forgotten multitudes. The devastatingly harsh conditions that prevailed forged literary traditions characterized by equal proportions of pessimism and passion. Modern audiences often fail to appreciate the ancient world's understanding of the transience of life, and thereby misread Greek and Latin literature. Scholars, Hollywood, and a now vanishing breed of high school Latin teachers see much more of themselves in ancient peoples than actually exists. Give them a toga and a laurel wreath and they'd suddenly think they're Julius Caesar. However, history just doesn't work that way. Time and social evolution have changed the ways we live and die, and thus our experiences as a species.

Today the West views death as an endogenous process, the breakdown of the body, while ancient Greeks and Romans saw it as the result of uncontrollable external forces. Catastrophes killed them; we kill ourselves. Fatty foods, indolence, and a history of smoking give most of us moderns that ignominious heart attack, stroke, or cancer that escorts us to our resting places. However, in antiquity plague, famine, and hand-to-hand combat cut life short. Those who managed to live long were champions of a small but resilient minority. They were a select few, constantly aware that most of their contemporaries were not so lucky. Accordingly, sorrow, pessimism, and anxiety form a strong undercurrent in Classical literature, produced as it was by those who survived the diseases and wars that dominated ancient life. Classical myth, the lifeblood of Western society, is endowed with a spirit of tragic evanescence, a heartfelt communion with the metaphysical reality that life is painful and fleeting.

Two millennia ago people were capable of living just as long as modern postindustrialists, but most didn't. Harsh environmental factors lowered the average survival rate in antiquity, but it's important to understand that the biology of human life was no different. People are not capable of living longer today than they did then, they just manage to dodge the statistical bullets of the ancient world. Although it's impossible to put a number on the average life expectancy of the Classical world with any accuracy, the written records left behind by the Greeks and Romans make it clear that it was much lower than it is today.

Much of the great psychological burden imposed by the harsh living conditions of ancient life has been alleviated, making it difficult for us to fully appreciate the customs, values, and mores found in ancient literature. More important, a great demographic gulf prevents us from understanding several facets of the Classical world that have been intentionally ignored by modern scholars, namely, the widespread use of mind-altering substances, antiquity's enduring obsession with drug-wielding sorcerers, and the profound influence of narcotics on the development of Western literature and society.

In order for us to wrap our modern minds around the ancient love affair with drugs, we must first understand why these chemicals were so desperately needed; we must ask ourselves what compelled the Greeks and Romans to seek the solace offered by pharmaceuticals, and how their lifestyles and living conditions induced them to become experts in the use of narcotics. Examining the ancient world's struggle with the forces of nature, disease, and violence will show us why drugs were such valued commodities and how the Greeks and Romans started their cultural journey on the path toward discovering the psychotropic and analgesic effects of certain natural substances.

The search for information about antiquity begins in the dust and ashes of ancient ruins. Beneath the ominous shadow of Mount Vesuvius today, tourists walk the streets of Pompeii peering in at the remains of once-lavish temples, public buildings, marketplaces, brothels, and eateries. Archaeologists who excavated the site made grim plaster molds of impressions left by the volcano's ash-covered victims, which give viewers today the eerie feeling that the dead still inhabit the dark corners of the city. Pompeii, along with one of her close neighbors, Herculaneum, is amazingly well preserved for one simple reason: It was completely wiped off the map of human affairs by a volcanic eruption in 79 A.D. The forces that snuffed out its inhabitants with such sudden violence preserved it for later generations.

Across the Mediterranean, tourists drink and dance the night away on the picturesque island of Santorini. The island, just a few hours' journey from mainland Greece, is a wonderful place to relax, unwind, and maybe sow a few wild oats. Long before it became a popular vacation spot, it was known as Thera, the home of an ancient people we call the Minoans. A terrible explosion on this volcanic island sometime around 1600 B.C. buried its settlements in ash and forever transformed its circular shape into something resembling a crescent moon enfolding a monstrously ominous crater. Like Pompeii, it sports some fantastic ruins.

Both Pompeii and Thera tell us one important thing about the ancient world: Natural disasters occasionally wiped out everything from small communities to neighboring villages, large cities, and even entire cultures. There were no emergency warning systems, no protective...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Thomas Dunne Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0312352492
• ISBN 13: 9780312352493
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 243
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar