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MOLY (Gr. mu Xu)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 681 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MOLY (Gr. mu Xu) , a mysterious plant with magical See also:powers described in See also:Homer, Odyssey, x. 302-306. See also:Hermes pulls it up and gives it to See also:Odysseus as a See also:protection against the arts of See also:Circe. It is further described as " having a See also:black See also:root and a See also:flower like See also:milk, and hard for mortals to pull up." There has been much controversy as to the See also:identification. Philippe Champault—Pheniciens et Grecs en Italie d'apres l'Odyssee (1906),pp. 504 seq.—decides in favour of the Peganum harmala (of the See also:order Rutaceae), the Syrian or See also:African See also:rue (Gr. irir'avov), from the husks of which the See also:vegetable See also:alkaloid harmaline (C1aH14N20) is extracted. The See also:flowers are See also:white with See also:green stripes. See also:Victor See also:Berard—See also:Les Pheniciens et l'Odyssee, ii. 288 seq.—relying partly on a Semitic root, prefers the Atriplex halimus (atriplex, a See also:Lat. See also:form of Gr. arph¢aEas, and &X os, marine), order Chenopodiaceae, a See also:herb or See also:low See also:shrub See also:common on the See also:south See also:European coasts. These identifications are noticed by R. M. See also:Henry in Class.

Rev. (Dec. Igoe), p. 434, who illustrates the Homeric See also:

account by passages in the See also:Paris and See also:Leiden magical papyri, and argues that moly is probably a magical name, derived perhaps from Phoenician or See also:Egyptian See also:sources, for a plant which cannot be certainly identified. He shows that the " difficulty of pulling up " the plant is not a merely See also:physical one, but rather connected with the See also:peculiar powers claimed by magicians. In See also:Tennyson's See also:Lotus Eaters the moly is coupled with the See also:amaranth (" propt on beds of amaranth and moly ").

End of Article: MOLY (Gr. mu Xu)

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