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The Sip that Killed Socrates: Poison Hemlock
What is the most famous drink in history? The single most notorious sip? We are not speaking categorically. No. Neither water, coffee, tea, nor beer fit the bill on this one. Rather, which isolated act of drinking has held the historical gaze most intensely? The wine at the last supper is famous, but it’s being drunk was diluted into twelfths. Dr. John Pemberton’s first sale of Coca Cola in 1886 leaves a sure mark on us today, but even his name is obscured in history. That leaves winding deeper and deeper in history until we arrive in the year 399 BC. The most famous sip in history is that of Socrates and his voluntary draught of hemlock. Having been sentenced to death for corrupting the youth of Athens, the great thinker chose his preferred death. Before learning his philosophy, modern students learn of his death. After forgetting his virtues, adults recall but one thing, a drink of hemlock.
Hemlock. There are many who can recall the name of Socrates’ herbal downfall, but few know precisely what this poison is. While we may associate it with the dignified suicide of Socrates, hemlock has been a common poisonous herb for a long time. In Plato’s Phaedo, which recounts the death of the great philosopher, the hemlock poison arrived in a cup from a jailer who was well versed in the creation of this drink. Socrates and his co-conversant Crito both acknowledge the long history of prisoners who had died from this poison, because it was one of the main forms of death penalty in ancient Athens. Artifacts at the site of the philosopher’s death include small cups used for the poisoning of less famous and long-forgotten prisoners.
The hemlock poison, we learn from the Socrates’ jailer in the Phaedo, had been ground from the plant in the measure of one dose–enough to kill just one man. Socrates drank it and slowly lost feeling from his feet up through his legs, until he turned cold and died. In his book Death in the Garden, Michael Brown describes this form of the death penalty: “The Athenian method of inflicting the death penalty was for the convicted person to drink a goblet of hemlock juice. If using fresh hemlock, you simply mash the stems with a pestle and mortar, a kitchen whizzer would do equally well today, and strain the juice into the goblet.” Perhaps the poison was used because it was so easy to brew a deadly tea out of the hardy hemlock.
Hemlock, as it turns out, is not only an ancient poison, the plant from which the poison is derived, Conium maculatum, is increasingly more common in the United States. The plant is originally native to the Mediterranean but arrived in the States with European settlers (perhaps as a decorative plant thanks to its white flowers). Today it is considered invasive.
Poisonous hemlock grows in damp areas along tree lines in the shade. The plant can grow up to three meters tall and looks similar to other wild flowering species such as Queen Anne’s Lace. Poisonous hemlock, however, has unmistakable purple splotches along its stem. Purple is to bad avoided at all costs. After bouts of rainy weather, the hemlock flourishes. Both the UK and the US have had issues with invasions of hemlock which can lead to livestock poisoning and death. The USDA warns, “Sheep may be poisoned by eating as little as 100 to 500 gm of green leaves. Cattle that eat 300 to 500 gm may be poisoned. Signs usually appear within an hour after an animal eats the plant. Animals die from respiratory paralysis in 2 to 3 hours.” Humans are no different. The poison can enter the body by ingestion and even mere physical contact with the skin.
Every part of the hemlock plant is poisonous. We cannot say for sure if Socrates drank the juice of the root, stem, or leaf, but we know that any of them would have done the job. The plant is far more potent fresh than dried. Hemlock contains Coniine, Methyl-coniine, and Succus conii. These chemicals are active in the body in a similar manner to nicotine, although with a decidedly worse effect. The toxins block signals in the nervous system which lead to the cessation of breathing and consequently suffocation. The poison will also lead to salivation, twitching, pupil dilation, and an increased heart rate which eventually decreases to, you guessed it, 0 beats per minute. There is no cure aside from artificial ventilation. No one in Ancient Greece had a chance against such a poison, very few have a chance today.
The Greeks were not the only ones to make a toxic tea out of the hemlock plant or use it for other purposes. Archaeological remains in Scotland suggest a hemlock concoction was used as an anesthetic in medical procedures. European monks may have made pastes with the plant to smear on genitals in order to prevent sinful lust. On the Ancient Greek island of Kos, anyone over 60 would drink hemlock in order to relieve society of the burden of their old age. Today, the more skilled and perhaps adventurous kind of homeopath might use the plant to nurse swelling, pain, fatigue, or headache.
For all the right reasons, hemlock is not a common beverage, but it is a notorious one thanks to the West’s greatest thinker. As Socrates was dying he said to his friend, “Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?” Asclepius, son of the god Apollo, was known for his ability to bring the dead back to life. We may know that there is hardly any cure for a drink of hemlock, but Socrates may have had his supernatural hopes just before the poison took its final toll. Today, the dangers of the plant and the toxic tea it can make lives on, all the more relevant in the memory of Socrates.
Sources Cited
Brown, Michael. Death in the Garden : Poisonous Plants & Their Use Throughout History, Pen & Sword Books Limited, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jhu/detail.action?docID=5716215.
Chen, Hsien-Yi, et al. “Rapid Respiratory Arrest after Ingestion of Poison Hemlock Mistaken for Wild Celery.” Clinical Toxicology (Philadelphia, Pa.), vol. 55, no. 2, Feb. 2017, pp. 155–156. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/15563650.2016.1248843.
https://slate.com/technology/2014/08/poisonous-plants-socrates-drank-hemlock-tea-as-his-preferred-mode-of-execution.html
https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/the-last-words-of-socrates-at-the-place-where-he-died/
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