That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave;
He called it Haemony, and gave it me,
And bade me keep it as of sov'reign use
'Gainst all enchantments," &c. &c.
The Moly that Hermes to Ulysses gave, is the wild garlick, [Greek: molu] by some thought the wild rue. (Odyss. b. x. 1. 302.) It is the [Greek: moluza] of Hippocrates, who recommends it to be eaten as an antidote against drunkenness. But of Haemony I have been unable to find any reference among our ordinary medical authorities, Paulus Aeginata, Celsus, Galen, or Dioscorides. A short note of reference would be very instructive to many of the readers of Milton.
J.M. BASHAM.
17. Chester Street, Belgrave Square.
Ventriloquism.—What evidence is there, that ventriloquism was made use of in the ancient oracles? Was the [Greek: pneuma puthonos] (Acts, xvi. 16.) an example of the exercise of this art? Was the Witch of Endor a ventriloquist? or what is meant by the word [Greek: eggastrimuthos] at Isai. xix. 3., in the Septuagint?
"Plutarch informs us," says Rollin (Ancient History, vol. i. p. 65.), "that the god did not compose the verses of the oracle. He inflamed the Pythia's imagination, and kindled in her soul that living light which unveiled all futurity to her. The words she uttered in the heat of her enthusiam, having neither method nor connection, and coming only by starts, to use that expression [Greek: eggastrimuthos] from the bottom of her stomach, or rather from her belly, were collected with care by the prophets, who gave them afterwards to the poets to be turned into verse."
If the Pythian priestess was really a ventriloquist, to what extent was she conscious of the deception she practised?