Right after the Greeks defeated Troy in the Trojan War, they left the burning city and headed home to Ithaca. One ship headed toward home had a captain named Odysseus. You may have heard of him. And his twenty year adventure complete with cyclops, gods, witches, Sirens and many others has proven worthy entertainment for centuries and a great analogy for our modern lives.
In 1983 it was suggested that the magical herb “moly” from Homer’s Odyssey is really a Snowdrop.
The Snowdrop is a flower that symbolizes being born in the month of January. The Snowdrop, also known as Galanthus nivalis is traditionally the first flowers to appear in either January or February in the north.
The Snowdrop is a white flower with three small petals in the middle surrounded by three larger petals on the outside.

So, it is possible that Odysseus utilized a Snowdrop as the ‘moly flower’ in his great travels, you see, the god Hermes showed him the bloom in the garden in front of a palace. Odysseus picked the moly flower and ate it. Then he went into the palace of a powerful witch called Circe, with some of his men. He took the wine offered him and drank it, trusting the moly flower to protect him. And it did! One of the active substances in a Snowdop is galantamine which could have acted as an antidote to poison. Today galantamine has been used to help treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
After the entire glass of wine was gone, Circe raised a wand and said, “Go wallow in the mud with all the others!” and attempted to turn them all into pigs. That was her thing. While his entire crew was turned into pigs, Odysseus just stood there. After pausing, Circe became extremely scared. Then the great witch allowed his men to be changed back into humans and for Odysseus and his crew to stay at her palace for as long as they liked.
He defeated a witch with a flower! Ha! Take that!
As we start this new year and each set sail on our continued voyage of self discovery, learning, and adventure that we call life… it couldn’t hurt to take some flowers with you! Just don’t eat them.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!