Flowers in the Blood Quotes

“(speaking of the widespread availability and cheapness of opium in 19th century England):

With everyone from kings to chimneysweeps so plentifully exposed to opiates, the British Empire would surely have crumbled into a land of craven drug addicts if there were any truth to the currently accepted thesis that the availability of narcotics precisely determines the number of addicts in the population. But the Empire was never in stouter shape than during this extremely extended opium epidemic.”
― Jeff Goldberg, Flowers in the Blood: The Story of Opium

“Theseus, slayer of the Minotaur (who also slew Eumolpus’ son Kerkyon, to become king of Eleusis and neighboring Athens), pacified Cerberus, Hell’s watchdog, with poppy-juice on his aborted raid to kidnap the spring-princess, Persephone, from her lover, Hades.

Jason of Thessaly was an adept herbalist—the name translates as “healer”—well-acquainted with opium. He used it as a kind of Mickey Finn, sprinkling it on the eyes of the serpent guarding the Golden Fleece.

And the fire which Prometheus stole from Zeus is described metaphorically by Aeschylus as both flower and drug. Prometheus concealed the “fire” in the customary manner of Greek herb-gatherers—in a hollow fennel stalk—and stole it from Zeus at a place called Mekone, which translates literally as poppy town.”
― Jeff Goldberg, Flowers in the Blood: The Story of Opium