Herbs and Early Man

Early man, like the other apes, was largely a vegetarian. On his home ground he probably retained the wild animal's instinct for avoiding the food that was harmful to him. But as he developed the skills of weapon-making, trapping and cooking, he began to hunt over ever wider territories. This meat-eating man still ate wild herbs, but they were no longer so familiar to him and the results must sometimes have been fatal.
Because of their immense benefits and dangers, plants appeared in many of his religious myths. These myths were created to account for the cycle of the seasons and other mysteries of life. They were not written down until much later, yet they provide a clue to how the primitive mind worked.
The all-powerful herb in the early literature of all societies there is a belief in the divine magic of herbs. Heracles gave the gods of Olympus victory over the Titans, when he gave them the "herb of invulnerability". In the Old Testament Rachel, Jacob's barren wife was at last able to bear him a son with the aid of mandrakes sold to her by her step-son Reuben. In India the Vedic Gods became immortal by drinking a herbal brew called Soma. The Jewish god ordered his people to cook the pass over lamb with bitter herbs, thus adding one more detail to a diet closely linked to their religion.

The human sacrifice

A human sacrifice was often made in ancient times to hasten the arrival of Spring. In Assyria the God Tammuz died yearly, and was brought back to life by Ishtar, the Mother Goddess. The Greeks knew Tammuz by his title Adonis, or Lord. The pheasant's eye anemone (Adonis annua) owes its Latin name to him and his blood was said to have turned it scarlet. It has been used to treat heart conditions.
The Tollund Man was another sacrificial victim. His 2,000 year old corpse was found in a Danish peat bog. It was so well preserved that the contents of his stomach could be analysed. His final meal included gold of pleasure, fat hen, black bindweed and the wild pansy. It seems clear that this meal was not typical of the tribe's diet. For instance they are known to have been meat eaters. The recipe must have been prepared as part of the ritual of sacrifice. The pansy featured in many medieval love philtres used by black and white witches and is a slight narcotic.
The people who killed the Tollund man spent their lives producing the food they ate. But in the sacrificial meal they looked back to a time before they cultivated crops or kept livestock. Wild herbs had then been their principal source of food.

Supermarket man

Modern man's life is quite different. The ability to hunt animals or identify a health-giving herb is no longer important to him Specialists produce the food and everyone else is free to enjoy other occupations. People no longer know how their food is produced or what processes it undergoes before they buy it.
The wild herbs which gave our ancestors food, medicine and a basis for their religious life, are now regarded as weeds. Chemical sprays and a swelling population leave fewer places where wild plants can grow. There has been a recent revival of interest in herbs and spices, but only to improve the taste of over-refined foods. In earlier times herbs were an important part of man's relationship to the universe in which he lived.