Mithridate

This article is about the remedy. For the 1673 play by Jean Racine, see Mithridate (Racine). For other uses, see Mithridates (disambiguation).
Elaborately gilded drug jar for storing mithridate. By Annibale Fontana, about 1580–1590.

Mithridate, also known as mithridatium, mithridatum, or mithridaticum, is a semi-mythical remedy with as many as 65 ingredients, used as an antidote for poisoning, and said to have been created by Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus in the 1st century BC. It was one of the most complex and highly sought-after drugs during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, particularly in Italy and France, where it was in continual use for centuries.[1][2] An updated recipe called theriac (Theriacum Andromachi) was known well into the 19th century.[3]

Mithridate takes its name from its inventor, Mithridates VI, king of the ancient Anatolian Kingdom of Pontus (134 to 63 BC), who is said to have so fortified his body against poisons with antidotes and preservatives that when he tried to kill himself, he could not find any poison that would have an effect, and, according to some legends, had to ask a soldier to run him through with a sword. The recipe for the reputed antidote was found in his cabinet, written with his own hand, and was carried to Rome by Pompey. It was translated into Latin by Pompey's freedman Lenaeus, and later improved upon by Nero's physician Andromachus and Marcus Aurelius' physician Galen.[4] It likely underwent considerable alterations since the time of Mithridates.[3] After realizing the anti-toxic effects of snake meat, Andromachus made Faroug antidote with changes in the previous formulas.[5]

In the Middle Ages, mithridate was also used as part of a regimen to ward off potential threats of plague. According to Simon Kellwaye (1593), one should "take a great Onyon, make a hole in the myddle of him, then fill the place with Mitridat or Triacle, and some leaues of Rue".[6] Until as late as 1786, physicians in London were officially prescribing mithridate.[7] According to historian Christopher Hill, Oliver Cromwell took a large dose of mithridate as a precaution against the plague and found it cured his acne.

The term mithridate has come to refer to any generally all-purpose antidote.[8]

  1. ^ "Pair of Drug Jars". The J. Paul Getty Museum. Retrieved 26 January 2006.
  2. ^ Ciaraldi, Marina (2000). "Drug preparation in evidence? An unusual plant and bone assemblage from the Pompeian countryside, Italy". Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 9 (2): 91–98. doi:10.1007/BF01300059. S2CID 85196684.
  3. ^ a b "Mithridate".
  4. ^ Adrienne Mayor, "Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs" Overlook 2003"
  5. ^ "Theriac: medicine and antidote".
  6. ^ Kellwaye, Simon. 1593. A defensatiue against the plague contayning two partes or treatises.... 32.
  7. ^ Nature. 14 September 1989. 115/1.
  8. ^ Sci. Monthly. Sept 1932. 244/1.