Editing Ergot (section)

===Speculated cause of hysterics and hallucinations===
It has been posited that [[Kykeon]], the beverage consumed by participants in the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] [[Eleusinian Mysteries]] cult, might have been based on [[hallucinogen]]s from [[ergotamine]], a precursor to the potent hallucinogen LSD, and [[ergonovine]].<ref name="Miedaner and Hartwing"/><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.psychedelic-library.org/Mixing%20the%20Kykeon%20Final%20Draft.pdf |title=Mixing the ''Kykeon'' |journal=ELEUSIS: Journal of Psychoactive Plants and Compounds |volume=New Series 4 |year=2000 |access-date=2008-07-31 |archive-date=2019-07-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190720192225/http://www.psychedelic-library.org/Mixing%20the%20Kykeon%20Final%20Draft.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Carod-Artal |first=F. J. |date=2013 |title=Psychoactive plants in ancient Greece |url=https://nah.sen.es/en/130-journals/volume-1/issue-1/241-psychoactive-plants-in-ancient-greece |access-date=2021-02-17 |website=nah.sen.es}}</ref>

An article appearing in the July 23, 1881 edition of ''[[Scientific American]]'' entitled "A New Exhilarating Substance" denotes cases of euphoria upon consuming [[tincture]] of ergot of rye, particularly when mixed with [[Sodium phosphates|phosphate of soda]] and sweetened water. In rainy years, it was thought rye bread exceeded 5% ergot.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YIE9AQAAIAAJ |title=Scientific American |date=1881-07-23 |publisher=Munn & Company |pages=51 |language=en}}</ref>

British author John Grigsby contends that the presence of ergot in the stomachs of some of the so-called 'bog-bodies' ([[Iron Age]] human remains from peat [[bog]]s of northeast Europe, such as the [[Tollund Man]]) is indicative of use of ''[[Claviceps purpurea]]'' in ritual drinks in a prehistoric fertility cult akin to the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries. In his 2005 book ''Beowulf and Grendel'', he argues that the [[Anglo-Saxon]] poem ''[[Beowulf]]'' is based on a memory of the quelling of this fertility cult by followers of [[Odin]]. He writes that Beowulf, which he translates as ''barley-wolf'', suggests a connection to ergot which in German was known as the 'tooth of the wolf'.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grigsby |first=John |title=Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend |year=2005 |publisher=Watkins Publishing |isbn=978-1-84293-153-0}}{{page needed |date=July 2014}}</ref>

[[Linnda R. Caporael]] posited in 1976 that the [[Salem witch trials#Medical theories about the reported afflictions|hysterical symptoms of young women]] that had spurred the [[Salem witch trials]] had been the result of consuming ergot-tainted rye.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Caporael |first=Linnda R. |author-link=Linnda R. Caporael |date=April 1976 |title=Ergotism: the satan loosed in Salem? |url=http://web.utk.edu/~kstclair/221/ergotism.html |url-status=dead |journal=Science |volume=192 |issue=4234 |pages=21–6 |bibcode=1976Sci...192...21C |doi=10.1126/science.769159 |pmid=769159 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511154621/http://web.utk.edu/~kstclair/221/ergotism.html |archive-date=2008-05-11|url-access=subscription }}</ref> However, Nicholas P. Spanos and Jack Gottlieb, after a review of the historical and medical evidence, later disputed her conclusions.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Spanos NP, Gottlieb J |s2cid=41615273 |title=Ergotism and the Salem Village witch trials |journal=Science |volume=194 |issue=4272 |pages=1390–4 |date=December 1976 |pmid=795029 |doi=10.1126/science.795029 |bibcode=1976Sci...194.1390S }}</ref> Other authors have likewise cast doubt on ergotism as the cause of the Salem witch trials.<ref name="Woolf">{{cite journal |last=Woolf |first=Alan |year=2000 |title=Witchcraft or mycotoxin? The Salem witch trials |journal=Clinical Toxicology |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=457–60 |doi=10.1081/CLT-100100958 |pmid=10930065 |s2cid=10469595}}</ref>