There are numerous references to plants used by goddesses and gods to heal or enchant, within Greek Myth, and the names of many of these plants have been incorporated into the Latin binomials that are used to identify them. The first physicians began to practice in the Asclepiaea, using herbs, surgery and dietary advice. From these remote beginnings Greek medicine and botany evolved and were recorded, first in the Hypocratic Corpus, then by many other famous Greek physicians, including Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Galen.

Angela Paine’s book traces the evolution of Greek medicine, the source of Western medicine, and looks at a selection of plants mentioned in Greek myth with healing properties. This includes a large number of trees, which were both sacred and medicinal. She looks at the healing properties, chemical constituents and the research that has been carried out on each plant. She explains how to use them and mentions any contraindications, so people who could suffer side effects avoid specific herbal remedies.

Here is a recording of Angela’s talk for the British School at Athens:

Dr Angela Paine, “Healing Plants of Greek Myth”

For more details: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/our-books/healing-plants-greek-myth

Angela Paine grew up on a hop farm in Ken where her botanist father taught her about plants. She ended up in Florence in 1967, washing books in the National Library, after the great flood, later marrying, having two children and living in an old olive press in Tuscany. On her return to Britain she embarked on a first degree in Human Physiology, a post graduate diploma in Pharmacology, then a PhD in medicinal plant chemistry. She went on research trips to Africa and South America to collect plant material used as medicine, and collaborated with scientists around the world, publishing internationally in scientific journals. She spent time in the Golden Valley on the border with Wales, where she continued her research into the medicinal properties of the local, native plants which were used by the ancient Celts and wrote her first two books. She now lives in Stroud, where she wrote her next book: Healing plants of Greek myth. Always remaining in contact with Florence she was inspired to write her latest book: Healing plants of Renaissance Florence. She runs workshops and courses on medicinal plants and how to use them to make tinctures, oils, ointments and teas.