kykeon
Noun
Meaning
kykeon (usually uncountable, plural kykeons)
An Ancient Greek drink made mainly of water, barley and herbs. Closely tied to Demeter and the seasonal celebrations of Crete.
Anagrams
Examples
Before mystai could enter the Telesterion, they would recite, "I have fasted, I have drunk the kykeon, I have taken from the kiste ("box") and after working it have put it back in the kalathos ("open basket").
Others hold this explanation to be insufficient to account for the power and longevity of the Mysteries, and that the experiences must have been internal and mediated by a powerful psychoactive ingredient contained in the kykeon drink.
However, modern attempts to prepare a kykeon using ergot-parasitized barley have yielded inconclusive results, though Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin describe both ergonovine and LSA to be known to produce LSD-like effects.
Robin Waterfield,Why Socrates Died, Faber & Faber, 2009, p. 92. Many psychoactive agents have been proposed as the significant element of kykeon, though without consensus or conclusive evidence.