Dittany of Crete

The classical Roman poet Virgil (70 BC - 19 BC) in his epic poem the Aeneid recounts the legendary tale of the Trojan War hero Aeneas and makes reference to Dittany of Crete.

Virgil in poetic form tells how when Aeneas suffered a deadly wound in battle and all attempts to heal him failed, his goddess mother, Aphrodite (Venus in Roman mythology) appeared carrying a branch of dittany with downy leaves and purple flowers, which she had plucked on Crete's Mount Ida. After steeping the flower in river water, she gave the water to the aged Lapyx, who washed the wound with it.

After the herbal remedy was applied, the tip of the arrow was easily and bloodlessly removed. Suffering no further pain and with his strength renewed Aeneas was ready and able to return to battle.

A famous Pompeian fresco, uncovered after the destruction of Pompeii by the eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 depicts a scene from Virgil's Aeneid.

The fresco depicts Aeneas wounded, his son weeping, Lapyx exploring the wound, and Aphrodite 

carrying the healing dittany to cure her son. The Pompeian fresco is on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples and clearly represents the stanzas relating to Dittany of Crete of Virgil's epic poem the Aeneid.

A branch of healing dittany she brought,

Which in the Cretan fields with care she sought: 
Rough is the stem, which woolly leafs surround; 
The leafs with flow'rs, the flow'rs with purple crown'd, 

Well known to wounded goats; a sure relief 
To draw the pointed steel, and ease the grief. 
This Venus brings, in clouds involv'd, and brews 
Th' extracted liquor with ambrosian dews, 

 
And od'rous panacee. Unseen she stands, 
Temp'ring the mixture with her heav'nly hands, 
And pours it in a bowl, already crown'd 
With juice of med'c'nal herbs prepar'd to bathe the wound. 

 

The leech, unknowing of superior art 
Which aids the cure, with this foments the part; 
And in a moment ceas'd the raging smart. 
Stanch'd is the blood, and in the bottom stands: 

 
The steel, but scarcely touch'd with tender hands, 
Moves up, and follows of its own accord, 
And health and vigor are at once restor'd. 

 

                                                                       (Aeneid 12.411-431)

Cicero

The Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC) in his work De Natura (2.126) states:

"In Crete, the wild goats, when they are wounded with poisoned arrows, seek

for an herb called dittany, which, when they have tasted, the arrows (they say)

drop from their bodies."

Pliny

The Roman author and naturalist Pliny the Elder (c.23 - 79 AD) in his encyclopaedic Naturalis Historia states that we learned from stags the value of Dittany for extracting arrows from wounded flesh, for they ejected them by grazing on that herb (8.97).

Other scholars of Roman Era have made reference to Dittany but probably referred to Dictamnus albus known as False Dittany or White Dittany.