This was a problem for the men because Egypt, as it is today, was largely an Islamic country, so there was no alcohol available. In June 1798, 36,000 members of the Grande Armée were in Egypt. While Napoleon wasn’t focused too much on getting his men their food rations, he did his best to get them their daily rations of wine to keep them happy. Keeping your army happy is key when conducting a military campaign especially a campaign as expansive as the one run by Napoleon Bonaparte of France. Napoleon’s Grande Armée Drank Heavily and Used Hashish However, Ødman says that the inner circle of the Viking elite would have kept it secret as an advantage, so that is why the Vikings never wrote about it and that is why it is not a commonly known fact. Many of you reading this are probably thinking that this is a ton of crap, and that may very well be because it’s just a theory. Then in 1994, John Mann suggested that instead of Amanita muscaria, the Vikings ingested Amanita pantherina, which makes the user much more manic. Famed Norwegian botanist Frederik Schübeler suggested that the Vikings drank wine made from the mushrooms. In the years since the initial theory was published, other researchers have tweaked it. Secondly, the Vikings did come into contact with people from Asia, because that is who introduced them to the concept of their god Odin, so it’s possible they would have learned about the hallucinogenic properties of the mushrooms from people who had contact with the Serbian tribes. Afterwards, the warriors needed to take a few days off because they had mushroom poisoning.Įvidence to back up Ødman’s claim is that the mushrooms grew in Scandinavia during the time of the Vikings. Ødman theorized that the Vikings ingested a large amount of the mushrooms to coincide with the heat of the battle. The Serbian tribes would consume dried mushrooms for ceremonies and rituals. In the late 18 th century, Swedish scholar Samuel Lorenzo Ødman was researching the Berserker state and he noticed that their trances were similar to the trances that the tribes of Siberia entered into after they ingested Amanita muscaria mushrooms, also known as fly agaric mushrooms, or magic mushrooms. After the battle, their minds would become dull and feeble for a few days. They’d howl like wild animals, charge into battle without armor, and then attack anyone who came near. Then their faces would become swollen and change color. When they went Berserk, they would shiver and their teeth would chatter. The term ‘Berserker’, which means “bear shirt,” is a Viking term for a violent trance-like fury they would enter into during battle. In Homer’s Odysessy, which contained real Greek customs, the soldiers drank wine mixed with opium after battles to calm their nerves and help them forget the horrors of war. It’s also thought that Greek soldiers used opium. For example, priests thought that the sense of euphoria that comes with taking the drug was somehow supernatural, while Hippocrates, who was called “The Father of Medicine,” saw the medical uses for opium specifically, it helped with diarrhea. Three of their deities, Hypnos, Nyx, and Thanatos, who are deities of sleep, night, and death respectively, had wreaths of poppies. Opium derived from poppies was a very important substance to the Ancient Greeks.
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