Mention hemlock, and most people think of Socrates. He is perhaps the most famous death attributed to hemlock, being executed in 399 BCE on a charge of “impiety”. Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is in fact a member of the carrot family and of no relation to the coniferous tree of the same name. It is also known as warlock’s weed and winter fern. It is a native to North Africa and Europe and spread successfully around the world. When ingested (and it takes a surprisingly small amount to be effective) the main alkaloid in hemlock, coniine affect the central nervous system and the respiratory system.
In The Well of Urd, Theophana, the wife of the Doux of Antioch, verges on bragging as she briefly demonstrates her knowledge of the uses of poison and her employ of her personal poisoner:
Theophana scoffed. “She was found in my chambers by my steward, Aleksandr. And while I understand that a courtesan could not be expected to keep her filthy fingers off my cosmetic jars that she might be profligate with them for her own use,” she paused and took a sip of wine. “ I am no stranger to the secrets of poison. I am well familiar with all the apothecaries in the city. And I know the difference between a vial meant to scent and one meant to kill. I know the odors of hemlock, aconite and helllebore. I have my own poisoners and have no need of the services of the apothecary’s arts.”
Like most poisonous herbs, hemlock has had a place medicine, with designs to heal instead of harm. With antispasmodic and sedative properties, it may hav been used in surgery in a day when access to general anesthetics was not available. Only a skilled practitioner knew the line that was the boundary between sedative and a lethal dose. And even for them, this could be difficult to determine. In the middle ages, a concoction of henbane, fennel and betony was considered the cure for the bite of a rabid dog. It was likely not too effective. In any case, it perhaps afforded a quicker death than would have otherwise been had from rabies. So sedative are its effects, livestock have been known to consume the plant and for all practical purposes appear to be dead. From Coles’ Art of Simpling: (Simpling being an archaic word for the art of using plants for medicine.)
‘If Asses chance to feed much upon Hemlock, they will fall so fast asleep that they will seeme to be dead, in so much that some thinking them to be dead indeed have flayed off their skins, yet after the Hemlock had done operating they have stirred and wakened out of their sleep, to the griefe and amazement of the owners.’
Niketas Choniates, 12th century Byzantine government official and historian, spoke disparagingly of his own when he “decried the generation of tyrants in Byzantium as the one that produced hemlock and brought utter ruin to the majority of cities in the empire”
Perhaps he was thinking of the wife of Romanos II, Theophano, who was suspected by the historian Leo the Deacon of poisoning her husband with hemlock. Leo asserted that the poison had originated from the gynakonitis or womens’ quarters. There is no proof that the empress poisoned her husband, though her later behavior in the death of her second husband Nikephorus Phokas does little to exonerate her either.
Hemlock could rightfully and historically earn the title Queen of Poisons that aconite carries. Socrates notwithstanding, it has perhaps at least placed itself in the historical limelight.
Resources:
Byzantine Garden Culture ed. by Antony Robert Littlewood, Henry Maguire, Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn
Authority in Byzantium ed. by Pamela Armstrong
Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium AD 527-1204 by Lyda Garland