Brewer's: Nepenthe

(3 syl.) or Nepenthes, a drug to drive away care and superinduce love. Polydamna, wife of Thonis (or Thone, 1 syl.), King of Egypt, gave nepenthe to Helen (daughter of Jove and Leda). Homer speaks of a magic potion called nepenthe, which made persons forget their woes. (Odyssey, iv. 228.)

That nepenthes which the wife of Thone In Egypt gave the Jove-born Helena.

Milton: Comus, 695, 696.

The water of Ardenne had the opposite effect.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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