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Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Hymn 2), trans. H. G. Evelyn-White

Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University · 1914

AI-verified citationSRC-HOMERIC-HYMN

identifier / locator: Perseus text 1999.01.0138, Hymn 2; kykeon passage at lines ~205–211
url: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D2
verification note: Text fetched and the kykeon passage read 2026-08-25: Demeter refuses wine and "bade them mix meal and water with soft mint and give her to drink," which Metaneira mixes and the goddess receives "to observe the sacrament."
reliability notes: The only ancient recipe for the kykeon: barley meal, water, pennyroyal/mint. It names nothing psychoactive — a fact both sides must explain.

Evidence drawn from this source

Supports· strongTIK-E006

what the source states: Demeter, refusing red wine, "bade them mix meal and water with soft mint and give her to drink"; Metaneira mixes the draught, and the goddess receives it "to observe the sacrament."
what we infer: The founding text gives the drink's public composition — barley meal, water, pennyroyal/mint — and no more. Everything psychoactive in the modern hypothesis is an addition to this text, not a reading of it.
limitations: A mythological aition, not a liturgical manual; the actual sanctuary practice could have differed in either direction.

Undermines· moderateTIK-E015

what the source states: The Hymn's kykeon is meal, water, and soft mint (lines ~205–211); no ancient source names ergot, and none describes an alkaline-processing step in the drink's preparation.
what we infer: The hypothesis must therefore posit a secret additive and a secret technology, neither attested — a construction that text cannot falsify, which cuts both ways but leaves the affirmative burden entirely on future chemistry (TIK-R001).
limitations: Argument from silence in a cult that was secret by law; the same silence is compatible with a secret ingredient.