Imagine being bitten by a snake. Ouch! What would you do right now? In the past would probably prepare to die. Nowadays of course, you’ll try to get to a hospital as soon as possible and hopefully, they’ll have the specific antidote you require. And to me, someone who likes to the beginning of everything, that begs the question, when was the first antidote invented ? In the last the century ? No. In the middle ages ? No. The idea of an antidote actually goes back all the way to the stone ages. Our neolithic ancestors who lived around that time are likely to have already experimented with various herbs believed by them to cure poisoning, with various results.
But the first documented universal antidote dates back to mediterranean antiquity. During the first century B.C. the northern region of Turkey was ruled by King Mithridates VI. Unsatisfied with the size of his domain he conquered large portions of Turkey and even annexed some greek isles. Both at the time were Roman provinces. King Mithridates didn’t exactly make a lot of friends like this and he was well aware of that. His own father has been assassinated in his youth. Since then, legend has it the young king regularly consumed a sub-lethal dose of poisons, making himself immune to them. He later went on to develop a complex universal anecdote, the Theriac of Mithridates. It is reported to have contained up to 54 ingredients and had to be consumed on a regular basis.
That begs the question: Did it work ?
