Investigating the psychedelic hypothesis of kykeon, the sacred elixir of the Eleusinian Mysteries
Scientific Reports February 13, 2026 Romanos Konstantinos Antonopoulos, Evangelos Dadiotis, Kostas Ioannidis et al.
This study revisits the hypothesis that Claviceps purpurea (Fr.) Tul., a fungus infecting cereals and producing ergot alkaloids (EAs), was the psychedelic agent in kykeon, the sacred elixir of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Although archaeological evidence supports this link, experimental data confirming the transformation of toxic ergopeptides into psychoactive lysergic acid amide derivatives in...