Nerion

Nerium Oleander has a history of cultivation going back millennia, especially amongst the great ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean Basin. The ancient Greeks had several names for the plant, including rhododaphne, nerion, rhododendron, and rhodon (lit. "rose"). The Egyptians apparently called it scinphe, the North Africans rhodedaphane, and the Lucanians (a southern Italic people) icmane. The ancient city of Volubilis in Morocco may have taken its name from the Berber name alili or oualilt for the flower.

The genus name nerium is the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek name for the plant nẽrion (νήριον), which is in turn derived from the Greek for water, nẽros (νηρός), because of the natural habitat of the oleander along rivers and streams. The word oleander appears as far back as the first century AD, when the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides cited it as one of the terms used by the Romans for the plant. The word may also be a Medieval Latin corruption of Late Latin names for the plant: arodandrum or lorandrum, or more plausibly rhododendron, with the addition of olea because of the superficial resemblance to the olive tree (olea europea). Another theory posited is that oleander is the Latinized form of a Greek compound noun: οllyo (ὀλλύω) 'I kill', and the Greek noun for man, aner, genitive andros (ἀνήρ, ἀνδρός) ascribed to oleander's toxicity to humans.

A 2014 article in the medical journal Perspectives in Biology and Medicine posited that oleander was the substance used to induce hallucinations in the Pythia, the female priestess of Apollo, also known as the Oracle of Delphi in Ancient Greece. According to this theory, the symptoms of the Pythia's trances (enthusiasmos) correspond to either inhaling the smoke of or chewing small amounts of oleander leaves, often called by the generic term laurel in Ancient Greece, which led to confusion with the bay laurel that ancient authors cite.

The etymological association of oleander with the bay laurel has continued into the modern day: in France the plant is known as "laurier rose", while the Spanish term, "Adelfa", is the descendant of the original Ancient Greek name for both the bay laurel and the oleander, "daphne", which subsequently passed into Arabic usage and thence to Spain.

In ancient times, it was believed that oleander first came from the land of Colchis (on the Black Sea); it was regarded as a plant of the witch Medea, companion of Jason. Apparently, oleander also had something to do with the wines that were drunk during the Dionysian orgies. Oleander was a popular subject in the wall frescos of Pompeii, a city known for its Bacchic mysteries. Oleander leaves contain the powerful cardiac poison oleandrin, which can be life-threatening for humans and animals because it can paralyze the heart. Also present are digitalis-like glycosides (neriine, nerianthine, adyrin, cotenerin).

Xenophon (ca. 430-355 B.C.E.) reported in his Anabis that soldiers became inebriated and poisoned by the honey they had stolen, that had been produced from the Pontic (Turkish) rhododendron (Rhododendron ponticum L.) and apparently from a red-flowering oleander (Nerium oleander). Oleanders, however, do not produce any nectar, required for making honey. The toxicological literature refers to this Pontic (Turkish) honey as "mad honey" or "toxic honey of Asia Minor". This inebriating honey was well known in ancient times, and it may have been involved with the Dionysian frenzies:


There is an additional ancient account mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, who described a region in Pontus in Turkey where the honey was poisoned from bees having pollinated poisonous flowers, with the honey left as a poisonous trap for an invading army. The flowers have sometimes been mis-translated as Oleander, but Oleander flowers are nectarless and therefore cannot transmit any toxins via nectar. Rhododendron, simply meaning "rose tree", was used for both true Rhododendrons as well as Oleanders, resulting in the mistranslation. The actual flower referenced by Pliny was the Azalea/Rhododendron, which is still used in Turkey to produce a hallucinogenic honey, called "deli bal".

Both Pliny and Dioscorides stated that oleander was an effective antidote to venomous snake bites if mixed with rue and drunk. In his book Enquiries into Plants of circa 300 BC, Theophrastus described (among plants that affect the mind) a shrub he called onotheras, which modern editors render oleander.


In another mention however, of "wild bay" (daphne agria), Theophrastus appears to intend the same shrub using a different name.

Oleander was a very popular ornamental shrub in Roman peristyle gardens; it is one of the flora most frequently depicted on murals in Pompeii and elsewhere in Italy. These murals include the famous garden scene from the House of Livia at Prima Porta outside Rome, and those from the House of the Wedding of Alexander and the Marine Venus in Pompeii. Carbonized fragments of oleander wood have been identified at the Villa Poppaea in Oplontis, likewise buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79. They were found to have been planted in a decorative arrangement with citron trees (citrus medica) alongside the villa's swimming pool.