plant
Barley
A cereal grain of beer, bread, and offering. Mesopotamian rations and later farm tallies use the same plant for different economies.
Barley is used in Medicine.
Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica lists barley (krithē) among drugs: ptisan, barley-water, and poultices. First-century pharmacological use of the grain, not a Vedic cake and not Demeter’s gift-talk.
from Pedanius Dioscorides · De Materia Medica, 1st century CE
used in · sourced · documented
Vedic tradition
Barley appears in Vedic tradition.
The Rigveda names yava, barley, among grains of offering. A named cereal in that hymn-corpus, not soma the pressed drink and not Dioscorides’ ptisan.
from Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (translation) · The Rigveda, 2014 (this translation); hymns much older
appears in · sourced · documented
Barley is used in Offerings.
The Ṛgveda names barley among the grains of Vedic rite and gift. A named South Asian offering-job for that grain, not Dioscorides’ pharmacy barley, and not the appears_in tradition row already stored.
from Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (translation) · The Rigveda, 2014 (this translation); hymns much older
used in · sourced · documented
Hellenic religion
Barley is sacred to Demeter.
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter has the goddess mix a kykeon of barley and pennyroyal, and withholds the grain of the earth until her child is returned. A named Hellenic grain of that goddess, not Ṛgvedic yava, and not Dioscorides’ ptisan.
from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Demeter, c. 7th–6th century BCE
sacred to · sourced · documented
sources
- De Materia Medica · Pedanius Dioscorides
Dioscorides, De Materia Medica.
- The Rigveda · Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (translation)
Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton, The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India.
- Homeric Hymn to Demeter · Anonymous (Homeric hymn)
Homeric Hymn 2, to Demeter.