Resisting the “War on drugs” starting from homer: the multivalence of the pharmakon in the odyssey

• Autor(a) principal: Araujo, Erick
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Cornelli, Gabriele
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Trans/Form/Ação (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/article/view/12040
• topic: Ancient Literature; Homer; Pharmakon; Drugs; Multivalence; Literatura Antiga; Homero; Phármakon; Drogas; Multivalência

The aim of this paper is to analyze three episodes of the Odyssey in which a pharmakon is used. Helen, Circe and Hermes are the characters that administer the pharmaka. This analysis is linked to a project – the survey of discourses that distance themselves and/or question the perspective of the “war on drugs”, a project that aims to extract textual elements that can serve as tools of thought in the construction of a less deadly path in relation to substances – and guided by three principles – which can be called anti-colonial and anti-racist. From this focus, centered on the pharmakon, also articulating it to the floral food of the lotophagi and the relationship of xenia, a thesis is put forward according to which, in the Homeric texts, one can find something that can be called multivalence.