Nepenʹthe (3 syl.) or Nepenʹthēs

a drug to drive away care and superinduce love. Polydamna, wife of Thoʹnis (or Thone, 1 syl.), King of Egypt, gave nepenthe to Helen (daughter of Jove and Leda). Homer speaks of a magic potion called nepenthē, which made persons forget their woes. (Odyssey, iv. 228.)

“That nepenthes which the wife of Thone

In Egypt gave the Jove-born Helena.”

Milton: Comus, 695, 696.

⁂ The water of Ardenne had the opposite effect.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.