| In the ancient Indian medical tradition, cannabis has been used under the Ayurveda to reduce pain and to treat nausea and anxiety. In ancient Egypt, cannabis was mentioned in the inscription of Ebers Papyrus as medicine with various herbal properties. The medical traditions in ancient Greece contain many references to cannabis. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer reports that Helen, the daughter of Zeus, drank cannabis wine to treat depression. In the first century AD, Pedanius
Dioscorides a famous Greek physician, categorized cannabis as an aromatic plant, in his famous book De Materia Medica, and considered it to be effective for reducing inflammation. Galen, the greatest physician of the ancient world, also mentioned several properties of cannabis and, interestingly, considered the inhalation of smoke from its burning to be
harmful to humans. In the 7th and 8th centuries AD, during the Abbasid caliphate the most important medical works of ancient Iran were written and the Greek and Indian works were translated into Arabic including the ones of Hippocrates, Galen, and other Greek physicians, such as Dioscorides. |