Nepenthes

Grc: νηπενθές - En: Nepenthe

“Straightaway, Argive Helen cast into the wine of which they were drinking a drug to quiet all pain and strife, and to bring forgetfulness of every ill. Whoso should drink this down, when it is mingled in the bowl, would not in the course of that day let a tear fall down over his cheeks, no, not though his mother and father should lie dead in front of him, or though before his face men should slay with the sword his brother or dear son, and his own eyes beheld it.”

— Homer, Odyssey 4.220 et seq.

Nepenthes is an antidepressant potion powerful enough to dull all sense of sorrow for 24 hours, even under the most intense provocation. Slipped into wine, the substance is tasteless, odorless, and undetectable.
A sample of this drug was obtained by Helen from Polydamna, the wife of Thon, a woman of Aegyptos, where the earth "bears greatest store of drugs, many that are healing when mixed, and many that are baneful." This may bolster the claim that Helen spent the Trojan war chilling in Aegyptos while a duplicate version was abducted by Paris.
Homer goes on to claim that every man in Aegyptos is a physician, wise above human kind, for they are of the race of Paieon, a possible reference to the Hellenic daimon of healing, Asklepios, who was associated with the Aegyptian daimon Imhotep.
The name Nepenthes has also been given to a family of tropical carnivorous pitcher-shaped plants native to the Malay archipelago, most especially Borneo but with a range that includes the Philippines, Sumatra, the Seychelles, and Sri Lanka. The shape and nature of this plant have given rise to an "infaunal ecosystem" of specialized critters that spend part of all of their lifecycle within the pitcher, and which might also be a source of psychoactive chemicals.
For our purposes, we can assume the potion is the distillation of some species of Nepenthes and/or its infauna that existed in the Fourth Age at the extreme edge of the plant family's natural range on the eastern coast of Madagascar, where it would have been accessible to Aethiopians who traded with Aegyptos.

Effect

Eliminates all sense of sorrow, even with the most intense provocation. While in effect, even witnessing the death of a loved one will cause no trauma.

Manifestation

Undetectable in wine.

Source

Aegyptos by way of Aethiopian traders who source the components from a carnivorous plant growing on the eastern coast of Madagascar.

Related Deity/Higher Power

Asklepios

Effect Duration

Takes effect instantly, lasts 24 hours

Range

Must be consumed.

by Alastair Robinson, June 2007