Pasithea

This abstract limestone sculpture depicts Pasithea. Pasithea, as the wife of Hypnos, the god of sleep and dreams, may have been regarded as a goddess of hallucinations and hallucinogenic drugs. Her name is difficult to translate–the prefix 'pasis' can be translated equally as 'all', 'possessed' or 'acquired' and the suffix 'thea' as 'sight', 'seeing', 'contemplation', 'goddess' or 'divine'. Translating it as 'Acquired-Sight' may suggest a goddess of hallucination, however, in the story of the Iliad, where Hypnos acquires her from Hera in exchange for certain favours, the `Acquired-Goddess` is a perfectly apt name. The name Pasithea was also given to some unidentified `magical` plant, perhaps even a hallucinogenic. Hypnos himself was often associated with poppies and opiates