Some history of "poisoned cup" before Shakespeare's Hamlet
But what was the history of “poison cup” in Shakespeare’s time? These are words found in Shakespeare's Macbeth (1.7), but a plot idea used earlier in his Hamlet.
"Poisoned cup" is related to "Trojan horse": looks like a gift, but will bring doom.
A poisoned cup brought death for Socrates (state-ordered suicide).
Scottish reformer John Knox (1514-1572) said that one (Catholic) Mass is worse than a cup of poison in Protestant-Catholic transubstantiation debates, the phrase an example of anti-Catholic polemics.
In fact, it's even older: In a legend told by St. Isidore (c. 560 – 636), St. John (of Patmos) the Apostle had an encounter with a poisoned cup of wine, and (miraculously?) survived, perhaps warned of poison by a serpent.
In Greek mythology and Hebrew scripture:
The rod of Asclepius, associated with healing, features a snake, and Asclepius' daughter Hygieia, goddess of health and hygiene, is associated with a snake on a bowl, symbol of pharmacology.
Snakes were thought to be immune to their own venom:
medicines in small amounts can heal; in too great, can poison.
The Greek ‘pharmakon’ can mean toxin, remedy [2], and scapegoat [3]:
(1) Laertes volunteers to deliver for Claudius a toxin (pharmakon) to kill Hamlet.
(2) Claudius wants to be cured (pharmakon) of the ills that Hamlet represents [4];
(3) and wants Laertes to be his scapegoat (pharmakon), who could be blamed for Hamlet’s death.
In Exodus 4:2; 7:8-13, Moses' staff changes to a snake and back; later (Numbers 21:4-9) the chosen people look to a bronze serpent on a stick to be saved from snake bites.
I've mentioned before:
Hamlet 5.2, with its chalice poisoned by Hamlet's stepfather, transforms a scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses, known to Shakespeare in translation: King Aegeus recognizes his son Theseus, and saves him from a cup of wine poisoned by Theseus' stepmother, Medea.
Also, in Book 8, Chapter 2 of Le Morte d’Arthur (1485), a cup is poisoned by the queen, King Howell’s daughter, a kind of Medea figure: The king (Meliodus) almost drinks the poison, but after the plot is exposed, the son Tristram (for whom the poison was intended) begs his father to show mercy and spare her, which he does, but they never again share a room/bed.
The poison cup was also associated with the honorable suicide of Sophonisba, of queenly rank [5].
One could say that Gertrude drinking from a poison cup intended for her son
resembles Merlin's friend eating a poisoned apple intended for Merlin,
in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini (1150) [6].
Both are cases of something resembling "substitutionary atonement" (or vicarious atonement) where Jesus is willing to suffer and die for the sins of many, so that many can be saved [7].
NOTES: All references to Hamlet (and other Shakespeare plays) are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/
[1] See David Robinson's 12/12/2021 post relating in part the example of how VP Kamala Harris was given by President Joe Biden the difficult task (possible “poison cup”) of taking a leadership role in coming up with better border policies:
“Drinking from the poisoned chalice: How to approach an impossible assignment,”
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/drinking-from-poisoned-chalice-how-approach-david-robinson/?trackingId=nuLIiELhyrPdyFqVBSx6tA%3D%3D
[2] "Our familiar word ‘pharmacy’ suggests how both poison and cure are connected: it comes from the Greek word ‘pharmakon’ and means both toxin and remedy."
Shakespeare's Poisonous Remedies, 2019, via PlayingShakespeare[dot]org
https://2019.playingshakespeare.org/language/shakespeares-poisonous-remedies/
[3] With thanks to Cynthia Gralla, see ‘pharmakon’ via Derrida as remedy, poison, or scapegoat:
From Wikipedia on the philosophical concept of "Pharmakon" via Derida (which sounds similar to what I've been saying about ambiguity and mystery instead of binaries):
<In critical theory, pharmakon is a concept introduced by Jacques Derrida. It is derived from the Greek source term φάρμακον (phármakon), a word that can mean either remedy, poison, or scapegoat.[a]
In his essay "Plato's Pharmacy", Derrida explores the notion that writing is a pharmakon in a composite sense of these meanings as "a means of producing something". Derrida uses pharmakon to highlight the connection between its traditional meanings and the philosophical notion of indeterminacy. "[T]ranslational or philosophical efforts to favor or purge a particular signification of pharmakon [and to identify it as either "cure" or "poison"] actually do interpretive violence to what would otherwise remain undecidable.">
Indeterminacy / or “what would otherwise remain undecidable” is related to mystery and ambiguity:
One does interpretive violence by assuming one can pluck the heart of their mystery (As Hamlet says in 3.2.395-396).
[4] 4.3.75-76: Claudius: “For like the hectic in my blood he rages, / And thou [England] must cure me.”
[5] The painting in Robinson's post, described at Web Gallery of Art:
"...drawn from Livy's Historia ab urbe condita. Sophonisba was the daughter of a Carthaginian general at the time of the second Punic war. She married a prince of neighbouring Numidia, allied to Rome, and succeeded in alienating him from his Roman masters. But he was captured by another Numidian leader Masinissa, who in turn fell in love with Sophonisba, and likewise married her. To prevent the loss of a second ally from the same cause the Roman general Scipio demanded that she be surrendered and sent captive to Rome. Her husband, not daring to defy Scipio, sent her a cup of poison which she drank."
https://www.wga.hu/html_m/v/vouet/1/7sophoni.html
[6] "A lunatic appears, and Merlin recognizes him as one of the friends of his youth, Maeldinus, who had been sent mad by eating poisoned apples that had been intended for Merlin himself. Maeldinus is cured by drinking from the new spring, and it is resolved that he, Taliesin, Merlin, and Gwenddydd will remain together in the woods, in retirement from the secular world."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vita_Merlini#Synopsis
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitutionary_atonement
IMAGES:
Top, Far Left:
1. “Sophonisba Receiving the Poisoned Chalice” (circa 1623), Simon Vouet (1590–1649),
Hessen Kassel Heritage collection, public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Simon_Vouet_-_Sophonisba_Receiving_the_Poisoned_Chalice_-_WGA25358.jpg
2. Top, Middle-Left:
Trojan Horse: Illumination attributed to Trautz-Bauzonnet, binder. Text printed mid-15th century, illuminations late 17th. Image available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Destruction_de_Troye_la_Grant,_translat%C3%A9e_de_latin_en_fran%C3%A7ois_et_mise_par_personnages._Cy_sensuit_lystoire_de_la_des,_LDUT397(1).jpg
3. Top, Middle-Right:
Statue of Asclepius. Pentelic marble. Found in the Sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus. The god leans on a staff, around which his sacred animal, the snake is coiled. The statue belongs to the Este type and copies an original of the 4th century B.C. About 160 A.D. National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Athens, Greece. Image photo by George E. Koronaios, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license, via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Statue_of_Asclepius_%282%29._2nd_cent._A.D.jpg
4. Top, Far-Right:
St John the Evangelist Drinking from the Poisoned Cup, between 1348 and 1353, by Taddeo Gaddi (1300–1366). Vittorio Cini collection (Palazzo Cini Gallery). Public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Taddeo_Gaddi_-_St_John_the_Evangelist_Drinking_from_the_Poisoned_Cup_-_WGA08392.jpg
5. Bottom, Far-Left:
“Merlinus: (Merlin). Illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493, public domain via
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin#/media/File:Nuremberg_chronicles_f_138r_5.jpg
6. Bottom, Middle-Left:
Detail, “The death of Socrates” (1802) by François Xavier Fabre (1766-1837).
Museum of Art and History, Geneva. Public domain via
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/La_Mort_de_Socrates.jpg
7. Bottom, Middle-Right:
Bowl of Hygieia and serpent as a symbol of pharmacy. On the pharmacy building in Olomouc (Hodolanská 27/6, Czech Republic). 6 December 2005 photo by Michal Maňas. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Via
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Bowl_of_Hygeia_and_serpent_and_scales.jpg
8. Bottom, Far-Right:
Medea offers poison cup to her stepson, Theseus, as King Aegeus looks on. Published 1912. Illustration by William Russell Flint for book, “The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales for my Children,” by KINGSLEY, CHARLES. Public domain (100 years or fewer), via Swann Auction Galleries:
https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//764/718764.jpg
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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