Fiction
In Book XII Virgil's Aeneid, Venus heals the wounded Aeneas with a stalk of "dittany from Cretan Ida", a plant "with downy leaves and scarlet flower" that goats eat when stuck with arrows.
In the fantasy novel Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, dittany is the name of a substance which, when used magically, can prevent scarring if applied quickly enough after a cutting injury. The author is probably referring to the plant Dictamnus albus (white dittany), which secretes an oil that has anti-inflammatory properties.
Read more about this topic: Origanum Dictamnus
Famous quotes containing the word fiction:
“Although the primitive in art may be both interesting and impressive, as portrayed in American fiction it is conspicuous for dullness alone. Drab persons living drab lives, observed by drab minds and reported in drab writing ...”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)
“Being is a fiction invented by those who suffer from becoming.”
—Coleman Dowell (1925–1985)
“If there were genders to genres, fiction would be unquestionably feminine.”
—William Gass (b. 1924)