Artemisia (genus) - Artemisia in Popular Culture

Artemisia in Popular Culture

Artemisia has been mentioned and used in popular culture for centuries. A few examples are:

• Wormwood (apsinthos in the Greek text) is the "name of the star" in the Book of Revelation (8:11) (kai to onoma tou asteros legetai ho Apsinthos) that John the Evangelist envisions as cast by the angel and falling into the waters, making them undrinkably bitter. Further references in the Bible show wormwood was a common herb and its awful taste was known. (Deuteronomy 29:18, Book of Proverbs 5:4, Jeremiah 9:15, 25:15, Lamentations 3:15,19 Amos 5:7)
• In the Roald Dahl novel Matilda and its 1996 movie adaptation, Matilda's last name is Wormwood.
• In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the titular character says "Wormwood, wormwood" to comment on the figurative bitterness of what someone has just said.
• "Wormwood" is a junior devil in The Screwtape Letters, a novel by C. S. Lewis on human temptation.
• "Miss Wormwood" is the name of Calvin's teacher in Calvin and Hobbes, a former daily comic strip by Bill Watterson. This character is named after the Screwtape Letters character.
• In Russian culture, because Artemisia species are commonly used in medicine, and their bitter taste is associated with medicinal effects, wormwood is seen as a symbol for a "bitter truth" that must be accepted by a deluded (often self-deluded) person. This symbol has acquired a particular poignancy in modern Russian poetry, which often deals with the loss of illusory beliefs in various ideologies.
• Fort Collins, Colorado-based New Belgium brewery produced a spring ale called "Springboard" containing wormwood, Lycium, and Schisandra.
• In A Series of Unfortunate Events, there is a saying that "tea should be as bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword".
• In the Harry Potter series, the Draught of Living Death, an extremely powerful sleeping potion, is made from powdered root of asphodel added to an infusion of wormwood.
• In the video game "Far Cry 2", although the player character is sick with malaria, he is forced to destroy artemisia plants by a local paramilitary faction.