ABSTRACT
Stimulants, psychoactive substances and plants played significant and well-established roles in religious rituals and sexual life in ancient Egypt. In addition, many plants with aphrodisiac and opiate properties were associated with fertility gods such as Min. But there is an important exception to the norm: a brief but noteworthy text carved at the entrance to the Ptolemaic temple of Philae in Upper Egypt, dedicated to the cult of Isis. This inscription provides a list of ten plants that were prohibited in the temple. The present paper offers new suggestions as to the identification of these plants and puts forward several hypotheses for why they may have been forbidden. In conclusion, it considers these plants in the context of Egyptian myth and religion.
