THERIACA ANDROMA CHI

1700 - 1799

This is a blue, yellow and green tin glazed waisted drug jar. The jar is decorated with a painted female mythological figure with a swan in one hand and flowers in the other, set against a landscape. On either side of the figure are vertical bands of foliage. An escrol above the figure is marked “THERIACA ANDROMACHI.” Theriac, an opium compound, was thought to be a panacea for a variety of diseases and an antidote for poison. Andromachus served as the Roman Emperor Nero’s physician, and this opium compound would have contained his formulation of the medicine.