14 DAY TRIAL // It would appear that for the ancient inhabitants of Sardinia, an island that is now a part of Italy, the burden of burying their executed elderly or convicts looking sad, or scared, or in whatever way their deaths found them, was simply too much. As a result, they devised a potion that literally forced a smile onto the faces of the corpses, making them look more at peace with themselves, and offering some comfort to the onlookers as well.
Researchers have now managed to discover that the way they did that was by making the future dead bodies eat a plant-based mixture made up from an indigenous plant, which forced the renowned “sardonic grin” on the faces of the ritualistic killings.
Despite the fact that the expression might make you think of something happy, like a post-mortem ritual of sorts, it had nothing to do with such feelings. The victims of ritualistic killings were the elderly, who could no longer take care of themselves and became a burden to others, as well as thieves, murderers, and other types of criminals.
They were forced to drink a secret potion, and then thrown off a nearby cliff, or simply beaten to death with rocks or sticks, if the mob was in the mood for that at the time. Upon dying, their faces would widen into the specific grin, which supposedly gave them an overall merrier appearance.
Now, investigators from Italy, led by Giovanni Appendino of the Universita degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale, have discovered that the hemlock water-dropwort plant was the main acting ingredient in the sardonic smile-inducing potion.
The find makes sense from a historical point of view, as it can only be found in regions of the islands described in Ancient texts. The conclusion was further supported by the accidental death of a shepherd about a decade ago, who ingested the plant and was found grinning at the skies some time later.
The death made Mauro Ballero of the University of Cagliari in Sardinia, and also the co-author of the new study, take an interest in hemlock water-dropwort-induced fatalities, and so he began analyzing all chemical aspects of the plant, assessing its toxic compounds, as well as its actions on the human body and face muscles.
“The compound is highly toxic and causes symptoms similar to those described by the ancients for the sardonic smile, including facial paralysis,” Appendino explained, quoted by National Geographic News.