even though some scholars were apparently not familiar with the Pharsalus bas-relief, the agent that they considered the most likely Eleusinian entheogen is a species of psilocybian mushroom. The bas-relief would seem to confirm this hypothesis, but we must be careful not to rush to conclusions. My own opinion is that in-depth analysis of this work leads to the conclusion that the original psychopharmacological key to the Mysteries is not a psilocybian mushroom. Perhaps the Hierophants of Eleusis had discovered an ergot strain endowed with naturally occurring psychoactive properties or a strain that was easy to prepare in a nontoxic manner, cultivated in the Rarian plain neighboring Eleusis. The priests of the Eleusinian temple had the right to farm cereals (not the psilocybian mushroom or Amanita muscaria) on this plain. Furthermore, new ethnobotanic data has come to light over the last few years in Peru, Africa and China which confirms that it is possible to obtain psychoactive brews from grasses and lower mushrooms of the Clavicipitaceae family.