(Blaise) Daniel "Danny" Staples (13 July 1948 – December 2005Obituary ''Boston Globe'' 6 December 2005
.) was a Classical

mythologist Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

; a native of

Somerset, Massachusetts Somerset is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,303 at the 2020 census. It is the birthplace and hometown of Clifford Milburn Holland (1883–1924), the chief engineer and namesake of the Holland Tunnel ...

, he received a B.A. in Comparative Religion and a Ph.D. in Classical Studies from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

. He lived in

Hull, Massachusetts Hull is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, located on a peninsula at the southern edge of Boston Harbor. Its population was 10,072 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Hull is the smallest town by land area in Pl ...

with his spouse,

Carl A.P. Ruck Carl A. P. Ruck (born December 8, 1935, Bridgeport, Connecticut), is a professor in the Classical Studies department at Boston University. He received his B.A. at Yale University, his M.A. at the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. at Harvard Uni ...

. He co-authored with Ruck ''The World of Classical Mythology: Gods and Goddesses, Heroines and Heroes'', which has become a standard textbook. The book ''The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries'' claims that the psycho-active ingredient in the secret

kykeion Kykeon (, ; from , "to stir, to mix") was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek drink of various descriptions. Some were made mainly of water, barley and naturally occurring substances. Others were made with wine and grated cheese. It is widely believe ...

potion used in the

Eleusinian mysteries The Eleusinian Mysteries ( el, Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια, Eleusínia Mystḗria) were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Elefsina in ancient Greece. They are th ...

was most likely the ergotism causing fungus ''

Claviceps purpurea ''Claviceps purpurea'' is an ergot fungus that grows on the ears of rye and related cereal and forage plants. Consumption of grains or seeds contaminated with the survival structure of this fungus, the ergot sclerotium, can cause ergotism in h ...

''. For this book Staples translated the

Homeric Hymn The ''Homeric Hymns'' () are a collection of thirty-three anonymous ancient Greek hymns celebrating individual gods. The hymns are "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter—dactylic hexameter—as the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'', ...

to Demeter and contributed with R. Gordon Wasson,

Jonathan Ott Jonathan Ott (born 1949 in Hartford, Connecticut) is an ethnobotanist, writer, translator, publisher, natural products chemist and botanical researcher in the area of entheogens and their cultural and historical uses, and helped coin the term "' ...

and Ruck to the chapter in which the term "

entheogen Entheogens are psychoactive substances that induce alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behavior for the purposes of engendering spiritual development or otherwiseRätsch, Christian, ''The Encyclopedia of Psychoac ...

" was coined as an alternative for terms such as "psychedelic", "hallucinogen" and "drug" that can be misleading in certain contexts. ''The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist'' explores the role that entheogens in general, and '' Amanita muscaria'' in particular, played in Greek and biblical mythology and later on in

Renaissance painting Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...

, most notably in the

Isenheim Altarpiece The ''Isenheim Altarpiece'' is an altarpiece sculpted and painted by, respectively, the Germans Nikolaus of Haguenau and Matthias Grünewald in 1512–1516. It is on display at the Unterlinden Museum at Colmar, Alsace, in France. It is Grünewal ...

Matthias Grünewald Matthias Grünewald ( – 31 August 1528) was a German Renaissance painter of religious works who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century. His first name is also given ...

. Staples was also the author of numerous articles in his field.

Bibliography

*''The Hidden World: Survival of Pagan Shamanic Themes in European Fairytales'', with Carl Ruck, José Alfredo González Celdrán and Mark Alwin Hoffman (2007 ) *''The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist'', with Carl Ruck and

Clark Heinrich Clark Heinrich (born 1945) is an American author living in the coastal mountains of California, specializing in comparative religion and ethno-botany since 1974. He has reportedly studied with masters of yoga and Western mysticism. He is known for ...

(2001, ) *''The World of Classical Myth: Gods and Goddesses, Heroines and Heroes'', with Carl Ruck (1994, ) *''The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries'', with Carl Ruck, R. Gordon Wasson, Jonathan Ott and

Albert Hofmann Albert Hofmann (11 January 1906 – 29 April 2008) was a Swiss chemist known for being the first to synthesize, ingest, and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Hofmann's team also isolated, named and synthesi ...

(1978, )

Notes

External links

Summary of ''The Apples of Apollo''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Staples, Blaise Daniel American classical scholars 1948 births 2005 deaths Psychedelic drug researchers People from Somerset, Massachusetts American psychedelic drug advocates Boston University alumni