The history of ergot is presumably as old as that of rye (Secale cereals L.), which is the primary host for this parasitic fungus. Rye seems to have been largely unknown in ancient times. Apparently it was cultivated in central Europe in the first millennium B.C., during the Hallstatt (early) Iron Age. It first arrived in Greece in the fourth century A.D. For this reason, neither rye nor ergot is mentioned by the authors of antiquity.
The ancient Hebrews knew of a son or sonin, a “degenerate wheat of black color and bitter taste.” Consuming this was said to have both inebriating and lethal effects, depending upon the dosage. Berendes (1891) has interpreted this as grain infected with Claviceps purpurea. The Bible makes mention of “rust-infected grain”; some have suggested that this “rust” was the uredinial species Puccinia, while others have pointed to ergot.
Shelley (1995) has attempted to demonstrate that ergot was the soma of the Aryans, the haoma of the Parsis, the initiatory drug of the Mithraic mysteries (cf. Peganum harmala), and the elixir or philosopher’s stone of the alchemists. Gordon Wasson believed that ergot was the secret psychoactive ingredient in kykeon (cf. Claviceps paspali).
In his work On Nature, the Roman poet Lucretius (ca. 94—55 B.C.) described a disease that can be interpreted as ergotism:
Suddenly this new and devastating air of plague descended down upon the water, or it nested in the fruits of the field... the entire body was reddened by burning sores, as when the “sacred fire” [ ignis sacer] spread over the limbs. Throughout the inside of a person, so that it burned all the way down to the bones, burned in the stomach as brightly as the fire in the interior of the earth....
Completely confused condition with fear and melancholia, darkened brow and a sharp, even angry look in the eyes; moreover, a fearfully excited hearing and buzzing in the ears.

During the Middle Ages, a devastating epidemic called ignis sacer, “holy fire,” struck. The French physician Gay Didier, who worked in the service of the Antonite hospital in Saint-Antoine du Viennois, wrote about Saint Anthony’s “fire” in his Epitome Chirugieae:
The fire consists of a mortifying gangrene of a limb, it is also known as Saint Antonious’s or St. Martialis’s fire. It is remarkable to note that such pain and such heat arise with this disease that it is tantamount to a real burn.

Saint Anthony’s fire (ergotism) was an epidemic disease that swept through central and southern Europe in the sixteenth century. The etiology of this devastating disease, which is the result of ergot poisoning, was not discovered until the seventeenth century. Since Claviceps purpurea infests primarily rye, the disease usually appeared in those areas where the populace lived primarily on rye and were con- stantly forced to eat the “bread of dreams” or “devil’s bread”. It was not until the seventeenth century that the connection between Saint Anthony’s fire and ergotism was recognized. At the time, it was believed that ergot was a creature of the devil. Those afflicted by ergot regarded Saint Anthony as their patron saint, for he himself had once successfully resisted the hallucinatory temptations of the devil—which the victims now faced themselves—in the Egyptian desert. Saint Anthony was long venerated as the healer of ergotism.
The German common names rockenmutter [rye mother], afterkorn [anal grain], todtenkorn [death grain], tollkorn [mad grain],and mutterkorn [mother grain] are all indicative of the effects and usages of this fungus. Since the Middle Ages, midwives have used ergot to induce labor. The first
written source that directly referred to ergot in this context was Lonicerus’s Krauterbuch (seventeenth century). During the late modern era, ergot was the most important agent for inducing contractions. The first scientific report on ergot as a uterotonic agent appeared in 1808. In 1824, the American physician David Hosack recommended ergot to accelerate childbirth.
In 1918, Arthur Stoll isolated and described ergotamine, the first ergot alkaloid to be identi- fied. Later analyses of ergot by Albert Hofmann uncovered the structures of numerous other ergot alkaloids and also resulted in the “accidental” synthesis of LSD. These studies also produced several preparations that are still in use today (e.g., methergine and hydergine).