Black peppercorns are mentioned in Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani medicine in India. The 5th century "Syriac Book of Medicines" prescribes pepper (or perhaps long pepper) for illnesses such as constipation, diarrhea, earache, gangrene, heart disease, hernia, hoarseness, indigestion, insect bites, insomnia, joint pain, liver problems, lung disease, oral abscesses, sunburn, tooth decay, and toothaches. Various sources from the 5th century onward also say pepper is good to treat eye problems. Often special ointments made with pepper have to be applied directly to the eye. There is no current medical evidence that any of these treatments has any benefit; pepper applied directly to the eye would be quite uncomfortable and possibly damaging.
For a long time, people believed pepper is the cause for sneezing; this is still believed true today. Some sources say that piperine irritates the nostrils, which will cause the sneezing; some say that it is just the effect of the fine dust in ground pepper, and some say that pepper is not in fact a very effective sneeze-producer at all. Few if any controlled studies have been carried out to answer the question.
Pepper can irritate the intestines. It is therefore eliminated from the diet of patients having abdominal surgery and ulcers. The replacement is usually called a "bland diet".
Pepper contains small amounts of safrole, a carcinogenic compound.
Chili pepper
Chili pepper (not to be confused with the country called Chile) is the fruit of a series of plants called Capsicum (nightshade family). Chilis are now grown all over the world, but originally, they came from Mexico. They are used as spices or as vegetables, and also have some use in medicine.
Chili peppers are completely unrelated to the "Piperaceae" genus, which Black pepper is from.
Chili peppers have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since at least 7500 BCE. Chili peppers were domesticated over 6000 years ago in Mexico. Since then, chili peppers could be farmed throughout all of Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America.
The word "chili" is spelled differently in different countries. They can be spelled as chili, chilli, and chile.
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (525 BC – 456 BC) was an Ancient Greek poet and writer. He wrote about 70–90 plays. Only six of his tragedies have survived complete. Aeschylus was the earliest of the three greatest Greek writers of tragedians. The two others were Sophocles and Euripides.
Aristotle said that Aeschylus added more characters into his plays. His characters spoke to each other and not just to the chorus. This made it easier to create drama between the characters.
One of his plays, "The Persians", was about the Persian invasion of Greece. Aeschylus had fought in this war. People studying Greek history use his play as an important source of information. The war was so important to the Greeks and to Aeschylus, that the writing on his grave only talks about his part in the Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon. There is nothing about the plays he wrote.
Aeschylus was born about the year 525 BC in a small town called Eleusis, which is about 27 kilometers northwest of Athens. The date is based on counting back forty years from his first victory in the Great Dionysia. His family was rich, and his father, Euphorion, was a member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica. Pausanias wrote that Aeschylus worked in a vineyard until the god Dionysus visited him in his sleep. The god ordered him to write the first tragedies. His first play was performed in 499 BC, when he was only 26 years old.
In 490 BC the Persian army, led by Darius, landed in Greece and tried to take it over. Aeschylus, and his brother Cynegeirus, joined the army from Athens and fought against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians were able to defeat the much bigger Persian army. This battle, which stopped Darius, was celebrated across the city-states of Greece. Cynegeirus died in the battle. In 480 BC, Xerxes I of Persia tried to capture Greece. Aeschylus fought against them at the Battle of Salamis and at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. His oldest surviving play "The Persians", performed in 472 BC, is set during the Battle of Salamis. This play won first prize at the Dionysia.
Aeschylus was one of many Greeks who joined the Eleusinian Mysteries. This was the religious cult of Demeter, and based in his home town of Eleusis. Members of the group learned mystical and secret knowledge. Members were sworn under the penalty of death not to say anything about the Mysteries to anyone. Aristotle wrote that some people thought that Aeschylus had shown some of the cult's secrets on stage. Other writers said that an angry mob tried to kill Aeschylus on the spot, but he ran away. Later, Aeschylus said he did not know that he had shown any of the secrets. He was saved from death only because of his brave service in the Persian Wars.
Aeschylus made two trips to Sicily in the 470s BC. He was invited by Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse, a big Greek city on the east side of the island. On one of these trips he wrote "The Women of Aetna", in honor of the city founded by Hieron. He also restaged his "Persians". By 473 BC, Aeschylus was the yearly favorite in the Dionysia, winning first prize in nearly every competition. In 458 BC, he returned to Sicily for the last time, visiting the city of Gela where he died in 456 or 455 BC. It is said that he was killed by a tortoise which fell out of the sky after it was dropped by an eagle. This story is probably only a legend. Aeschylus' work was so respected by the Athenians that after his death, his were the only tragedies allowed to be restaged in future competitions. His sons Euphorion and Euæon, and his nephew Philocles, all wrote plays as well.
Greek drama began with festivals for the gods, mainly Dionysus, the god of wine. During Aeschylus' lifetime, dramatic competitions became part of the city's Dionysia in the spring. The festival began with an opening procession, then a competition of boys singing dithyrambs, and finally two dramatic competitions. The first competition was for three playwrights each presenting three tragic plays, followed by a shorter comedy. A second competition of five comedic playwrights followed, and winners of both competitions were chosen by a group of judges.
Aeschylus took part in many of these competitions in his lifetime. Only six tragedies have survived intact: "The Persians", "Seven against Thebes", "The Suppliants", and the trilogy known as "The Oresteia", consisting of the three tragedies "Agamemnon", "The Libation Bearers" and "The Eumenides". There is also the play "Prometheus Bound", but this was probably written by someone else. All of the surviving plays won first prize at the City Dionysia. One book, the Alexandrian "Life of Aeschylus", said that he won the first prize at the City Dionysia 13 times. Sophocles' won 18 times out of his 120 plays, and Euripides only had five wins out of about 90 plays.
When Aeschylus first began writing, the theatre was new. Some playwrights like Thespis had made the cast bigger to include an actor who was able to talk with the chorus. Aeschylus added a second actor, allowing for more drama; and the chorus became less important. He is said to have been the first to use "skenographia", or scene-decoration, though Aristotle said the first person was Sophocles. Aeschylus also added more details to the costumes, and had his actors wear platform boots, called "cothurni", to help the audience see them better. When they walked on stage in the first performance of the "Eumenides", the chorus of Furies were so frightening in looks that they made young children faint, old men urinate, and pregnant women go into labor.