32
ILLUMINATION BY CASTOR OIL - P. CORNELL 1
The discussion which follows was prompted by the
enumeration of issues of lamp oil in P. Cornell 1. The
frequency and quantities of these issues raise an interesting question: how much illumination could have been
provided by the amount of oil issued?
The question can only be answered by actually burning some of the oil, called kiki, in ancient lamps. Kiki
has long been identified as castor oil, and a brief examination of the evidence will show that the identification is
certainly correct. Castor oil, as we know it, is an oil
obtained from the seeds of the castor oil plant, ricinus
communis. The tree varies in size from a shrubby plant
to a tree of some thirty to forty feet in height. The fruit
consists of a three celled capsule, each cell of which contains a single seed, and which is covered externally with
soft prickles. The oil, obtained from the seeds by expression or decoction, is of a mild but very nauseous
and disagreeable taste, and has purgative effect. The oil
was known to the Greeks as early as Herodotus, whose
comment that kiki, useful as a lamp oil, has a foul smell,1
agrees quite well with our knowledge of castor oil.
Strabo's description2 agrees with that of Herodotus, and
Pliny, mentioning both the name kiki and its use in lamps
provides our botanical term ricinus communis.3
These three writers are in complete accord about
the method of obtaining castor oil and in the description
of the plant from which the oil comes, and they all also
agree that the oil which they describe is called kiki in
Egypt. The conclusion that kiki may be equated with
1. Bk. II, 94
2. Bk. XVII, 2. 5
3. Nat. Hist. XV, 7. 25
0
