Nepenthe or better yet Nepenthes, is the name of a genus of carnivorous plants belonging to the family Nepenthaceae. They are known as a pitcher or monkey glass. The word has Greek origin and means "without penalty", "without sorrow" or "without pain". It is also the name given to a fictional drug that removes all kinds of pain, also called the drug from oblivion.
Also nepente or nepentes, as some companions point out. From Greek ne- negative prefix and penthos, pain, affliction, misfortune : Drink of the gods, medicine against pain and melancholy, forgetting drug that Homer speaks of in the Odyssey, probably opium, which was mixed with wine. In the eighteenth century Linnaeus named a genus of carnivorous plants and climbers native to Southeast Asia, also called jar plants or monkey cups of the nepentaceae family.
