One of the oldest dreams of men was to find a remedy to secure heavy consumption of spirits without being unpleasantly drunk. The old Greeks had some sort of blind belief in the power of the tiny parsley. During their blowouts the ancient men put parsley wreaths on their heads. But the esteem is also seen from the tradition of decorating the champions of Isthmian Games. Those games represented an event nearly as esteemed as the Olympic Games.

Parsley was among the plants, which Charlemagne claimed for his estates, and it was found in the Monastery Garden of St. Gallen about 820 AD. Charlemagne was taken by a cheese flavored with parsley seeds and ordered two cases of it to be sent to him each year. In England there is a saying that parsley seed goes seven times to the Devil and back before it germinates, and claim that only witches can grow it. As well, it is traditionally a curative, a property captured by Beatrix Potter in The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She says about that naughty rabbit, "First he ate some lettuce and some broad beans, then some radishes, and then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some parsley."