The ancient Greek hero Prometheus was said to have carried the fire he stole from the gods in a fennel stalk and the plant has long had an important place in European life. It is a well-known culinary herb or vegetable from ancient Roman and Egyptian times that has for as long a period been regarded as a valuable warming carminative (colic and gas reducing) and aromatic digestive; as the English herbalist John Parkinson put it in 1640: "which being sweet and somewhat hot and comforting the stomach, helpeth to digest the crude flegmatick quality of fish and other viscous meats". It also had a persistent reputation as a safe herb for lactation and of course was a common ingredient in "gripe water" and other remedies for infant colic. Unfortunately almost none of this reputation has been put to the test in modern times and the rating scores for fennel are based very largely on the strength of its traditional reputation.