Short answers, pulled from the story.
Thyme is native to Mediterranean countries in North Africa, the Levant, and Southern Europe. The Levant is thought to be where the plant was first cultivated, and the most widely used culinary species, Thymus vulgaris, is native to Southeast Europe.
Ancient Egyptians used common thyme (Thymus vulgaris) for embalming. The plant's antiseptic properties, traced to the compound thymol, made it useful in preserving the dead.
Thymol is the most abundant volatile component of thyme leaves, present at 8.55 mg per gram, and is primarily responsible for the plant's antiseptic properties. The essential oil of common thyme contains between 20 and 54 percent thymol, and thymol is an active ingredient in commercial mouthwashes including Listerine.
In the European Middle Ages, thyme was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares. Women also gave thyme leaves as gifts to knights and warriors, believing the herb brought courage to those who carried it, and the plant was burned as incense and placed on coffins during funerals to assure passage into the next life.
Fresh thyme is more flavorful than dried, but its storage life rarely exceeds a week at room temperature. Thyme retains its flavor on drying better than many other herbs, and dried thyme is a practical substitute for fresh; it is also widely used in Armenia in herbal infusions called tisanes.
Thymus serpyllum, or wild thyme, is a major nectar source for honeybees, covering large areas of droughty, rocky soils in southern Europe and North Africa. Greece and Malta are especially famous for wild thyme honey. Wild thyme is also an important food plant for the caterpillars of large and common blue butterflies.