What are you drinking?

                                                                 What are you drinking?

In pubs and bars around the world the cries ring out - It’s my round! It’s your shout! What will you have? What can I get you? What are you drinking? In ancient Greece, the answer would have always been the same - I’ll have a wine please. In the days of Homer, wine was an integral and fundamental aspect of society and was associated with food, religion, rituals, medicine, the society and the economy. The Greeks were excellent wine makers and their product was not only used domestically, but also exported throughout the Mediterranean region and beyond. The Greeks developed advanced techniques for grape growing and for wine making and they became significant producers and major exporters of the product. In a time before coinage, other goods were traded for wine as Homer reports, and the traffic in wine was great.

A number of ships arrived from Lemnos bearing wine, which Euneus the son of Jason the shepherd of the people and Hypsipyle, had sent forth. The son of Jason gave a thousand measures of wine to be conducted to the sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus. Then the long-haired Achaeans bought wine from them, some with bronze, some with shining iron, others with hides or oxen or slaves and they prepared an abundant feast.

Your tents are full of wine that the ships of the Achaeans bring from Thrace each day over the broad shimmering sea. You have ample means to supply everyone because you are the lord and master over so many people.

In 2007 it was reported that researchers found what they believed was the world’s earliest evidence of mashed grapes, dating back to 6500 years ago in Greece. The 2,460 charred grape seeds and 300 empty grape skins were used to make wine, and were thought to be the remains of the second oldest known grape wine in the world, the first being a residue-covered Iranian wine jug dating back to the sixth millennium BCE. Greek wines were classified as sweet, dry or sour and their sweetness depended on the type of grape used to make them. They varied in colour from white to tawny yellow to red and a very dark red that was almost black. Homer often refers to what he calls fiery-looking red wine. He noted that the nobles of the Argives were mixing the dark red wine of chieftains in their mixing bowls. The Greeks believed that drinking red wine was what caused blood to be red in colour, and Homer tells us that the gods had ichor in their bodies and not blood because they neither ate bread nor drank dark wine.

Wines were almost always diluted with water as it was considered barbarian to drink them undiluted. Sometimes other ingredients like honey, sea water or herbs and spices were added to alter the flavour. Pine resin was used to seal amphorae and this left a distinctive pine-like taste to the wine, creating what is known today as retsina. To create a sweeter wine with a higher alcohol level, the ancient Greeks left the grapes to dry on straw mats before pressing them. Homer makes reference to this practise in the Odyssey. At several points, especially throughout the Odyssey, Homer makes note of honey-sweet wine. Poor storage and limited means of preservation meant that wines oxidized quickly and this could have resulted in producing odd effects or flavours like nutty or sweet tastes as well, but this was not considered undesirable by the Greeks. However, it does appear that some wines aged well, as evidenced by the wine cellar at the palace in Ithaca and that in Nestor’s palace in Pylos.

There were standing there two great jars of old and sweet wine which held an unmixed heavenly drink stored along the walls of the chamber, waiting for the day that Odysseus should return home after suffering his many toils.

When they came in, the old man mixed for them a bowl of sweet wine, an eleven year old wine that the house maiden opened for them after loosening the string that held the lid closed.

The wine-dark sea is the traditional English translation of oînops póntos (οἶνοψ πόντος) meaning ‘wine-faced sea’ or ‘wine-eyed sea’, a descriptive epithet used by Homer five times in the Iliad and twelve times in the Odyssey. Rather than referring to specific colours as we know them today, the ancient Greek’s use of colour tended to denote qualities like lightness, darkness and intensity. So rather than being a literal colour statement, the phrase wine-dark sea was more poetic in nature and evocative. It represented a sea that was dark, deep and obscure and was used as a poetic metaphor that focused on the deep and murky visual quality of the water, rather than its actual colour. The phrase reminds me of the deep colour of an Australian Shiraz.

There are many references in the two epics to wine stewards using various vessels to mix and to serve wine for drinking. The god Hephaestus is seen placing a two-handled wine goblet into his beloved mother’s hands. On their way to making a sacrificial offering, two heralds are noted carrying the gladdening wine in a flask made of goatskin, the fruit of the land. Later on those gathered ate roasted meat and drank sweet wine from their goblets. In other places Homer makes reference to amphorae and craters.

Menoetius, set out the large mixing bowl on the table and prepare the wine strongly and offer each man a goblet, for I have the finest of friends here under my roof.

Achilles drew wine from a golden bowl with a two-handled beaker…

The heralds and the squires were busy, some mixing water and wine in bowls…

Wine played a special part in people’s lives, as was pointed out by Hector’s mother as she tried to restrain him from engaging further in the battle and to rebuild his strength. But Hector refuses her offer because he deems that it would be inappropriate for him to drink or offer a libation in his current condition.

But hold back until I am able to bring you sweet wine so that you are able to make a libation to father Zeus and the other immortals. Then you may refresh yourself if you drink, because wine lifts the spirits of tired men and increases their strength and you are so tired out from defending your clansmen.

Thereupon Hector with the great glancing helmet answered her. My venerable mother, arise but do not bring me sweet wine lest you unnerve me and I forget my strength. I fear indeed to pour out a libation of fiery wine to Zeus with my unwashed hands nor is it fitting for me, all sprinkled with blood and gore, to supplicate the cloud-gathering son of Cronos.

Later on the Achaean troops are urged to eat and drink to renew their fighting ability. Take your rest and have your food and wine, for in these are force and strength.

But a man who has had his fill of food and wine can fight the whole day long against the foe and he has courage in his heart and his knees will not grow tired until everyone leaves the battlefield.

Libations to the gods were offered for many reasons including giving thanks, asking for intercessions or for sealing oaths or promises. Hecabe held a goblet of honey-laced wine to make a libation before Priam set off for the Achaean encampment. Fiery looking wine was often poured on blazing pyres as part of the funeral ritual. Sometimes libations to the gods were made out of sheer terror.

When the two of them had bathed and had anointed themselves richly with oil, they sat down to a great meal and from the full mixing bowl they drew off the honey-sweet wine and made a libation to Athena.

Pale fear seized hold of them and from their goblets they poured out wine onto the ground and no one dared take a drink before making a libation to the great son of Cronos.

Inside the chest there was a beautifully fashioned drinking goblet that no other man had ever drunk the fiery wine from and from which he had never poured a libation to any god except his father Zeus. He took the cup from the chest and first cleansed it with brimstone and then rinsed it in fresh spring water and after washing his hands, poured into it the fiery-coloured wine. He uttered a prayer while standing in the middle of the forecourt, poured out the wine and looked up to heaven and he did not escape the notice of Zeus who delights in thunder.

Like in many cultures today, children in ancient Greece grew up with wine. There was no government mandated minimum drinking age and wine was considered just a normal part of life. The old man Phoenix mused about the upbringing of Achilles and his encounters with wine as a child.

And I raised you up to what you are O godlike Achilles and loved you in my heart for you would not go to a great feast in the palace nor eat until I had placed you on my knees and fed you the first choice bit and let you taste the wine. Many times you have drenched my tunic spitting up the wine in your childish exuberance.

Overindulgence was frowned upon and was seen as barbaric. The Achaean troops got drunk and were punished severely by the Cicones and Polyphemus the Cyclops got drunk and we all know what happened to him. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase blind-drunk. The Greeks were well aware of the dangers of overindulgence.

It is the wine that has gotten to you, honey-sweet wine that disables others if they drink it greedily and to excess.

His heart had been made foolish with wine… he was the first one to find evil because of being overcome with wine.

There are so many references to wine in the Iliad and the Odyssey that we must conclude that the beverage was an integral part of ancient Greek society. Wine served as a symbol of divine offering, social ritual and luxury, as well as being used for daily consumption purposes. The fact that wine was used to make offerings and libations to the gods and that a vineyard scene was included on the shield of Achilles, underscores its significant importance to the people of Homer’s time. Wine was viewed as a symbol of the bounty of the earth, as well as being used as a descriptive term for the oceans, as in the phrase wine-dark sea. The lives of the ancient Greeks would not have been complete without the presence of wine.