Wine and wine drinking in the Homeric World

• Autores: Zinon Papakonstantinou
• Localización: Antiquité classique, ISSN 0770-2817, Nº. 78, 2009, págs. 1-24
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Abstract:

    This paper examines practices and perceptions of wine drinking as depicted in the Homeric epics. Wine was copiously consumed by individuals of all social backgrounds and was frequently presented as a nutritive and invigorating substance. The intoxicating and potentially disruptive qualities of extensive wine consumption were also known, yet such awareness did not lead to the demonization of more moderate degrees of drunkenness. Wine was valued as a material commodity and its quality and mode of consumption served as markers of social distinction, especially in the feasts of the social elite. Luxury wines were depicted as potential gifts in contexts of aristocratic xenia. Moreover, an invitation to a drinking party of the Homeric elites was among the highest tokens of social recognition one could receive. The evidence for wine drinking in the Homeric world suggests that early archaic Greece was an �integrated� drinking culture, i.e. a culture where alcohol was an accepted, morally neutral element of social life. Ethnographic comparanda for other �integrated� drinking cultures can be illuminating of Homeric practices and ideas on wine drinking.