THE GREEKS - PART 2: DIONYSUS AND ULYSSES

For the Greeks, wine was a sacred drink to which they attached very high values and a deep sense of dignity: archaeological finds, prior to the Mycenaean culture dating back to 1600 BC, testify the fact that already at that time wine was used as a drink for ritual and religious purposes.

Since the beginning, it became the symbol of friendship among men, and between men and gods, and right for this reason it can be considered the very first substance used during religious rites.

Greek mythology recognized also a god of wine, Dionysus, who revealed the secrets of the drink's production to men. The initiation to this divinity's cult required drinking wine and people used to celebrate the so-called "Dionysian orgies" in his honour; they were real feasts dedicated to the nectar of grapes.

Already during the Mycenaean period, the myth of Dionysus was diffused in Greece. God of vegetation, fertility, proceation, vine and wine, his cult had its origins maybe in ancient Thrace, or Phrygia or even Lydia (in fact, the name "Bakcos" had Lydian origins). Wine was used in the liturgy during Dionysian Festivals, in the Orphic cults (in which God was considered a vine-dresser) and in great quantities also among the Romans, during Bacchus rites.

Greek population was maybe blessed with imagination more than other peoples, that's why they find it the right thing to commit to poets and storytellers the task of explaining the origins of earth and nature. The bards of ancient geste created gods in mens' own image and likeness, and gave them any kind of physical and spiritual gifts, therefore Greek gods were prey to virtues and vices, passions and love affairs, they had to face struggles, suffer defeats and gain victories. In Homer's and Hesiod's poems, they -even if always submitted to a splendid human restlessness- still maintained the noble majesty of the world's rulers and the formidable power of Nature's great forces. So, vine and wine were solemnly celebrated in literary works, since they were considered a special gift from the Gods. Anyway, Dionysus himself instructed men on the use of this precious element: it had necessarily to be mixed with water, also because Greek wine had a very high alcoholic content.

For sure Homer was the greatest Greek poet, born around 8th century B.C. In his "Odyssey" he tells us the story of Ulysses who, after fighting and defeating the city of Troy, thanks to the famous wooden horse he invented, started his journey back home, heading for his island Ithaca. He stopped in the island of Scheria (maybe modern Corfu) as the guest of Alcinous, king of the Phawacians, where they prepare a banquet in his honour during which he narrates his adventure in the Cyclops' land:

"We sailed hence, always in much distress, till we came to the land of the lawless and inhuman Cyclopes. Now the Cyclopes neither plant nor plough, but trust in providence, and live on such wheat, barley, and grapes as grow wild without any kind of tillage, and their wild grapes yield them wine as the sun and the rain may grow them…"

He also tells the terrible story of the strong Polyphemus who kept them as prisoners in his cave, from time to time feeding himself on Ulysses' compagnions: "«Look here, Cyclop,» said I, «you have been eating a great deal of man's flesh, so take this and drink some wine, that you may see what kind of liquor we had on board my ship. I was bringing it to you as a drink-offering, in the hope that you would take compassion upon me and further me on my way home, whereas all you do is to go on ramping and raving most intolerably. You ought to be ashamed of yourself; how can you expect people to come see you any more if you treat them in this way?» He then took the cup and drank. He was so delighted with the taste of the wine that he begged me for another bowl full. «Be so kind,» he said, «as to give me some more, and tell me your name at once. I want to make you a present that you will be glad to have. We have wine even in this country, for our soil grows grapes and the sun ripens them, but this drinks like Nectar and Ambrosia all in one.» I then gave him some more; three times did I fill the bowl for him, and three times did he drain it without thought or heed; then, when I saw that the wine had got into his head, I said to him as plausibly as I could, «Cyclops, you ask my name and I will tell it you; give me, therefore, the present you promised me; my name is Noman; this is what my father and mother and my friends have always called me.» But the cruel wretch said, «Then I will eat all Noman`s comrades before Noman himself, and will keep Noman for the last. This is the present that I will make him.» As he spoke he reeled, and fell sprawling face upwards on the ground. His great neck hung heavily backwards and a deep sleep took hold upon him. Presently he turned sick, and threw up both wine and the gobbets of human flesh on which he had been gorging, for he was very drunk...”

Again in "Odyssey", in book IX Homer dedicates a whole passage to Maron's wine, which reads as follows:

"I told my men to draw the ship ashore, and stay where they were, all but the twelve best among them, who were to go along with myself. I also took a goatskin of sweet black wine which had been given me by Maron, Apollo son of Euanthes, who was priest of Apollo the patron god of Ismarus, and lived within the wooded precincts of the temple. When we were sacking the city we respected him, and spared his life, as also his wife and child; so he made me some presents of great value- seven talents of fine gold, and a bowl of silver, with twelve jars of sweet wine, unblended, and of the most exquisite flavour. Not a man nor maid in the house knew about it, but only himself, his wife, and one housekeeper: when he drank it he mixed twenty parts of water to one of wine, and yet the fragrance from the mixing-bowl was so exquisite that it was impossible to refrain from drinking. I filled a large skin with this wine, and took a wallet full of provisions with me, for my mind misgave me that I might have to deal with some savage who would be of great strength, and would respect neither right nor law..."

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