Wine and the Ancient Greeks

Nemea – Agiorgitiko red wines, steeped in the myth and history of Nemea, Peloponnese, Greece

October — the grape harvest in Tuscany. I lose myself in the beauty of the vineyards, meticulously ordered, their vines swaying gracefully across the sun-dappled valleys. Inevitably, my thoughts wander to the vineyards that once surrounded ancient Athens, some of which still endure, and my mind begins its journey.

Oinos (οίνος) in Greek means wine. Spirit is rendered as pneuma (πνεύμα). When combined — oinó-pneuma (οινόπνευμα) — they form the Greek word for “alcohol”. For the ancients, however, it was far more than a mere drink: it was the very “spirit of wine.”

My forebears did not partake of wine during the meal itself; they savoured it afterwards. Reclining half-supine upon their triclinia — a form of couch — they ate sparingly, for food was meant to awaken the appetite, not to weigh it down. Then, conversation would flow.

A symposium scene – Attic red-figure bell-krater, c. 420 BC, National Archaeological Museum, Madrid

These gatherings came to be known as symposia: banquets where friends and acquaintances convened to drink, converse, and exchange ideas. Each meeting began with a libation to Dionysus, the god whom the Romans called Bacchus. At such occasions, a servant — the oinochoos (οινοχόος), or cup-bearer—was charged with pouring the wine, ever vigilant, skilled in gauging the precise measure that would preserve clarity of mind and prevent excess.

The richly decorated triclinium (dining room) in Villa Regina, Boscoreale, near Pompeii, Italy

The Greeks adored wine, yet rarely indulged to the point of intoxication, allowing discussion — on matters of philosophy, art, and life — to continue unabated. The Romans, by contrast, were more prone to excess, though they cultivated more refined dining practices, employing plates of precious metal or glass. The Greeks, in their simplicity, used flatbread as plates, and small pieces of bread as napkins.

Athenian women were excluded from these banquets, admitted only were musicians and courtesans.

The finest wines were said to come from the islands of Chios and Lesbos, treasures of the Aegean, infused with the sun and soil of their lands.

Further reflections await in my books: GREECE, The Dance of the Seas and A Year in Tuscany