Consuming wine in historic Greece was a divine however demanding enterprise
April 10, 2022 by Ancientfoods
Apollo-magizine.com
3 September 2021
A small cup, presently on show within the short-term exhibition ‘Consuming with the Gods’ at La Cité du Vin in Bordeaux, held a small shock for any historic Greek who’d completed sipping their wine and peered with disappointment into its dry, empty inside. A satyr is painted inside, his tail within the air as he dives head first right into a vat of wine, his personal tiny cup left beneath, untouched. Such behaviour was frowned upon in Greek society, I study, as a result of consuming wine was a divine affair, involving the right rituals and respect for the gods, which separated the Greeks from the barbarians. The satyr, it appears, had forgotten his good manners. Fortunately for us trendy wine-drinkers, there’s not any danger of embarrassing ourselves like a drunken satyr, as a result of this intoxicating exhibition explains how we will keep away from insulting the Greek and Roman gods or showing like barbarians.
With round 50 artefacts on show, together with loans from the Louvre, ‘Consuming with the Gods’ centres on the position of wine in Graeco-Roman tradition, with a big half devoted to Dionysus, the god who gave wine to people and – maybe extra importantly – taught us to make it ourselves. Early on, there’s a statue of the god carved into the marble leg of a banqueting desk. It reveals Dionysus leaning in opposition to a pillar, bare, one arm over his head in a gesture of ecstasy (or presumably questioning the place he’d final seen his garments). Together with his different hand, he pours wine for his panther, his fixed companion, current in numerous artefacts on show. Unmixed with water, the wine drank by panther and god alike was believed to drive mere mortals insane, the exhibition explains. That is helpful recommendation for the Greek-god-fearing amongst us. The right strategy to drink wine is to combine it with water in a big vase referred to as a krater. Then, earlier than taking a cup, you make an providing from it to the gods and say a prayer.
As you discover the exhibition, there’s a bronze picture of Dionysus’s drunken mule (not a really environment friendly method of getting round, I think about), and work and carvings of the satyrs that accompanied the god on his travels – males with goat or horse legs and animal ears. Ladies referred to as the maenads (‘the mad ones’) have been additionally a part of the divinity’s troupe, and have been believed to tear you aside should you didn’t welcome Dionysus accurately. It feels like fairly the social gathering – as long as you adopted the right rituals and survived the night time.
Additional characters from Dionysus’s myths and adventures are additionally current. The edges of 1 Greek vase from 490 BC present Dionysus and Heracles assembly for a consuming competitors. Pan makes an look as a small bronze determine, and we meet a marble statue of the satyr Silenus, Dionysus’s tutor, carved holding a big goatskin of wine. Festivals of Dionysus are represented too, such because the three-day-long Anthesteria (‘Flower Competition’), celebrating the god’s return and new wine; a scene of girls providing to a statue of Dionysus throughout this pageant may be seen on a jug from 450–440 BC. The exhibition additionally explores the god of wine’s incarnation as Bacchus below the Roman Empire.
One spotlight is a reproduction of an enormous vase from the sixth century BC found in a Celtic princesses’ tomb in France. This might maintain 1,100 litres of wine and is seemingly the most important identified vase from the traditional world – standing earlier than it, you’ll be able to fairly simply think about diving inside like an ill-mannered satyr. One other copy reveals a mosaic of a skeleton holding wine jugs, meant to remind banqueters to get pleasure from their lives.
However there’s extra to the exhibition than the traditional artefacts. In a single space, you’ll be able to sit and hearken to tales of Dionysus, as advised by the slam artist and poet Maras, the phrases projected on to the partitions. A video reveals a banqueting scene from Federico Fellini’s movie Satyricon (1969). Three trendy installations have been created by road artists, impressed by the traditional myths. Atmospheric music drifts throughout the exhibition area. The imagery on one Italian situla, exhibiting King Maron internet hosting Dionysus and receiving a vine and consuming vessel in return, has been replicated on a big scale in cloth, which makes its theme – the reward of wine – a lot clearer, and makes you’re feeling immersed within the scene.
The exhibition is moodily lit with spotlights, creating stark contrasts between darkish areas, the illuminated objects, and the green-themed info panels and labels, which current the objects and their backgrounds in a refreshingly clear, participating and typically nearly conversational method. Attention-grabbing cultural particulars are included all through – amongst them, that throughout the Anthesteria, the Greeks held competitions wherein individuals tried to down their cups of wine in a single gulp.
All of which provides as much as a fairly scrumptious mix, mixing outdated flavours with one thing new. With the world now slowly opening up once more, if you may make it to Bordeaux, ‘Consuming with the Gods’ is an exhibition that it’s best to pattern whilst you nonetheless have the prospect. And when having fun with a glass of wine afterwards, bear in mind to supply a little bit to Dionysus.
‘Consuming with the Gods’ is at La Cité du Vin in Bordeaux, France, till 7 November.
