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Christian Spirituality and Science Issues in the Contemporary World

Volume 8 Issue 1 Alcohol and the Christian Faith Article 2

2010

“Daimon Drink”: Ancient Greek and Roman Explanations for Drunkenness

Steven W. Thompson Avondale College, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Thompson, S. W. (2010). “Daimon Drink”: Ancient Greek and Roman explanations for drunkenness. Christian Spirituality and Science, 8(1), 7-24. Retrieved from https://research.avondale.edu.au/css/vol8/ iss1/2

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Avondale Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science at ResearchOnline@Avondale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Christian Spirituality and Science by an authorized editor of ResearchOnline@Avondale. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Thompson: “Daimon Drink”

“Daimōn Drink”: Ancient Greek and Roman Explanations for Drunkenness Dr Steve Thompson Emeritus Senior Research Fellow Avondale College

hat did ancient Greek and the population, according to current WRoman wine drinkers believe interpretation of surviving literary and was the mechanism, force, or proc- material remains. A “sober” estimate ess which caused their drunkenness? by a recent researcher places per capita Three primary answers to this question consumption of wine by occupants emerge from the extensive ancient of the city of Rome at 100 litres per Greek and Roman literary references person per year.1 A recent estimate to wine and drinking. The first is that for consumption in the Old Testa- drunkenness is caused by some prop- ment world is over three times this erty resident in the drinker, the result amount.2 Neither estimate addresses of a bodily response to wine. This will the crucial question of whether these be designated below as the “human quantities were of diluted or undiluted cause.” The second is that drunkenness wine. Greeks and Romans considered is caused by a property resident in the it civilised to dilute their wine, so this wine itself. This will be designated be- question needs addressing. Of course, low as the “wine cause.” The third of not every Roman or every Israelite these answers, the one most widely en- consumed wine, but many would have countered, was that drunkenness was consumed it on a regular basis. the work of the god of wine, known Ambivalent attitudes to Greeks as and Bacchus. tow ards drunkenness This will be designated as the “divine Abundant ancient testimony to both cause.” The purpose of this paper is the pleasures and pains of drunken- to describe and document these three ness survives in the literature from all explanations of drunkenness within epochs of ancient Greece and Rome.3 the setting of Greco-Roman culture. Pretty well the full range of both Relevant original sources will be cited prosocial and antisocial behaviour at- and translated. tributed to drinking today was already Most persons in ancient Mediterranean observed by Greeks and Romans, and cultures would have experienced, or recorded in their literature.4 The Ro- at least witnessed, drunkenness. Wine man nobleman and naturalist Pliny was widely available in that world, the Elder (23-79 AD) inserted into and was apparently consumed on a his extensive description of wine va- regular basis by a large segment of rieties available in his day a personal

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acknowledgment of his ambivalent blinded Lycurgus, then provoked him attitude towards the impact of wine into an insane rampage during which drinking: “we are justified in saying he slaughtered his own family (see that there is nothing else that is more , Iliad book 6.130-140). Shaun useful for strengthening the body, and Hill and John Wilkins, commenting also nothing more detrimental to our in general on recognition by ancient pleasures (voluptatibus perniciosius) if Greeks and Romans of the power of moderation be lacking” (Natural His- wine, comment: “The difficulties of tory 14.6.58 Rackham translation).5 dealing with alcohol are reflected in The Roman poet Horace (65-8 BC), many forms.” They cite the urgings of although not necessarily addressing poets to restraint, and the reciting of drunkenness, was with am- cautionary stories of drunken excess bivalent consequences of drunkenness to heighten the sense of the risk of and drew on it as a metaphor when he drunkenness.8 wrote “delightful is the danger, O Bac- The “human” cause chus, of pursuing the god …” (Car- of drunkenness men 3.25.19-20 Bennett translation).6 The human cause of drunkenness Marcus Cornelius Fronto (95-166 assumes a cause residing primarily AD), in a letter to his former pupil within the person of the wine con- the future Roman emperor Antoninus sumer. This account is familiar to Pius, expressed his view that peoples modern readers because, like today’s and nations would have been better typical scientific account of the proc- off had grapes, the main source of ess of intoxication, it employed the drunkenness in the ancient world, not models of human anatomy, physiology been available: “It had surely been the and body chemistry available at the benefit of many a race and nation had time to account for drunkenness. The the vine been extirpated from the face most widely-attested of these ancient of the earth.” (On Eloquence, 1 Haines models drew on the complex interac- translation).7 Fronto here drew on the tion of three sets of variables operant well-known myth of the encounter within human bodies—hot and cold, between the wine god Dionysus and wet and dry, and the porosity of bodies mythical primal human Lycurgus, the and their penetrability by particles of first person to personally encounter various sizes—to account for drunk- wine and drunkenness. After sobering enness, both as process and as state. up from the encounter, he set about In the words of the greatest medical removing all grape vines to prevent authority of the Imperial Roman era, a repeat of his unwelcome discovery. Galen (129-199 AD), “the bodies of all His task brought him into an encounter creatures are under the control of the with Dionysus, which turned into trag- opposing pairs of hot and cold, wet and edy when Dionysus by divine power dry.” Hot, he added, dominated these

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variables as the main force governing cal issues, probably reflecting the main the function of organisms (On the areas of curriculum at the Lyceum. Natural Faculties 3.110-111 Brock Most of nearly 900 “paragraphs” open translation).9 Galen gave credit for this with a question probably designed to view to Theophrastus, ’s suc- prompt a class or tutorial discussion: cessor at the Lyceum in Athens. “Why …?” It is followed immediately by a follow-on question: “Is it because A succinct statement of the human …?” Within these “paragraphs” the cause for drunkenness is found in modern reader can expect to find a a fragment of a comedy attributed range of received assumptions about, to the Greek playwright Menander inferences from, and statements of, (342-292 BC): “it is not the quantity the shared worldview of generations drunk, but the physis (“nature” in the of lecturers in Aristotle’s Lyceum. sense of “character”) of the drinker Book 3 of Physical Problems is titled that causes drunkenness” (fragment “Concerning Wine Consumption and Kock no. 627).10 The primary ancient Drunkenness”.11 The topic resur- literary source for the human cause faces briefly in book 30 “Concerning of drunkenness is what can be loosely Thought, Intelligence and Wisdom”.12 described as the largest collection of This source maintains a consistently “university” lecture notes to survive human physiological explanation of from the ancient world, known col- drunkenness, although the physiol- lectively as Physika Problemata, ogy reflects ancient Greek anatomical “Physical Problems”, and attributed by understanding. It also probably reflects several ancient authorities to Aristotle the views and approaches to the expla- (384-322 BC). There is widespread nation of physical phenomena familiar doubt he was directly responsible for to educated Greeks and Romans. them, and current scholarly opinion views the Physical Problems as the The core variable in organisms called product of several generations of on to explain drunkenness was the disputations conducted by lecturers widely accepted hot-and-cold vari- and students in the Lyceum founded able noted above, understood to be by Aristotle in Athens, an institution central to a range of life processes. devoted to preserving its founder’s The relation of body heat to drunken- methods of careful observation and ness was stated in definite terms: “For deduction. They were probably com- drunkenness occurs when the heat is piled during the two centuries follow- in the region about the head” (872b ing Aristotle’s death, and sometimes 30-31 Hett translation). This notion designated pseudo-Aristotelian. The of a heated head is repeated in 873a2 38 books of Physical Problems range and 874b11. Further on the reader widely across the fields of physics, encounters the declaration “both wine biology, medicine and social and ethi- and life seem to belong by nature

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to the hot …” (874a38-874b1 Hett penetrability by various sized parti- translation). Drunkenness became cles. The widespread acceptance of life threatening when the heat of wine this porosity and penetration variable “overcame” natural body heat (see among later Greeks and Romans with 871b23-24, 875a18-21). Younger men a scientific worldview is evident from were assumed to have higher body passing reference to it by Galen (On temperature, which cooled with age. the Natural Faculties 3.213-214). For this reason they were considered Diluting wine with water, a widely- more susceptible to drunkenness than practised Greek drinking custom, older men. was believed to reduce particle size, allowing wine to penetrate further The variable wet-dry was also as- and bring about increased drunken- sumed to have a causal relationship ness, compared with undiluted wine to drunkenness. In classical Greek (871a18-19; 872b7-9; 874a29-31). physiology men were characterised This explanation was assumed so as dry (872a6) unless they did inad- confidently by thePhysical Problems equate physical exercise, which would author that he inferred that a drinker render them more “wet” (872b18-19). could actually reduce drunkenness Children and women, in contrast, were by drinking unfermented, or “sweet understood to be comparatively “wet”. wine” following fermented diluted The natural “wetness” of children was wine, because the more viscous sweet an inhibiting factor preventing them wine blocked the pores through which from developing a thirst for wine, the more highly intoxicating diluted even though they were by nature also wine gained access (872b36-37). “hot” (872a8-9). Presumably women likewise experienced reduced thirst for The “wine cause” of wine because of this crossover effect drunkenness between the variables. The moisture Physical Problems also contains ob- provided by wine, which is “wet” servations which reflect an awareness (873a12) accounts for the accumula- that drunkenness also resulted from tion of moisture in men when drinking a drinker’s response to something (872b20; see also 871a24-25), contrib- present in wine, but absent from uting to their drunkenness. Wetness grape juice. “Why do not men become also caused the drinker’s inarticulate drunkards by addiction to sweet wine speech, since when drinking “the …?” (875b1-4 Hett translation). Here tongue is surrounded by a quantity of “sweet wine” translates Greek glukus liquid” (875b26-28 Hett translation). oinos to designate fresh, unfermented grape juice. Clearly, Aristotelian The third variable impacting drunken- schoolmen recognised in wine itself ness, according to Physical Problems, the power to temporarily induce what was the porosity of bodies and their they deliberately described as extraor-

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dinary human characteristics, different thought. Pliny the Elder was its chief from those endowed by nature, which Roman exponent, and will serve as were permanent: “wine, on the one its spokesperson here. Pliny devoted hand, causes the [temporary] exces- a lifetime to the study of natural phe- sive [behaviour], while nature [makes nomena, and part of his extensive them] lasting however long a person writing on the topic is preserved in lives” (953b18-19 my translation). his 37 book Natural History, the The idea that a property of wine causes longest surviving ancient Latin work, drunkenness predates Aristotle. It was sometimes described as the first ency- already assumed by (427 to 347 clopaedia.14 Modern interpreters agree BC) and his circle, according to Harold that his commitment to the study of Tarrant. 13 The concept of drunkenness the natural world was accompanied by due to a natural property of wine was familiarity with the literature of Greek further developed in Physical Problems scientists, from which he drew in his book 30, where changes in human tem- Natural History. Pliny’s dedication perament were explained. There wine to field observation stayed with him was the subject of three active verbs, through life, and contributed to his ac- used somewhat synonymously, declar- cidental death while investigating the ing that wine itself caused changes volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius to human temperament. The verbs in August, 79 AD. employed are “make” (poieō), “cause” Pliny viewed natura, usually trans- (apergazomai), and “undergo change” lated “nature,” as that integration of (metaballō). The fourth verb in the principle and power which governed passage, paraskeuazō, can be read to physical reality (Natural History support the message of the previous 8.10), and which enabled humans three verbs if it is translated “produce,” to achieve their destiny (2.18). The although this is not its usual meaning. sun was nature’s ruler, and source of The interchangeable employment of at principle, and Pliny employed “” least three of the verbs in this passage (anima) and “mind” (mens) to help ex- repeats and enforces the author’s un- plain the sun’s role and relation to the derstanding that wine itself is the cause world (2.13). In a nearby passage he of changes to human behaviour which went so far as to apply the term “divin- accompany drinking. Later in book 30 ity” (numen) to the sun, demonstrat- the wine property responsible for drunk- ing that he was not atheistic (see also enness is identified—air: “the power 2:21). For him, god was tightly bound of wine is due to air” (953b26-27). As up with, and identified with, physical evidence, the author pointed to the froth reality: “when we say “God” (deus), that accompanies wine. we mean nature” (2.27). Pliny’s the- Roman versions of this “wine cause” ism, clearly under Stoic influence, was of drunkenness clearly built on Greek quite secularised or this-worldly.15

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This becomes apparent from two of him to acknowledge that strange and its features. First, it prevented him extraordinary “unnatural” happenings from believing in divine providence occurred, for which no satisfactory for individuals: “that that supreme “natural” accounts were available. being whate’er it be, pays heed to He referred to these by using the man’s affairs is a ridiculous notion” Latin noun prodigia (singular prodi- (2.20 Rackham translation). Pliny’s gium), a term whose field of meaning impersonal and uninvolved deity thus designates, at its centre, unexpected, limited providence to running the inappropriate, or otherwise surpris- universe with a steady, if impersonal, ing attributes of natural things. Pliny hand. Second, his restrained theism employed prodigium about thirty did not allow polytheism, at which times in his Natural History, mostly he directed a scathing assessment, to describe phenomena which run characterising it as “gods correspond- counter to expectation, go against the ing to men’s vices as well as to their natural order, or as portents pointing virtues” (2.14). beyond themselves to major events in the natural or human realm. A typi- Like most naturalists, Pliny was at- cal prodigium, for Pliny, would be a tracted to unusual phenomena in his prolonged eclipse of the moon or sun world. One translator characterised (2.98), a lightning strike out of a clear his Natural History as “coloured sky (2.137), or the rise and fall of the by his love of the marvellous …”.16 river Nile (5.59). A prodigium in the His Stoic version of theism kept him animal realm would be a talking ox from resorting to superstition in his or dog (8.153, 183), a reproducing account of the unusual. He vigor- mule (8.173) or auspicious animal ously expressed scepticism when behaviour such as a woodpecker dealing with reports attributing unu- landing on a man’s head (10.41). sual phenomena or divine powers to In the human realm he labelled the the Magi, for example. He repudiated birth of quadruplets (7.34), and a 6 claims that Magi worked prodigia by month-old speaking infant (11.270) divine power (37.157), and contrasted prodigia. Along with others of his era prodigia claimed by Magi with the he also viewed an unusual physical results achieved by “scientific” medi- feature such as atypical height or a cal practitioners (37.54). He could not congenitally-absent or deformed body resist adding brief scathing comments part a prodigium. Pliny’s secularised distancing himself from any belief in theism, again, kept him from identi- the possibility that Magi could access fying gods or divine intervention as forces to foretell the sources of prodigia, however. Their future or perform (37.54 and source, declared Pliny, was “great 37.156). On the other hand, Pliny’s in- nature” natura magna, which he timate familiarity with nature required

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praised for its ingenuity and marvels own hurt (14.141). He believed that (7.6). Further on, heaping additional regular drinking shortened human life, praise on natura, he declared that and wrote “the crowning reward of the source of prodigia was nature’s drunkenness [is] monstrous licentious- potentia (“power” 7.32). However, he ness and delight in iniquity” (14.142 clearly distinguished nature’s prodigia Rackham translation). Pliny closed his from nature’s normal course, which he sketch of wine’s power by referring designated “works of nature” naturae to the widespread societal damage opera (7.179). done by habitually drunk rulers such as Mark Antony and Tiberius Caesar Like other products of natura, wine (14.146, 148). He also acknowledged could exhibit prodigia, according in passing the addictiveness of wine: to Pliny. In book 14, devoted to de- “the habit of drinking increases the scribing wine, he asserted the belief appetite for it.” Or, in the words of that “also in wine exist prodigia” the Parthian ambassador whom Pliny (14.116). Examples of the prodigia quoted, “the more the Parthians drank he believed were produced by certain the thirstier they became” (14.148 wines included aiding conception and Rackham translation). This “wine- causing abortion in women, induc- caused” explanation of drunkenness, ing madness in men, and causing or attributing it to a property of wine, preventing sleep (14.117). Impor- emerged in Greek natural philosophy tantly for our topic, Pliny explicitly circles, and was attractive especially declared wine’s intoxicating power to to educated Romans, who distanced be a product of natura, who “gave” themselves from polytheism and wine to humans as a drink (14.137). superstition in their move towards a Note here Pliny’s personification of more consistently secularised model natura. Although wine consumption of existence. led to “unnatural” human behaviour, its cause was contained within the Combination of “human natural realm, bounded by Pliny’s cause” and “wine cause” understanding of the scope of natura. explanations Pliny acknowledged a range of “un- of drunkenness natural” human behaviours manifested As becomes obvious in some of the by humans while drunk: “a thing that passages cited above, there was not perverts men’s minds and produces always a rigid either-or distinction madness, having caused the com- between the “human cause” and the mission of thousands of crimes …” “wine cause” of drunkenness. Pas- (14.137 Rackham translation). He also sages in Physical Problems book 3 acknowledged that wine’s power over seem to blend both accounts, and drinkers sometimes prompted them acknowledge that to Greeks and Ro- to reveal their soul’s secrets, to their mans with a “scientific” worldview,

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drunkenness could be accounted for century, is a surviving fragment of by properties present in wine interact- this belief—at least the “” part ing with physiological factors present of the expression. The meaning of within bodies. Heat was considered the daimōn has undergone transformation key property at work in both wine and during its long cultural and semantic in bodies, contributing to drunkenness. journey from Greek to English. For Repeated assertions in Physical Prob- the temperance campaigners, the lems that “wine is hot” occur, even expression evoked the “demonic” within the section attributing drunken- irresponsible and antisocial conduct ness to human physiology.17 There is of habitual drinkers who appeared to some evidence in the passages cited show little regard for relationships for both the “human cause” and the and responsibilities. But for ancient “wine cause” that the role attributed Greeks, a daimōn (plural daimones) to “nature” expanded in subsequent was a god, or at least a or spir- generations of Greco-Roman thinkers. itual intermediary between a god and This was accompanied by a corre- humans. It could convey either good sponding shrinking of the gap between or ill into human affairs. The realm of the realm of plants and animals, and daimones was divided between those the human realm. Instead of three tiers who did humans good, and those who of beings occupying the universe— brought about human misfortune. In animal, human, divine—there were several respects Greek daimones cor- only two—“natural” living beings, and responded to Judaeo-Christian good the gods. This development facilitated and evil . Daimones in popular the merging of these two accounts of thinking were credited with convey- drunkenness as a “natural” function. ing supernatural powers and abilities Once it was decided that drunkenness to humans, resulting in increased was part of “nature” it became un- physical or intellectual prowess for necessary to determine whether the special occasions. They could also primary cause of drunkenness was in effect changes in human moods and bodies, or in wine. temperaments, and their accompany- ing actions. It was in this setting that The “divine cause” drunkenness was attributed to the work of drunkenness of a particular daimōn or, more specifi- The third and most widely-expressed cally, the god of wine—god in a bottle. Greek and Roman account of drunken- Working from within the consenting ness, designated here “divine cause,” drinker, the god would take over the assumed that divine, spiritual interven- emotions, thoughts and actions of the tion was responsible for drunkenness. drinker for a few hours. The expression “demon drink,” used widely during the temperance move- The idea of a god as the source of ment in the latter half of the nineteenth wine’s power over its consumers

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would have been familiar to everyone employed by Plato (424 to 347 BC) in the Greco-Roman world. Pliny’s in his dialogues.19 vigorous rejection of polytheism, A good starting point for illustrating which he considered to be evidence this view of a divine cause of drunken- for human weakness (2.¬14), meant ness is (469-399 BC), model that he also rejected the widespread and inspiration for some of ancient notion that intoxication was the result Greece’s best thought, and an influ- of “taking in” the god of wine. But ential Greek spokesperson. Socrates the very vigour of his assertion sug- apparently wrote nothing himself, gests the divine cause was frequently so we are dependent on his students, encountered in his day. It was the most primarily Plato and Xenophon (430 commonly-encountered assumption to c. 355 BC), for his words and about the cause of drunkenness. Lan- ideas. Since both had axes to grind, guage of the god within was widely and were eager to recruit Socrates to employed to express drunken behav- help grind theirs, efforts to access the iour, whether constructive or destruc- “real” Socrates must contend with the tive. When leading Roman poet Ovid “Socratic problem” of deciding which (43 BC to 17 AD) wrote “He has a god of the differing accounts of his views in him …” (Metamorphoses 3.611), he by his disciples is more authentic. For evoked a venerable and widely-em- our purpose it is sufficient to state ployed figure of speech to account for that Plato and Xenophon agree that a particular manifestation of human Socrates was a believer in at least ability or behaviour. Whether or not certain gods although his unconven- Ovid personally believed that human tional theism clashed with that of accomplishments such as prophesy his fellow Athenians. The view that and prediction, poetic composition Socrates was atheist did not receive and reciting, and the unconventional support from either Plato or Xeno- conduct of drinkers were literally the phon. It was articulated somewhat workings of gods within does not alter tongue-in-cheek by the Greek play- the fact that his expression revealed wright Aristophanes (c. 460 to c. 385 a widely-held divine cause for unu- BC) through his influential comedy, sual human behaviour. Well-known Clouds.20 Socrates’ atheism has also Greek authors such as the playwright been assumed because of the charge Euripides (c. 485 to c. 406 BC) freely levelled against him by his fellow employed the Greek term entheos Athenians. In the words of Xenophon, and related forms, indicating the wide they considered Socrates “guilty of re- circulation and availability of the idea jecting the gods acknowledged by the of the god within to account for unu- state and of bringing in strange deities sual human behaviour, including that (daimones).”21 Xenophon went on to of drunkenness.18 The term was also claim that Socrates acknowledged the

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existence of his own personal guiding the Greek era.23 Plentiful literary refer- daimōn (1.2). On the strength of this ences to Dionysus are found across the testimony one can assume that Socra- entire span of Greek literature, from tes was viewed by his most influential the works of Homer and in the students as a believer in gods. eighth century BC to the rambling fifth century AD collection of material ti- According to Xenophon, Socrates tled Dionysiaca by Nonnus. Dionysus provided in a dialogue with Critobulus is acknowledged as bringer of wine what may best be termed a theistic, or in line 614 of the epic poem Works spiritual model of divine intervention and Days by Hesiod (flourished 700 in human affairs. Socrates stated that BC). While Hesiod’s contemporary, people who acted contrary to oppor- Homer, did not specifically associate tunity and intention were “prevented Dionysus with wine, he implied the from doing these things by the masters connection when describing Dionysus … and mistresses” (Greek archontes as the “frenzied god” (mainomenos and despoinai). These masters and theos) in Iliad 6.132. This Greek term mistresses are not human, as the “frenzied” or “raging” (from the verb context makes clear, but are spiritual mainomai) was widely employed by beings who manifest their presence later Greek authors to describe both and influence. Socrates went on to list the impact of drinking wine, and the typical human manifestations of their emotional state achieved by worship- influence: idleness, moral cowardice, pers of Dionysus. The Greek historian negligence, and what he termed “pre- Herodotus (490 to 425 BC) employed tended pleasures” such as gambling, the term to describe the “madness” or gluttony, lechery, reckless ambition, “frenzy” which overcame wine drink- and drunkenness.22 In this passage ers and worshippers of Dionysus when Xenophon elaborated Socrates’ theism the god possessed them (The Histo- and model of divine intervention in ries 4.78-79). A connecting theme human emotional and activity states, which runs through the entire range including drunkenness. The focus will of Dionysian literary references, and now turn to the divine “master” most extensive surviving decorated pottery, Greeks believed governed drunken- is his role as god of wine. Even Plato ness. employed what must have become, to Dionysus, god of wine Greeks, a stock expression when he A range of Greek sources testify to the referred to wine as “gift of Dionysus” widespread acknowledgement of the (Laws 672a). god of the vine, wine, and drunken- Surviving visual representations of ness, Dionysus. Originally a foreign Dionysus on earthenware pottery of import into Greece, the influence of various kinds began about 600 BC, and Dionysus seemed to increase during continued through the classical Greek

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era, especially on black figure and readers, and to the present it expresses red-figure ceramic ware produced in core ancient Greek thought about the Athens, where Dionysus was “one of presence and power of the god. the most common subjects.”24 Thomas Dionysus was imported into Rome Carpenter concluded in his study of from Greece largely within the be- Greek painted vases that: liefs and rituals of people in Greek The Dionysus who first appears in territories incorporated due to Roman Greek art on an Attic black-figure territorial expansion, and by the flood dinos during the first quarter of the of immigrants to the city of Rome sixth century represents little more itself during the latter part of the Ro- than his function as bringer-of-wine. man Republican era. He soon became There he is one of the lesser deities in widely acknowledged there in spite of a procession of gods and goddesses on the suspicion of Roman leaders due their way to celebrate the wedding of to his “foreignness.” Matter-of-fact Peleus and . Humbly dressed, references to his cult as an established he walks barefoot and carries a branch feature of Roman life occur in the of a grapevine while the grander gods plays of Plautus before 180 BC. The wearing elegant cloaks ride in four- historian Livy’s detailed and vivid horse chariots. Within three decades, account of the expulsion of worship- however, Dionysus had become one pers of Bacchus from Rome during of the most common subjects on At- the so-called Bacchanalian affair of tic black-figure vases, and ‘canonical’ 186 BC (Books from the Foundation imagery had been developed to depict of the City 39, 3, 6) gives the impres- him.25 sion the movement was a major threat to public order.28 The response of the Carpenter also noted “The god himself authorities to dislodge his organised appears on more than 900 surviving worship from the city seemed to have fifth-century Attic vases, something only limited success.29 over 3.5 per cent of the known total, which is more than any other god …26 The cult of Dionysus appealed to Another authority on Dionysus, Albert Romans as it had earlier to Greeks, Henrichs, declared: “Of all the Greek drawing devotees from differing gods, Dionysus is the most visible.”27 social classes. Dionysus and what he If there is a “canonical” or ultimately represented was important enough to authoritative Greek literary source for Roman generals Marius and Pompey, the nature and function of Dionysus, contemporaries of Julius Caesar, to it is the famous tragic play titled The have themselves deified as Diony- Bacchae by the Athenian playwright sus.30 Arthur Nock commented on Euripides. From its first performance the increasing popularity of Dionysus in 405 BC it gripped audiences and during the first century BC31. Erich

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Gruen also declared the prominence came to dominate mass culture. Culti- of Dionysus among Romans, citing vated Greek and Roman establishment as evidence the Augustan poets.32 voices could protest and refer to their His cult was widespread at the time high culture’s more disciplined and Christianity emerged, according to conventional approach, but they spoke Richard Seaford.33 Roman representa- only for a small minority.36 The reality tion of the god reached a high point in of spiritual and theological devotion to the extensive “Villa of the Mysteries” Dionysus has been vigorously cham- wall mural of Pompeii. pioned by E R Dodds. His influential definition of the Greek verbbakchue - Wha t Dionysus offered in, derived from Dionysus’ alternative Dionysus presided over a wide range name Bacchus, and sometimes trans- of human activities and beliefs, but his lated “inspire with frenzy, be frenzied” core function was related to wine and continues to be cited. “Bakchuein is drinking. “For the Greeks, at any rate not to have a good time, but to share in for the Athenians of the classic period, a particular religious rite and (or) have Dionysus was in the first place the god a particular religious experience—the of wine.”34 In his recent assessment of experience of communion with a god Dionysus, Richard Seaford argued that which transformed a human being into the god appealed because of his power a Bakchos or a Bakchē.” to bridge the gaps between the three spheres of the world—nature, human- Opposing sides of ity, and . Humanity emerges Dionysus from nature and aspires to divinity. The complex nature of Dionysus, Dionysus, by transcending these fun- bringer of both joy and grief, is the damental divisions, may transform subject of considerable recent schol- the identity (italics original) of an arship.38 These contrasting manifes- individual into animal and god. And tations of Dionysus are elsewhere it is by his presence that he liberates named: “The ambivalence in Diony- the individual from the circumstances sus’ nature between ecstatic joy and of this life. Dionysus presided over terrible cruelty.”39 The popularity of noisy, earthy and tipsy celebrations of the massacre theme in Greek painted fertility and life itself. Not everyone pottery dramatically symbolises the was pleased with Dionysus and his rawness of the standoff between wine influence. Dionysus contrasted sharply and some of its human consumers. All with “the relatively remote and austere references to Dionysus in both Greek god of Christianity.35 and Latin literature gave him the upper hand over humans, whether devotees In spite of upper class Greek and or victims. This is most chillingly un- Roman concern about the god’s spon- folded in Euripides’ great tragic play taneity, Dionysus and his followers The Bacchae, which forces on its audi-

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ences in the grimmest possible man- and of Romans under the added influ- ner the over-riding threat to human ence of Stoicism. These “naturalistic” decency when Dionysus took over the accounts of drunkenness stopped short life. The god presided unflinchingly of accounting fully for drunkenness over the beheading and dismember- because they did not explain indi- ment of Pentheus by his own mother vidual variations of behaviour from who, deluded by divine possession, one drinker to another in identical or thought she was doing her family and similar circumstances. The cause of city a favour by killing what appeared drunkenness most widely supported to her a beast of prey. by ancient sources was that it resulted from taking in the god of wine, surren- The divine account for drunkenness dering to his control. The advantage therefore assumed an explicitly theis- of this explanation, held by the great tic worldview within which the act of majority of people, was that it made drinking wine served as an invitation available an additional source of will for the powerful spirit of Dionysus and control, another master external to enter and take over the life of the to the drinker, which could be called drinker for a time. Transformed at- upon to account for the common, titudes and actions during the time of shared behaviour of drunkenness, this divine takeover were attributed to as well as for individual variation. the wine god within. As god of wine Physical accounts for drunkenness and drunkenness, Dionysus was both were too reductionist and secularised powerful and unpredictable—just to convince the highly spiritual world- like human conduct while under the view shared by most of the people influence. While Dionysus was wel- living in and Rome. comed for his soothing influence, his For them, accounting for drunkenness destructive power caused concern, and without appealing to its spiritual cause was the frequent focus of Greek and would have been as unthinkable as Roman authors. accounting for any other significant Conclusion phenomenon without recourse to its Ancient Greeks and Romans did not spiritual dimension. agree among themselves on the cause DISCUSSION QUESTIONS of drunkenness. Some explained it as a 1. What are the major gains and losses response of a physical property within resulting from an account of reality the drinker, while others traced its which allows for the working of cause to a physical property of wine. spiritual forces? Both these were minority views which reach us mostly in the literary remains 2. What are the major gains and losses of educated Greeks who were under resulting from an account of real- the influence of Greek natural science, ity which acknowledges only the

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presence of material and physical Dodds, E. R. The Greeks and the forces? Irrational. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951. 3. Which of the three ancient accounts for drunkenness—something in the ———. “Maenadism in the drinker; something in the drink; some- Bacchae.” Harvard Theological Studies 33 (1940): 155-76. thing in the spirit(ual) realm—seems to account best for drunkenness? Fleming, Stuart J. Vinum: The Story of Roman Wine. Glen Mills, PA: Art References Flair, 2001. Aristophanes. “Clouds, Wasps, Peace.” In Loeb Classical Library. Fronto. “Correspondence, I.” In Loeb Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Classical Library. Cambridge, Mass: University Press, 1998. Harvard University Press, 1927. Beagon, Mary. Roman Nature: The Galen. On the Natural Faculties. Thought of Pliny the Elder. Oxford: Translated by Arthur John Brock, Clarendon Press, 1992. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916. Beard, Mary; John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome Volume Gruen, Erich. “The Bacchanalian 1: A History. Cambridge, England: Affair.” In Studies in Greek Culture Cambridge University Press, 1998. and Roman Policy, edited by Erich Gruen, 34-78. Leiden: Brill, 1990. Bierl, A. “Dionysus, Wine, and Tragic Poetry: A Metatheatrical Henrichs, Albert. “’He Has a God Reading of P. Köln Vi 242a = Trgf in Him’: Human and Divine in the II F646a.” Journal of Greek, Roman Modern Perception of Dionysus.” and Byzantine Studies 31 (1990): In Masks of Dionysus, edited by 353-91. Thomas H Carpenter and Christopher A Faraone, 13-43. Ithaca, NY: Carpenter, Thomas H. Dionysian Cornell University Press, 1993. Imagery in Archaic Greek Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986. ———. “Loss of Self, Suffering, Violence: The Modern View of ———. Dionysian Imagery in Fifth- Dionysus from Nietzsche to Girard.” Century Athens. Oxford: Clarendon Harvard Studies in Classical Press, 1997. Philology 88 (1984): 205-40. Cook, Christopher C H, Helen Hill, Shaun, and John M. Wilkins. Tarbet, and David Ball. “Classically Food in the Ancient Word. Oxford: Intoxicated: Correlations between Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Quantity of Alcohol Consumed and Alcohol Related Problems in Horace. “The Odes and Epodes.” In a Classical Greek Text.” British Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Medical Journal 335 (2007): 1299- Mass: Harvard University Press, 304. 1978.

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McKinlay, Arthur Patch. “The Sournia, Jean-Charles. A History Wine Element in Horace—Part I.” of Alcoholism. Translated by Nick Classical Journal 42 (1946-47): Hindley and Gareth Stanton. Oxford: 161-68. Blackwell, 1990. Menander. “Menander: The Principal Tarrant, Harold. “Wine in Ancient Fragments.” In Loeb Classical Greece: Some Platonic Ponderings.” Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard In Wine & Philosophy: A University Press, 1921. on Thinking and Drinking, edited Nock, A. D. “Notes on Ruler-Cult by Fritz Allhoff, 15-29. Oxford: I-IV.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 48 Blackwell Publishing, 2008. (1928): 21-43. Walsh, Carey, E. The Fruit of the Vine: Viticulture in Ancient Israel Oranje, Hans. Euripides’ Bacchae: . The Plan and Its Audience, Winona Lake, Ind: Eisenbrauns, Supplements to 78. 2000. Leiden: E J Brill, 1984. Xenophon. “Memorabilia Book Xenophon in Seven Volumes Pliny, The Elder. Pliny: Natural I.” In . History. Translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University 10 vols. Vol. 1, The Loeb Classical Press, 1923. Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard ———. “Oeconomicus.” In University Press, 1938. Xenophon in Seven Volumes. Pseudo-Aristotle. Problems I. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Translated by W.S. Hett. 23 vols. Press, 1923. Vol. 15, Aristotle in 23 Volumes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1926. 1 Stuart J. Fleming, Vinum: The Story of Roman Wine (Glen ———. Problems II. Translated by Mills, PA: Art Flair, 2001), 59. W.S. Hett. 23 vols. Vol. 16, Aristotle in 23 Volumes. Cambridge, MA: 2 Carey E. Walsh, The Fruit of Harvard University Press, 1937. the Vine: Viticulture in Ancient Israel (Winona Lake, Ind.: Schlesier, Renate. “Mixtures of Eisenbrauns, 2000), 210-12. Masks: Maenads as Tragic Models.” In Masks of Dionysus, edited by 3 In a recent survey of attitudes Thomas H Carpenter and Christopher toward wine in Platonic Greek A Faraone. Ithaca: Cornell University circles, this ambivalent attitude Press, 1993. is expressed by the heading “delights and dangers” by Seaford, Richard. Dionysos. Edited by Harold Tarrant, “Wine in Susan Deacy, Gods and Heroes of the Ancient Greece: Some Platonic Ancient World. London: Routledge, Ponderings,” in Wine & 2006. Philosophy: A Symposium on Thinking and Drinking, ed Fritz

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Allhoff (Oxford: Blackwell Classical Library (Cambridge, Publishing, 2008), 15. MA: Harvard University Press, 1921), 510-11. 4 Christopher C. H. Cook, Helen Tarbet, and David Ball, 11 Pseudo-Aristotle, Problems I, “Classically Intoxicated: trans. W.S. Hett, 23 vols., vol. Correlations between Quantity of 15, Aristotle in 23 Volumes Alcohol Consumed and Alcohol (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Related Problems in a Classical University Press, 1926), Book 3 Greek Text,” British Medical occupies pp. 75-107. Journal 335 (2007). 12 ———, Problems II, trans. W. S. 5 The Elder Pliny, Pliny: Natural Hett, 23 vols., vol. 16, Aristotle History, trans. H. Rackham, 10 in 23 Volumes (Cambridge, MA: vols., vol. 1, The Loeb Classical Harvard University Press, 1937), Library (Cambridge, MA: 154-81. Harvard University Press, 1938), 13 “When they were confronted by 14.6.58. natural power of any kind, the 6 Horace, “The Odes and Epodes,” Greeks desired to harness it …” in Loeb Classical Library Tarrant, “Platonist Ponderings,” (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard 17. University Press, 1978). See 14 The elder Pliny’s lifetime of also, on Horace’s attitude intense devotion to observing towards drinking, Arthur Patch natural phenomena, and in McKinlay, “The Wine Element reading what earlier authors had in Horace—Part I,” Classical written about them, has been Journal 42 (1946-47): 162. recorded by his nephew, Pliny 7 Fronto, “Correspondence, the Younger, in book 3, epistle 5 I,” in Loeb Classical Library of his surviving letters. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard 15 Pliny’s indebtedness to Stoicism University Press, 1927). has been thoroughly canvassed 8 Shaun Hill and John M. Wilkins, by Mary Beagon, Roman Nature: Food in the Ancient World The Thought of Pliny the Elder (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992). 2006), 170. 16 Pliny, Pliny, Natural History 9 Galen, On the Natural Faculties, (Rackham Translation), ix. trans Arthur John Brock, Loeb 17 See Physical Problems 871a1, Classical Library (Cambridge, 871a6, 871b22, 872a22, 873b12, MA: Harvard University Press, 874b23, 874b36. 1916). 18 Examples include Hippolytus 10 Menander, “Menander: The 141; Electra 1032; Trojan Principal Fragments,” in Loeb Women 366.

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19 Examples include 533-534; 25 ———, Dionysian Imagery in 244, 255; Symposium Fifth-Century Athens (Oxford: 179-180; Timaeus 71-72. Clarendon Press, 1997), 11. The reference to the vase is London 20 Jeffry Henderson discusses 1971.1-1.1, Para 19.16bis, T this in the introduction to his Carpenter (1986: pls. 1A, 2, 3B). translation of the plays of Aristophanes. See Aristophanes, 26 Ibid., 1. “Clouds, Wasps, Peace,” in Loeb 27 Albert Henrichs, “‘He Has Classical Library (Cambridge, a God in Him’: Human and Mass: Harvard University Press, Divine in the Modern Perception 1998), 5. of Dionysus,” in Masks of 21 Xenophon, “Memorabilia Dionysus, ed Thomas H Book I,” in Xenophon in Seven Carpenter and Christopher A Volumes, Memorabilia and Faraone (Ithaca, NY: Cornell Oeconomicus (Cambridge, MA: University Press, 1993), 13. Harvard University Press, 1923), 28 For discussion and analysis 1.1. of sources, see Mary Beard, 22 ———, “Oeconomicus,” in John North, and Simon Price, Xenophon in Seven Volumes, Religions of Rome Volume 1: A Memorabilia and Oeconomicus History (Cambridge, England: (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Cambridge University Press, University Press, 1923), 1.18-22. 1998), 91-97, 161-64. 23 The literature on Dionysus is 29 Erich Gruen, “The Bacchanalian massive and continually being Affair,” in Studies in Greek supplemented and adjusted. Culture and Roman Policy, Published work on Dionysus has ed Erich Gruen (Leiden: Brill, reached such an extent in recent 1990), 76. times that Thomas Carpenter 30 This has been noted by A D a decade ago cited a colleague Nock, “Notes on Ruler-Cult who already then dubbed it a I-IV,” Journal of Hellenic “growth industry.” The most Studies 48 (1928): 30. For the accessible recent summary of deification of the Roman general the many sides of Dionysus for Pompey (106-48 BC) under the ancient Greeks and Romans is Latin equivalent title Liber Pater Richard Seaford, Dionysos, ed see Pliny, Pliny, Natural History Susan Deacy, Gods and Heroes (Rackham Translation), Book of the Ancient World (London: 33, para. 150. Routledge, 2006). 31 Nock, “Ruler Cult,” 30. 24 Thomas H. Carpenter, Dionysian Imagery in Archaic Greek Art 32 Gruen, “Bacchanalian Affair,” 75. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), 33 Seaford, Dionysos, 4. xv.

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34 Hans Oranje, Euripides’ Bacchae: The Plan and Its Audience, Supplements to Mnemosyne 78 (Leiden: E J Brill, 1984), 101. 35 Seaford, Dionysos, 4-5. 36 This is suggested by Jean- Charles Sournia, A History of Alcoholism, trans Nick Hindley and Gareth Stanton (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990), 6. 37 E. R. Dodds, “Maenadism in the Bacchae,” Harvard Theological Studies 33 (1940): 155-76. Reprinted with modifications in E R Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951), 278. Cited by Renate Schlesier, “Mixtures of Masks: Maenads as Tragic Models,” in Masks of Dionysus, ed Thomas H. Carpenter and Christopher A Faraone (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), 93, n 23. 38 For an account of the development of the complexity of Dionysus, see Albert Henrichs, “Loss of Self, Suffering, Violence: The Modern View of Dionysus from Nietzsche to Girard,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 88 (1984). 39 Anton Bierl, “Dionysus, Wine, and Tragic Poetry: A Metatheatrical Reading of P Köln Vi 242a = Trgf II F646a” Journal of Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 31 (1990): 358.

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