A glass of wine to inflame hearts to political passion and love
For the Greeks of the VII-VI century B.C. the Symposium, as confirmed by its etymology “drunk together”, is an opportunity to gather among companions of the same etheria ( social class) to decide political and possibly military actions against the adverse ethereals, but it is above all the time to exchange poems, all preceded and accompanied by drinking of wine, stretched with water and sometimes honey in a precise proportion and in a quantity established in a maximum of three cups of wine, in order to have the lucidity to deliberate while drinking and give life to the poetic song, which has as its object the political struggles between factions within the poleis, the pessimistic reflection on the brevity of life
THE PLEASURES OF SUCH AS LOVE AND WINE
The fragments below belong to two poets, Alceus, originally from the island of Lesbos, fellow citizen of Sappho, and Anacreon, of Teo, a city in Asia Minor, present-day Turkey, once inhabited by Greek settlers, and, however corrupt, they represent a cross-section of what happened during the symposia, where wine is the protagonist, as recognized as a gift of the god Dionysus for men, as oblivion of evils, which has the merit of driving away, as a comfort during the cold season, while a winter storm rages, as an antidote to the thought of death and invitation to enjoy the joy of youth, or to celebrate the death of the tyrant Mirsilo, or to forget the sufferings of love by fighting with Eros, or to sing the volubility of the soul in love, and finally to celebrate the joy of love and poetry, as stated in a fragment of Anacreon that contains the three indissoluble components of the symposium,
wine, love and poetry, in which the Greek poet exposes his poetic principle according to which the compositions of the symposium should not sing the discords and painful wars, but only JOY … ΕΥΦΡΟΣΥΝΗ
Alceus fr.346 V.
πώνωμεν· τί τὰ λύχν’ ὀμμένομεν; δάκτυλος ἀμέρα·
κὰδ †δ’ ἄερρε κυλίχναις μεγάλαις †αιταποικιλλις†·
οἶνον γὰρ Σεμέλας καὶ Δίος υἶος λαθικάδεον
ἀνθρώποισιν ἔδωκ’. ἔγχεε κέρναις ἔνα καὶ δύο
πλήαις κὰκ κεφάλας, δ’ ἀτέρα τὰν ἀτέραν κύλιξ
ὠθήτω…
Let’s drink: why do we wait for the lamps? A finger is the day;
My boy, pulls down large decorated cups:
the wine, in fact, son of Semele and Zeus, oblivion of evils,
gave to men. Mix a measure of water and two of wine,
fill to the brim, and one cup to the other
chase away…
Alceus fr.338 V.
ὔει μὲν ὀ Ζεῦς, ἐκ δ’ ὀράνω μέγας
χείμων, πεπάγαισιν δ’ ὐδάτων ῤόαι …
< ἔνθεν >
< >
κάββαλλε τὸν χείμων’, ἐπὶ μὲν τίθεις
πῦρ ἐν δὲ κέρναις οἶνον ἀφειδέως
μέλιχρον, αὐτὰρ ἀμφὶ κόρσαι
μόλθακον ἀμφι< > γνόφαλλον
It rains Zeus, down from the sky a great
storm, water streams are stopped
Beyond
Keep winter back, adding
fire, and mixing in abundance wine
of honey, then over the temples
soft straps around the wool
Alceus fr. 38a V.
πῶνε[…….] Μελάνιππ’ ἄμ’ ἔμοι. τι[..].[
†ὄταμε[…]διννάεντ’ ᾿Αχέροντα μεγ̣[
ζάβαι[ς ἀ]ελίω κόθαρον φάος [
ὄψεσθ’, ἀλλ’ ἄγι μὴ μεγάλων ἐπ[
καὶ γὰρ Σίσυφος Αἰολίδαις βασίλευς [
ἄνδρων πλεῖστα νοησάμενος [
ἀλλὰ καὶ πολύιδρις ἔων ὐπὰ κᾶρι [
δ̣ιννάεντ’ ᾿Αχέροντ’ ἐπέραισε, μ[
α]ὔτω μόχθον ἔχην Κρονίδαις βα̣[
]μ̣ελαίνας χθόνος. ἀλλ’ ἄγ̣ι μὴ τα[
̣].ταβάσομεν αἴ ποτα κἄλλοτα.[
..]ην ὄττινα τῶνδε πάθην τα[
……ἄνε]μος βορίαις ἐπι
Drink, drink and get drunk,
Melanippo with me. You think maybe
when you cross
Acheron, the great whirling river,
you think you’ll see
the pure light shining of the sun
another time? Friend,
Never long for great things.
Sisyphus, the son of Aeolus,
the king who among mortals was the wisest,
He believed, too, one day,
that he would escape death.
But, though wise as he was, twice, by the will of fortune,
the whirling river,
the Acheron, went through; immense pains
the king son of Kronos
There he gave him to suffer, under
the black earth. But sad thoughts
we cast out, till young
we are. We must this time again
drink, and suffer evil
That I still want God to make us suffer
Alceus Fr.332
νῦν χρῆ μεθύσθην καί τινα πὲρ βίαν
πώνην, ἐπεὶ δὴ κάτθανε Μύρσιλος…
We need to get drunk, even
if we don’t want it, because Mirsilo is dead…
Anacreonte Fr.38 G.
φέρ’ ὕδωρ φέρ’ οἶνον ὦ παῖ φέρε ἀνθεμόεντας ἡμὶν
στεφάνους ἔνεικον, ὡς δὴ πρὸς ῎Ερωτα πυκταλίζω.
Bring water, slave, bring wine
bring me wreaths of flowers:
I want to fight with Eros
Anacreonte Fr.46 G.
Ἐρέω τε δηὖτε χοὐχ ἐρέω
χαὶ μαίνομαι χοὐ μαίνομαι.
Again I love and I do not love,
I’m crazy and I’m not crazy
Anacreonte Fr.56 G.
Οὐ φίλος ὃς κρητῆρι παρὰ πλέῳ οἰνοποτάζων
νείκεα καὶ πόλεμον δακρυόεντα λέγει,
ἀλλ’ ὅστις Μουσέων τε καὶ ἀγλαὰ δωρ’Αφροδίτης
συμμίσγων ἐρατῆς μνῄσκεται ΕΥΦΡΟΣΥΝΗΣ
I do not love those who drink at the summit crater,
celebrates discords, painful war;
I love who, uniting Aphrodite and the Muses
the precious gifts, sings only JOY
