Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Hesiod's Favorite Drink

In Hesiod's Works and Days, written somewhere around 700-650 BC, Hesiod tells how to take a good break in the middle of a hot day (lines 582-596). There is whole meal desrcibed here, but for now, I'm gonna focus just on his drink of choice.
Hesiod's Favorite Drink
Wine
Spring water
1) Hesiod specifies a mixture of spring water and wine. I found 'spring water' at the Whole Foods and some Greek wine, because what other kind of wine could Hesiod have had!
2) Now pour one part wine into a glass:
3) And mix with three parts water:
This ends up being about 3% alcohol, which is like a beer, or maybe a light beer. And, it kind of tastes like the purple flavor of Vitaminwater! So, as the snow piles up outside you can imagine how refreshing this would be on a hot day, especially with freezing cold water. Or, perhaps you need a mellow drink for New Years Eve and want to watch your alcohol intake. Either way, now you know Hesiod's favorite drink. Enjoy!

3 comments:

Lew said...

I would just like to add a thought to the the scholarly discourse on ancient food and drink and indeed ancient history as a whole: Hesiod was a pussy.

Jake Morton said...

I thought you were going to comment on the magic yellow filter I seem to have used for these pictures! But, yes, Hesiod was not much of a boozer.

Anonymous said...

A very late comment:
Ancient greek wine tastes very different to the contemporary wines. The "Akratos Oinos" which is unmixed wine was consumed rarely and for very specific reasons. In fact the goal was to retain clarity while drinking and this is why they would mix with water. I am not an expert but I think the closest one could find to the ancient greek wine is this: http://www.helession.gr/node/476, an effort to revive ancient greek wine.
I just discovered your blog and enjoyed it a lot, hope you will post again sometime,

best regards,
Andriana