"A DELIGHT AND A BURDEN" (HES., Sc. 400): WINE AND WINE-DRINKING IN ARCHAIC GREECE

The purpose of this paper is to examine the major patterns of wine-drinking practices and their ramifications (social, political, cultural) in archaic Greece. Due primarily to the emergence of the symposion and other forms of commensality as vital components of social interaction, wine-drinking acquired new significance in the economically developing and politically polarized archaic communities. Archaic Greeks actively engaged in wine-drinking on a number of occasions and contexts. As practices and contexts of wine-drinking multiplied and changed, so did ideas about its meaning and responses to what were perceived as problematic aspects of wine-consumption. Archaic poetry and vase iconography suggest two major elite drinking paradigms advocating inebriation and moderation. These paradigms were closely intertwined with wider aristocratic discourses on leisure, social differentiation and political power.