Hedvig Győry: Mélanges offerts a Edith Varga „Le lotus qui sort de terre” (Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts Supplément 1. Budapest, 2001)

MARGARET M. BAKOS: The divine power of Wine

Osiris. His other role, the pressing of the grapes to extract their juice, represented his destructive power.

7 Originally, Shezmu was simply a benevolent god. However, after the New Kingdom, he assumed the new role of ointmentmaker.

8 In ancient times, perfumes were extracted from fragrant substances by first soaking the substances in oil and then squeezing them into a sack, just as the juice for wine was extracted from grapes. The grapes corresponded to human heads, and the juice to blood. The fact that Shezmu, god of wine, is represented by two personalities (one good and the other cruel) is significant because it acknowledges that when consumed in excess, even wine can become harmful. In his "Instructions", Any states that if one drinks too much, falls and injures himself, no one will hold out a hand to him. On the contrary, they will say: " ... Out with the drunkl".

9 Love for the land (and for the Nile with its floods) was a dominant characteristic of the ancient Egyptians. However, Sinuhe in his voluntary exile to Asia, describes his state of happiness and prosperity in his new land with these words: "... It was a good land, named Yaa. Figs were in it, and grapes. It had more wine than water... " 10 For an Egyptian, it sounds unusually important for wine to be compared to water, as the Egyptians gave great value to water. Aristides of Smyrne, in II. c. B. C, reported that the Egyptians were the only people, as far as he knew, that kept water as others kept wine: water was saved for three to four years and given the same value as wine.

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. Moreover, another example that shows wine as a rare and precious liquid for the Egyptians is Wenamon, in his journey to Fenicia, when he said: "I reached Dor, a town of the Tjeker, and Beder its Prince, gave me 50 loaves of bread, one jug of wine and one leg of beef}

2 Only after that description of his goods did he report on the jars of silver and debens of gold that had been stolen from him in that town. Although soldiers could at times receive wine as payment for their deeds, civilians such as farmers, shepherds, craftsmen or house servants would seldom have the opportunity to relish the drink. In certain situations, however, 7 Poo, op, cit. (note 1) p. 239. * M. Ciccarello, Shcsmu the Letopolite, SAOC 39, Chicago 1977. p. 46. * M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature. Vol. I, Berkeley 1985, p. 137. "' E. Bresciani. op.cit (note 3) p. 167. " J. Leclant, L'eau, la santé et la maladie dans le monde grec, BCH Supplément 28, Paris 1994, p. 11. '• E. Bresciani. op.cit (note 3) p. 598.