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

"When you go to the house of the sister and charge towards her grotto, the gate is made high. Its mistress cleans it and furnishes it with the palate's delight, exquisite wines, specially reserved. You confound her senses but stops at night when she says to you, 'Hold me tight that we may lie like this when dawn comes"

]b The expression 'go to somebody's house' likely had erotic appeal for the ancient Egyptians. This is confirmed by the following text, for the relationship established between wine and sex. The Egyptians were masters in the use of methaphores to express feelings of daily life: "Distracting is the foliage " of my 'pasture ' [the mouth] of my girl is a lotus bud, her breasts are mandrake apples, her arms are [vines], [her eyes] are fixed like berries, her brow a snare of willow, and I the wild goose! My [beak] snips [her hair] for bait, as worms for bait in the trop".

17 This beautiful association between vines and the body of the beloved sounds very romantic, and clearly shows the cumplicity among humans, love and nature. "How sweet is the brewed beer when I am at his side and my hands are touching him! the breezes blow as I say in my heart, 'Let's get drunk on this sweet wine, for I am consecrated to you through the powers."

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* " L. Manniche, Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt, London-New York 1987, p. 80. " W. K. Simpson, The literature of ancient Egypt, New York 1972, p. 299. '* B. Fowler, Love lyrics of ancient Egypt, London 1994, p. 84.