The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 · the Elder Pliny
CHAP. 21.—OXYMELI.
Vinegar[1483] even has been mixed with honey; nothing, in fact, has been left untried by man. To this mixture the name of oxymeli has been given; it is compounded of ten pounds of honey, five semi-sextarii of old vinegar, one pound of sea-salt, and five sextarii of rain-water. This is boiled gently till the mixture has bubbled in the pot some ten times,[1484] after which it is drawn off, and kept till it is old;[1485] all these wines, however, are condemned[1486] by Themison, an author of high authority. And really, by Hercules! the use of them does appear to be somewhat forced,[1487] unless, indeed, we are ready to maintain that these aromatic wines are so many compounds taught us by Nature, as well as those that are manufactured of perfumes, or that shrubs and plants have been generated only for the purpose of being swallowed in drink. However, all these particulars, when known, are curious and interesting, and show how successfully the human intellect has pried into every secret. None of these wines, however, will keep beyond a year,[1488] with the sole exception of those which we have spoken of as requiring age; many of these, indeed, there can be no doubt, do not improve after being kept so little as thirty days. CHAP. 22. (18.)—TWELVE KINDS OF WINE WITH MIRACULOUS PROPERTIES.
There are some miraculous properties, too, in certain wines. It is said that in Arcadia there is a wine grown which is productive of fruitfulness[1489] in women, and of madness in men; while in Achaia, and more especially in the vicinity of Carynia, there is a wine which causes abortion; an effect which is equally produced if a woman in a state of pregnancy happens only to eat a grape of the vine from which it is grown, although in taste it is in no way different from ordinary grapes: again, it is confidently asserted that those who drink the wine of Trœzen never bear children. Thasos, it is said, produces two varieties of wine with quite opposite properties. By one kind sleep is produced,[1490] by the other it is prevented. There is also in the same island a vine known as the “theriaca,”[1491] the wine and grapes of which are a cure for the bites of serpents. The libanian vine[1492] also produces a wine with the smell of frankincense, with which they make libations to the gods, while, on the other hand, the produce of that known as “aspendios,”[1493] is banished from all the altars: it is said, too, that this last vine is never touched by any bird.
The Egyptians call by the name of “Thasian,”[1494] a certain grape of that country, remarkable for its sweetness and its laxative qualities. On the other hand, there is in Lycia a certain grape which proves astringent to the stomach when relaxed. Egypt has a wine, too, known as “ecbolas,”[1495] which is productive of abortion. There are some wines, which at the rising of the Dog-star change their nature in the wine-lofts[1496] where they are kept, and afterwards recover[1497] their original quality. The same is the case, too, with wines when carried across the seas: those that are able to withstand the motion of the waves, appear afterwards to be twice as old[1498] as they really are. CHAP. 23. (19.)—WHAT WINES IT IS NOT LAWFUL TO USE IN THE SACRED RITES. As religion is the great basis of the ordinary usages of life, I shall here remark that it is considered improper to offer libations to the gods with any wines which are the produce of an unpruned vine, or of one that has been struck by lightning, or near to which a dead man has been hung, or of grapes that have been trodden out by sore feet, or made of must from husks that have been cut,[1499] or from grapes that have been polluted by the fall of any unclean thing upon them. The Greek wines are excluded also from the sacred ministrations, because they contain a portion of water. The vine itself is sometimes eaten; the tops of the shoots[1500] are taken off and boiled, and are then pickled in vinegar[1501] and brine.
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