Michaela Faunce
9/25/2014
7th period WHAP
A History of the World in Six Glasses- Wine
Chapter 3- The Delight of Wine
1. The origins of wine were most likely accidental. The grapes were crushed in large pottery, most likely during the Neolithic period, and the natural yeast would ferment the crushed grape juice. Wine is dated back to 5400 B.C.E. in the Zagros Mountains. Wine spread from west to Greece to Anatolia and then south through Levant to Egypt. Wine was a drink of the upper class in Mesopotamia because the climate was unsuitable for large-scale production causing the price of importation along with the price of the wine, very expensive.
2. The two factors that led to wine’s increased availability are that its production increased, therefore, it was cheaper to transport wine over long distances, and as the amount of wine produced increased, then the price of wine fell. Wine was more available in Greece than Mesopotamia because wine production in Mesopotamia was completely impractical.
3. A symposion is a formal drinking party. A typical Green symposion would be a party where people were very drunk and tried to outdo each other’s wit and poetry. Because wine was shared, everyone there would be viewed as equal. Wine also reminded the Greeks how civilized they were.
4. The Greek theory of wine consumption according to Plutarch is that, “ the drunkard ins insolent and rude…on the other hand, the complete teetotaler is disagreeable and more fit for tending children than for presiding over a drinking party.” The Greek idea was to be somewhere between the two.
5. The role of symposion in philosophy is to have intellectual conversations. Symposion were dedicated to the pursuit of pleasures, such as intellectual, social, or sexual variety. It was also an outlet of dealing with unruly passions.
Chapter 4- The Imperial Vine
1. The various aspects of Greek culture adopted by Romans were Greek gods and myths, the Greek alphabet, Greek architecture, the constitution, and the educated Romans studied Greek literature and could speak the language.
2. Wine was the universal beverage because it was drank by both high-class and slaves. Even though wine was considered universal, it continued to show the social class structure in Rome because the age and type of wine depicted how expensive it was and therefore, the upper-class could afford older, more expensive wine.
3. The differences between the symposion and convivium are that symposion was a gathering of individuals in hopes of intellectual conversation, whereas, conviviums were huge banquets where the wine a person served depicted their social standing.
4. Galen was the personal physician to the emperor Marcus Aurelius whose goal was to find the best wine in the world. The role of wine in Galen’s medical experiments were to disinfect their wounds, to regulate the humors (blood,