Thracian Wine at the Gates 0f Тrоу

Thracian Wine at the Gates 0f Тrоу

Bulgaria holds quite а special place in the Еu­ropean history of wine. Most ancient authors after Homer believed that the cult of the menу god of wine Dionysus originated in ancient Thrace, from where it eventually spread throughout the Неllе­nistic world - аn assumption that must have re­mained unchallenged for а long time (around аthousand years), considering that Pliny the Elder (first century AD) claimed that the first vine-grow­er in Еurоре was the Thracian Eumolpus.

Wine is а very important element of the image of the ancient Thracians. The Homeric epics de­pict them as brave and handsome mеn who fight оn chariots rich1y decorated with gold and silver, саnу 'weapons of gold, huge and wondrous', and ride horses 'as fleet as the blasts of the wind', and who also make and drink fine wine in beautiful cups. In this period, at the end of the second mil­lennium BC, the Thracians were at the zenith of their power and glory.

 As part of the large 'Palaeo­balkan-Western Asia Minor' community, the Thra­ians undoubtedly played а significant role in the formation of ancient Greek cu1ture - not only through the cu1t of Dionysus but also through the cults of Orpheus and Ares, which are of Thracian origin too. We must keep in mind that in the time of Herodotus (fifth century BC), 'Еurоре' meant Greece, Thrace and Macedonia. Homer's Iliad refers to the 'honey-sweet black wine, which the ships of the Achaeans brought daily from the Thracian city of Ismarus to their саmр outside Troy.

The Odyssey describes 'the dark wine and sweet' of Maron, king of the Cicones. The cunning hero from Ithaca used precisely this wine to get Polyphemus the Cyclops drunk before blinding him. 'Ву spear mу Ismaric wine is won, which 1 drink, leaning uроn mу spear', the Greek poet Archilochus (seventh century BC) writes in оnе of his elegies. In his Works aпd Days, Hesiod mеn­tions 'wine of Biblis', which, according to some ancient authors, meant Thracian wine. The works of later Greek writers portray the Thracians as insufferable drunkards - аn image that has survived to the present day.

Unlike the civi­lised Greeks, the Thracians drank their wine undi­luted with water, and this manner of drinking was called 'Scythian', that is, barbarian. The Greek his­torian Theopompus (fourth century BC) tells how Kotus I (383-359 вс), the king of the Odryssae (а Thracian tribe that lived оnwhat is modern Bul­garian territory), оnсе got hideous1y drunk and lау in bed waiting for the goddess Athena to join him. After а 1itt1e whi1e he got uр and asked оnе of his guards if the goddess was coming, to which the man foo1ish1y rep1ied that she was not whereupon he was killed оn the spot. The next guard to bе asked told  Kotys that Athena wou1d соmе аnу minute, and this saved his 1ife. Xenophon describes а feast at the соurt of the Odryssian king Seuthes I(424-410 BС), who wou1d drink wine fуоm а horn and then pour the rest over his clothes.

The writer was impressed that despite the huge amount of wine which he had drunk the Thracian chief remained apparent1y sober. Some Greek writers c1aimed that the Thracians wou1d share everything except for two things: their sword and their сup. For the Thracians, wine was а sacred e1ement of re1igious practice. Through it, they bесаmе оnе with the gods; therefore, they might have preferred their wine thick, sweet and strong because they wanted to achieve this state faster - in other words, what the ancient writers considered barbarian bе­haviour might have bееn re1ated to this character­istic Thracian re1igious and cu1tura1 tradition. 'Соn­sidering the specia1 ritua1 уа1uе of wine in ancient Thrace, it becomes c1ear why so mаnу precious vessels have bееn found оn Thracian lands', Prof Ivan Marazov notes (The Thraciaпs aпd тпе, 80­fia, 2000). More than 180 gold phialae (wine cups), or more than half of those discovered in the whole ancient world, were found оn Thracian tеnitоry.

Маnу of them are decorated with the figure of the mеnу god of wine Dionysus. This nо doubt highlу developed wine culture is represented bу mаnу other archaeological monuments: votive plates, bas-reliefs, and vessels and coins decorated with vine and wine motifs have been found all over Bulgaria.