Wine in Ancient Medicine

Sticking with the wonderful theme of alcohol, here’s a look at wine in ancient medicine. Adapted again from  Tom Standage’s A History of the World in 6 Glasses, but also other sources that have studied the use of wine in ancient civilizations.

Although beer is thought to be the oldest drink consumed by humans, wine has an equally ancient history. The only difference is that it took longer for wine to become a common drink. The origin of wine has been traced back to the Neolithic Period, somewhere between 9000 and 4000 BCE, in the Zagros Mountains in present-day Iran and Armenia. Unlike beer, which was drunk by both the rich and the poor, wine was a status symbol associated with wealth and power. It was only consumed by those who could afford the expensive beverage, namely kings and noble men in ancient Greece. It was the Romans who transformed it from a luxury drink to one for the masses.

It has been well known since the time of the ancient Greeks that wine can help relax and relieve stress. It was common practice to use wine as a relaxant. The relaxing effect of wine has even made it into ancient literature, as Helen of Troy in The Odyssey serves her guests wine (although she mixed in a drug) to make them forget their sorrows:

Now Helen, who was descended of Zeus, thought of the next thing.

Into the wine of which they were drinking she cast a medicine

Of heartease, free of gall, to make one forget all sorrows,

And whoever had drunk it down once it had been mixed in the wine bowl.

Although the wine is known to be a relaxant in itself, its use in ancient times appears to be mainly as a solvent for other drugs and herbs. The oldest evidence of wine used as such was found in the tomb of Scorpion I, one of the early Egyptian pharaohs. A jar in his tomb was found with the residues of wine mixed with other herbs.

Pharaoh Scorpion I’s tomb containing wine vessels. Image: National Geographic

Wine soon became associated with medicine, as the alcohol in wine was effective in extracting the active elements from medicinal plants. Its first medical use was as an antiseptic and anesthetic, and it was common practice to infuse various herbs in wine to create a variety of medicines. Hippocrates devised special recipes that were based on herbal infusion in wine, including his famous recipe for intestinal worms, Hippocraticum Vinum. The Ancient Romans also used it as a disinfectant for wounds, especially for treating gladiators.

At the same time, however, some ancient physicians were apparently skeptical about wine as they believed it was the cause of diseases, especially when drunk excessively. Some even cautioned against its use; such as Pliny the Elder who wrote, “There is no topic more difficult to handle, or more full of detail, seeing that it is hard to say whether wine does good to people rather than harming them.” Despite his reservations, Pliny also understood how wine can allow (or force) a man to speak his mind. He is credited with the famous quote, In vino veritas, which means "In wine lies the truth." So technically, one could argue that wine can be used as a truth serum too.



Bibliography:

Van der Eijk, Philip, editor. “WINE AND MEDICINE IN ANCIENT GREECE.” Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen: Selected Papers, by Jacques Jouanna and Neil Allies, Brill, LEIDEN; BOSTON, 2012, pp. 173–194. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76vxr.15.  Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.
Holloway, April. “Alcohol as Medicine through the Ages.” Ancient Origins, Ancient Origins, 3 Sept. 2019, www.ancient-origins.net/human-origins-science/alcohol-medicine-through-ages-001238.