| Greek Name |
Transliteration |
Latin Spelling |
Translation |
| AkratoV |
Akratos |
Acratus |
Unmixed-Wine
(akratos) |
| AkratopothV |
Akratopotês |
Acratopotes |
Drinking of Neat
Wine (akratopoteô) |
|
Acratus & Euphrosyne, Greco-Roman mosaic
from
Zeugma, Gaziantep Museum |
AKRATOS (or Acratus) was the god or spirit (daimon) of drinking unmixed wine. The Greeks usually drank their wine mixed with water, so Akratos was probably associated with festive excess. Akratos was one of the attendants of the god Dionysos, and a companion of Euphrosyne (Good Cheer).
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 2. 5 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Here [in the shrine of Dionysos at Athens] there are images of . . . Apollon . . . and Akratos, a daimon attendant upon Apollon; it is only a face of him worked into the wall."
Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 39c - 39d (trans. Gullick) (Greek rhetorician C2nd to C3rd A.D.) :
"Polemos says that in Mounykhia [in Attika] honours are paid to a hero [or Daimon] Akratopotes (Drinker of Unmixed Wine), and that among the Spartans statues of heroes [or Daimones] named Matton (Kneader) and Keraon (Mixer) have been set up by certain cooks in the public mess."
Sources:
- Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.
- Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae - Greek Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
Other references not currently quoted here: KERAON & AKRATOPOTES Polemo Historicus 40
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