Classical Views on Wine: Symbolism from Earthly Pleasure to Spiritual Ecstasy

Wine’s deep red glow, its heady fragrance, and its power to loosen the tongue have made it an irresistible symbol for millennia. In classical literatures—from Greece and Rome to Persia and India—wine is far more than a pleasurable drink. It becomes a metaphor for divine inspiration, mystical union, and the paradox of freedom found through surrender. Below, we uncork wine’s rich symbolism across several ancient traditions.

1. Greece and Rome: Dionysian Revelry and Philosophical Ascent

1.1 Dionysus and the Mysteries

In Homeric Hymn to Dionysus and the plays of Euripides, Dionysus embodies wine’s dual nature: ecstatic liberation and frightening, boundary-dissolving frenzy. The Bacchae depict how Dionysian rites unleash hidden truths—both exhilarating and dangerous—reminding participants that reason and instinct must coexist.

1.2 Plato’s Symposium

Plato’s Symposium stages a dialogue at a drinking party, where each guest praises Eros. Wine here is the social lubricant that allows lofty ideas to flow. Most famously, Diotima’s “Ladder of Love” is unveiled over cups of unmixed wine, suggesting that the same substance which ignites human passion can also propel the soul toward contemplation of the Form of Beauty itself.

1.3 Horace and Ovid: Moderation and Metaphor

Roman poets like Horace (Odes I.20) drink sparingly—“Let us drink, my friends, while youth remains”—using wine to celebrate life’s fleeting joys. Ovid, meanwhile, likens love’s delirium to intoxication, hinting that the lover’s mind becomes both joyous and unmoored, much like a reveler in Bacchic ecstasy.

2. Biblical Resonances: Joy, Judgment, and Covenant

2.1 Old Testament Celebrations

From Noah’s …