Libation drink (sponde) served from the krater
Rhoités — pomegranate wine of the Underworld
DrinkReconstruction🍋 🍯 🫙facile15 min
A light wine enhanced with pomegranate juice and honey, served cut with water as Greek custom demanded. Tart, fruity, vinous — the blood-red cup poured to Hades and raised to his queen.
Libation drink (sponde) served from the krater
A light wine enhanced with pomegranate juice and honey, served cut with water as Greek custom demanded. Tart, fruity, vinous — the blood-red cup poured to Hades and raised to his queen.
Approach the cup, but never drink wine pure like a barbarian: at my table it is mixed with water, three measures to one, lest reason drown before the body. Press my pomegranates, those that sealed my queen's fate, and marry their blood to wine and honey. First pour a few drops to the ground, for me and for the shades — then raise your cup: you taste there the pact of the seasons.
Ingredients
- •Light red wine — one part (base)
- •Pressed pomegranate juice — one part (tart signature)
- •Honey — a splash (sweetener)
- •Spring water — two to three parts (dilution (Greek custom))
- •Mint leaves or pine resin — a hint (flavor (optional))
How it was made : The Greeks almost always drank wine cut with water from a krater; drinking it pure was considered a 'barbarian' custom. Flavoring wine with honey, herbs and fruits was common. Pomegranate juice (*sîdion*) was known and appreciated; its precise transformation into a vinous drink for Hades here is a plausible reconstruction based on the fruit's symbolism and attested oenological practices.
Sources : Homeric Hymn to Demeter (episode of the pomegranate seeds) · Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Deipnosophists (cut wine, flavored wines) · Andrew Dalby, Siren Feasts (1996)