The Beer in the Ancient Orient. 75 



Cneq, and bruising bade}- to extract a drink from it^. The 

 name ^OOoq or 'Cproq is not Egyptian. It is derived from the 

 verb t,eco, an old Greek word, as old as Homer and Hesiod. 

 ^eco means "to boil", "to foam" and the Greeks applied it to 

 the beer, which they learned from Egypt. I,Ov)o:; goes back 

 to the same verb ^eco as goes the word '^uiii], "leaven, yeast". 

 According to Diodorus^ the ^OOoq was considered an inven- 

 tion of Dionysos, -while according to the same writer ^ Osiris 

 made it known in those countries where the wine does not 

 grow. The beer constituted an indispensable beverage in those 

 parts of Egypt, in which the vine did not grow. It was the 

 drink of the peasant, the shepherd, the sailor and the fisher- 

 man. It is stated* that it was nearly as good as wine, but 

 the Greeks despised the Egyptians, who drank a beverage 

 which was prepared from barley^. Dioskorides taught that 

 zythos causes urination, affects the kidneys and the nerves, 

 endangers the brain membrane, causes bloating, bad phlegms 

 and elephantiasis. Since the zythos was a product of decayed 

 materials it caused bad phlegms^. The best that is said about 

 it by the Classical writers refers not to its use as a beverage, 

 but to its property of softening ivory, which made it possible 

 to bend the ivory into any desired form. This property of 

 the zythos was due to its element of acid. .Since hops were 

 unknown to the Egyptians as v;ell as to all the ancient Oriental 

 peoples, they were obliged to have recourse to other plants, 

 in order to improve the taste of the beer and to keep it for 

 j-a longer period of time. The lupin {hipinus tennis Forskal; 

 Arabic ternius), the skirret {siser\ the siuvi sis arum L.) and 

 the root of an Assyrian plant were used b}" them for that 

 purpose '. In Hellenistic times Egyptian beer was imported 



I) Athen., B X. 13. 2) Diod. lY, 2. 



3) Diod. I, 20. 4) Diod. I, 20. 5) Aesch. Hik., Q33. 



6) Orib. XV, i, 6, 6. Gal. Aet. The Greeks also considered, strangely, 

 the barley beer as being the direct cause of leprosy. 



7) Columella, de ctiltu hort., X, 114 ir6: "zaw siser , Assyrioque venit quae 

 semine radix seclaque praebetur madido satiata Itipino ut Pelusiaci proritet 

 pocula zythi". This passage is, however, understood by some scholars in 

 suite a different way. They say that it refers to the previous eating of ra- 

 dishes and lupins, in order that they should arouse the aiipetite for drinking; 



