98 



r.utz, \'iticultuie and Brewiii". 



of Athenaeus reflects, however, only one group of Egyptians. 

 Herodotus ^ presents us with the second group. The drinking- 

 bouts ( n=p I \ (1 r-^-^ [Diim. Hist. Inschr. I, 20] = Sirittj^, doii- 



rroOiov) generally started after a meal. Then a wooden image 

 of a dead person was carried about and to each guest was 

 given the admonition: "Behold this one, drink and be happy, 

 for after thy death thou wilt be like this one!" That the 

 second and probabh' far the larger group heeded this ad- 

 monition well is richly illustrated in the tomb-paintings of 

 Beni-Hasan. The\' show us that beer and wine were drunk 



No. 20. Slave offering wine cup to a lady (after WilkinsonJ. 



by the Egyptians often to excess and that the women of the 

 upper classes were also not free from this habit. Illustration 

 No. 20 shows a slave offering wine to a lady. Two slaves 

 carr}- their totally drunk master, one at the foot, the other 

 at the head. The}^ are followed by three slaves who have lifted 

 their master on their heads and cany him away like a stiff pole 

 (see Illustrations No. 21). The first slave holds with his hand the 

 head of the master. On a wall-painting at Thebes we behold an 

 even more unesthetic picture. Ladies, overcome by the use of 

 too much wine, pay a painful and ugly .sacrifice to Dionysos 

 (see Illustration Nos. 22 and23). The lotus-flower, bent over the 

 arm of a drunken lad}- indicates her condition, for this flower 



I) Herod. II, 78. 



