llO Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing. 



fourth a scribe of the archives, and the fifth a standard-bearer 

 of the infantry. Both men and wOmen had gotten drunk, or 

 as the phrase expresses it, they had "made a beershop", 

 "^ .t-hk.t. The butler evaded cOurt-proceedings by taking his 

 own life. The standard bearer Hor was acquitted. Tefnahte, 

 in his message of submission expressly states "I have not sat 

 in the beershop" ^ 



Beer has found a place in Egyptian mytholog}'. Once 

 upon a time in primeval days Re' reigned as king over men 

 and gods. But he grew old, his bones were silver, his limbs 

 gold and his hair was genuine lapis-lazuli. He had become 

 old and stiff. Mankind became aware of this and had put it 

 in their minds to blaspheme the old god. But their thoughts 

 became known to Re* and he caused the gods to assemble 

 before him in order to inflict a punishment upon mankind. 

 This he did so secretly that the people were kept completel}' 

 ignorant of his plans. Re* sent his eye, which descended as 

 the goddess Hathor. She killed the people, who had started 

 to take refuge, stream-upward, into the mountains. The rage 

 of Hathor was so furious that it became too much for Re*. 

 But Hathor's fury knew no bounds. She did not want to 

 stop the slaughter, until the last man was destroyed. She 

 waded, against the will of the sungod, for a number of nights 

 in the human blood, until, finally. Re* conceived of a trickery. 

 He caused immense quantities of beer, which was red-colored, 

 in order to look like the blood of men, to be poured over the 

 fields 2. The beer attracted the goddess. It tasted good to 

 her and she returned home in an intoxicated condition, not 

 recognizing the people. Thus, some people were saved, who 

 had taken their refuge in the desert. The beer, according to 

 this myth was prepared of barley and dada- fruit, i. e., the 

 mandrake- fruit from Ethiopia. "Hasten to the island' of Ele- 

 phantine, and bring me much dada-fruit", is the order given 

 by Re* to his messengers. When they had brought it, Re* 



i) Planhi Stele, i, 133 ff. 



2) "On that day Re' [stood up] in the best part(.') of the night for 

 causing this sleeping draught to be poured out , and the fields were flooded 

 four spans high by [that] liquid through the power of the majesty of this god". 



