Ancient Greece: Difference between revisions

'''Ancient Greece''' was a formative civilisation in the history of [[wine]], establishing practices of [[viticulture]], trade, and cultural use that shaped the [[Mediterranean]] and beyond. [[Wine]] in [[Greece]] held social, religious, and economic significance, and many of its traditions influenced later [[Roman]] and European developments.<ref>Phillips, ''A Short History of Wine'', HarperCollins, 2000, pp. 27–38, ISBN 978-0066212821.</ref>

[[Viticulture]] in [[Ancient [[Greece]]]] expanded from earlier traditions of the [[Near East]], with evidence of [[wine production]] by the second millennium BCE.<ref>Unwin, ''Wine and the Vine: An Historical Geography of Viticulture and the Wine Trade'', Routledge, 1991, pp. 98–104, ISBN 978-0415075370.</ref> By the classical period, wine was an established staple of Greek diet and commerce, traded widely throughout the [[Aegean]] and Mediterranean. [[Amphorae]] recovered from shipwrecks and archaeological sites illustrate the extent of this trade, with exports reaching [[Egypt]], Southern [[Italy]], and the [[Black Sea]] region.<ref>Mazar, ''Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 10,000–586 B.C.E.'', Doubleday, 1990, p. 447, ISBN 978-0385423091.</ref>  

Wine occupied a central place in Greek social and religious life. The symposium, a formalised drinking gathering, combined wine with intellectual discourse, poetry, and music.<ref>Phillips, ''A Short History of Wine'', 2000, p. 35.</ref> [[Dionysus]], the god of wine and ecstasy, was a central figure in Greek religion and myth, with festivals such as the Dionysia celebrating his cult through ritual drinking and theatre.<ref>Dalby, ''Siren Feasts'', 1996, pp. 83–85.</ref>