A Greek comic poet of the 4th century BC, Eubulus joked about alcohol consumption and its deleterious effects recommending no more than three measured drinks as sensible. Coincidentally, just three sections of his play “Semele” or “Dionysus,” survive. The famous Fragment Number 93 describes the successive consumption of shared “kraters” or bowls of diluted wine at the popular “symposium” of men usually reclining on comfortable couches to feast, debate and sing.
According to Greek mythology, Semele was the human mother of Dionysus, known to the Romans as Bacchus, the god of wine. Classical society in Greece believed alcohol could induce a state of divine possession, but in excess also lead to violence and the worst behaviour imaginable.
In the work by Eubulus, Dionysus solemnly speaks as the symposiarch or master of the meeting: “I mix three kraters only for those who are wise. One is for good health, which they drink first. The second is for love and pleasure. The third is for sleep, and when they have drunk it, those who are wise, wander homewards. The fourth is no longer ours but belongs to arrogance. The fifth leads to shouting. The sixth to a drunken revel. The seventh to black eyes. The eighth to a summons. The ninth to bile. The tenth to madness, in that it makes people throw things.”
