DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0070
52
thenaean and pkamnian wines.
[chap.
some wines derived their names from the districts where
they were produced. The Thenaean wine is thus men-
tioned by Julius Pollux23. It is deserving of remark
that the site of Thenae, as we have already seen, is very
near the modern villages of Haghio Myro and Sarko,
both justly celebrated as two out of four or five places
which produce the best wine in all Crete. It will be
remembered that Thenae was near Cnossos24. Hence
Nonnus describes a libation, poured out by the Cretan
Asterios, on the funeral mound of his fellow-country-
man Opheltes, as having consisted of
A cup of sweet and fragrant Cnossian wine25.
The Pramnian wine, spoken of by Homer20, in all
likelihood derived its appellation, in the first instance,
from some place of Thrace or Asia, where it was pro-
duced27. In later times a Cretan wine received the
name28. Belon supposes it to have been the same with
the modern malmesey29; but it is pretty plain that
the port of our days is the wine which most nearly re-
sembles the ancient Pramnian30. The wine of Crete
was so little like the Pramnian, that it is called passum
by several ancient authors31.
The growth of the vine here may perhaps have re-
ceived a check, while the Saracens were masters of the
island, in the ninth and tenth centuries; but, if so, it
23 Pollux, vi. 2. According to the correction of Meursius, (Creta,
p. 103.) for the old reading Qripaiov.
24 Above, Vol. i. p. 224.
25 Nonnus, Dionys. xxxvu. 81.
Sin/ a^yi/jixez/w ok Avaiw
'A(7Tepio? AiKTaTos, bjxoyviov alfxa KOfxi^aiv,
Kvma-uiov d/MpiKuTreWov ex""> <5e'?ras jjSeos oivov
tvoofiov, SuTridoLO yyTriv e/xeSvo-o-e Kovir\v.
26 Homer, II. xi. 639. Od. x. 235. Athenaeus, i. p. 10. a.
27 Eustathius, on II. xi. p. 871. Pliny, N. H. xiv. 4.
28 Aelian, 1. c. 20 Belon, Observations etc. f. 21.
30 Henderson, History of ancient and modern Wines, p. 75.
31 Bentley has rendered it impossible for us to adopt Hardouin's
explanation of the verse of Horace: " Cressa ne careat pulchra dies noia."
On the passum, see Casaubon, Animadv. in Athenaeum, p. 735.
thenaean and pkamnian wines.
[chap.
some wines derived their names from the districts where
they were produced. The Thenaean wine is thus men-
tioned by Julius Pollux23. It is deserving of remark
that the site of Thenae, as we have already seen, is very
near the modern villages of Haghio Myro and Sarko,
both justly celebrated as two out of four or five places
which produce the best wine in all Crete. It will be
remembered that Thenae was near Cnossos24. Hence
Nonnus describes a libation, poured out by the Cretan
Asterios, on the funeral mound of his fellow-country-
man Opheltes, as having consisted of
A cup of sweet and fragrant Cnossian wine25.
The Pramnian wine, spoken of by Homer20, in all
likelihood derived its appellation, in the first instance,
from some place of Thrace or Asia, where it was pro-
duced27. In later times a Cretan wine received the
name28. Belon supposes it to have been the same with
the modern malmesey29; but it is pretty plain that
the port of our days is the wine which most nearly re-
sembles the ancient Pramnian30. The wine of Crete
was so little like the Pramnian, that it is called passum
by several ancient authors31.
The growth of the vine here may perhaps have re-
ceived a check, while the Saracens were masters of the
island, in the ninth and tenth centuries; but, if so, it
23 Pollux, vi. 2. According to the correction of Meursius, (Creta,
p. 103.) for the old reading Qripaiov.
24 Above, Vol. i. p. 224.
25 Nonnus, Dionys. xxxvu. 81.
Sin/ a^yi/jixez/w ok Avaiw
'A(7Tepio? AiKTaTos, bjxoyviov alfxa KOfxi^aiv,
Kvma-uiov d/MpiKuTreWov ex""> <5e'?ras jjSeos oivov
tvoofiov, SuTridoLO yyTriv e/xeSvo-o-e Kovir\v.
26 Homer, II. xi. 639. Od. x. 235. Athenaeus, i. p. 10. a.
27 Eustathius, on II. xi. p. 871. Pliny, N. H. xiv. 4.
28 Aelian, 1. c. 20 Belon, Observations etc. f. 21.
30 Henderson, History of ancient and modern Wines, p. 75.
31 Bentley has rendered it impossible for us to adopt Hardouin's
explanation of the verse of Horace: " Cressa ne careat pulchra dies noia."
On the passum, see Casaubon, Animadv. in Athenaeum, p. 735.