Sweet wine, unblended, served Odysseus well in the escape with his companions from the Cyclops’ cave during his epic return to Ithaca. The wine, a gift from Maron, grandson of Dionysus, was exceptional. “When he drank it he mixed twenty parts of water to one of wine, and yet the fragrance from the mixing bowl was so exquisite that it was impossible to refrain from drinking.” Odysseus carried a large skin with this wine, in case on the way he had to deal with some unknown savage of great strength who “would respect neither right nor law.”
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