I was reading an article about this on facebook the other day and found it interesting.
I had heard a quote from Plato before that said something along the lines of ''wine mixed with an equal amount of water enlivens the soul'', or something to that effect, but I didn't really get what he meant and figured he just meant drinking a small amount of wine with water to stay hydrated, but apparently microdosing a mix of wine and water was really a specific thing with the ancient Greeks.
The article said that of course one difference was that their wine was WAY weaker than ours, but that they had a special dish that they would mix an exact 50/50 mixture of water and wine in, and that they would VERY slowly sip from it gradually throughout the day, (I'd guess that for a lot of them it was probably an everyday thing) to achieve specific effects.
Of course they had figured out that hydration was essential when drinking and that too much drinking made them feel bad, but unlike the idea of just drinking in moderation, their thing seemed to be to really make alcohol INTO A MEDICATION and use it all day long to achieve a steady baseline of a very small amount of alcohol so that they'd always be in a good mood, socially relaxed and energetic, but never drunk or even all that heavily buzzed either, just the right amount.
I just find it interesting cause no one would ever do that these days. It made me think that I would like to try it one day if I actually had the patience and didn't just start drinking too much. I like beer, wine and hard liquor, but actually Italian red wine is my most preferred alcohol.
I mean, it just shows how different they were culturally in their use of it. These days you either aren't drinking at all, or if you are drinking in moderation it's one or 2 drinks, or you get a heavy buzz but stop short of getting drunk, or you get shitaced. There isn't any margin that anyone ever leaves for using alcohol this way. I mean, if you told someone you were drinking all day they'd assume you were an alcoholic and getting shitfaced, but they were obviously never getting anything more than a mild buzz.
The article seemed to suggest that used in this way small amounts of alcohol could even be healthy, though I'm not sure if that's true. I heard that in America and England sometime around like the 1700s people did a similar thing to this with something called ''small beer'' which was a very low content alcoholic beverage with a lot of water.
They did it because there was a water shortage at different times and/or because some of their water was tainted with bacteria so they had to drink less of it, so they mixed it with small amounts of alcohol and got their water that way but saved more water so that everyone wouldn't run out.
I just think it's interesting to hear how much more of a healthy perspective different ancient cultures had towards all drugs, whether alcohol or psychedelics or whatever.
They would just see them as a part of life and something that could be incorporated like this, to the point where in this case wine was basically like a part of the Greek diet.
Now we have to go and stigmatize all drugs and can't just see them as a natural part of life which is stupid.
It also sounds like a good anxiety medication. Like, if a person had no access to benzos but had an anxiety disorder but didn't want to drink too much and be unhealthy I think they could totally treat their anxiety by VERY VERY slowly drinking wine with a 50/50 mix of water all day long.
It sounds like they were probably drinking like the equivalent of one drink an hour, or maybe even less, but just on a steady basis with an equal amount of water. I wonder what all of the most dogmatic Alcoholics Anonymous members would think if someone suggested this lol.
Sounds like a good way to take the edge off life if you don't want to get too fucked up and can actually moderate like that.
I had heard a quote from Plato before that said something along the lines of ''wine mixed with an equal amount of water enlivens the soul'', or something to that effect, but I didn't really get what he meant and figured he just meant drinking a small amount of wine with water to stay hydrated, but apparently microdosing a mix of wine and water was really a specific thing with the ancient Greeks.
The article said that of course one difference was that their wine was WAY weaker than ours, but that they had a special dish that they would mix an exact 50/50 mixture of water and wine in, and that they would VERY slowly sip from it gradually throughout the day, (I'd guess that for a lot of them it was probably an everyday thing) to achieve specific effects.
Of course they had figured out that hydration was essential when drinking and that too much drinking made them feel bad, but unlike the idea of just drinking in moderation, their thing seemed to be to really make alcohol INTO A MEDICATION and use it all day long to achieve a steady baseline of a very small amount of alcohol so that they'd always be in a good mood, socially relaxed and energetic, but never drunk or even all that heavily buzzed either, just the right amount.
I just find it interesting cause no one would ever do that these days. It made me think that I would like to try it one day if I actually had the patience and didn't just start drinking too much. I like beer, wine and hard liquor, but actually Italian red wine is my most preferred alcohol.
I mean, it just shows how different they were culturally in their use of it. These days you either aren't drinking at all, or if you are drinking in moderation it's one or 2 drinks, or you get a heavy buzz but stop short of getting drunk, or you get shitaced. There isn't any margin that anyone ever leaves for using alcohol this way. I mean, if you told someone you were drinking all day they'd assume you were an alcoholic and getting shitfaced, but they were obviously never getting anything more than a mild buzz.
The article seemed to suggest that used in this way small amounts of alcohol could even be healthy, though I'm not sure if that's true. I heard that in America and England sometime around like the 1700s people did a similar thing to this with something called ''small beer'' which was a very low content alcoholic beverage with a lot of water.
They did it because there was a water shortage at different times and/or because some of their water was tainted with bacteria so they had to drink less of it, so they mixed it with small amounts of alcohol and got their water that way but saved more water so that everyone wouldn't run out.
I just think it's interesting to hear how much more of a healthy perspective different ancient cultures had towards all drugs, whether alcohol or psychedelics or whatever.
They would just see them as a part of life and something that could be incorporated like this, to the point where in this case wine was basically like a part of the Greek diet.
Now we have to go and stigmatize all drugs and can't just see them as a natural part of life which is stupid.
It also sounds like a good anxiety medication. Like, if a person had no access to benzos but had an anxiety disorder but didn't want to drink too much and be unhealthy I think they could totally treat their anxiety by VERY VERY slowly drinking wine with a 50/50 mix of water all day long.
It sounds like they were probably drinking like the equivalent of one drink an hour, or maybe even less, but just on a steady basis with an equal amount of water. I wonder what all of the most dogmatic Alcoholics Anonymous members would think if someone suggested this lol.
Sounds like a good way to take the edge off life if you don't want to get too fucked up and can actually moderate like that.
now gimme that bottle and i'll show you how its done