06. The Cultivation of the Vine in Egypt.

The Cultivation of the Vine in Egypt.

Ignorance of the condition of Egypt is also said to appear in the dream of the chief butler of Pharaoh.^[59] In reference to this, v. Bohlen^[60] remarks: “An important specification of time for the late origin of the narrative, is contained here in the dream of the butler, in which the existence of the vine in Egypt is implied. For, after Psamaticus, consequently just about the time of Josiah, had its cultivation first been commenced, in a small degree, and could, in a low country, which at the time of the ripening of the grape is overflowed, find entrance only at some few points. The Egyptians used for drink a kind of beer, in speaking of which, Herodotus explicitly adds that no vines grow in the land. Among the orthodox Egyptians it is considered as the blood of Typhon. They did not drink it, says Plutarch, before the time of Psamaticus, and they also did not offer it in sacrifice.”

[59]Genesis 40:10, seq.

[60] S. 373.

Tuch^[61] shares with v. Bohlen unbounded regard for every disconnected saying of Plutarch, which, if we take into view the whole character of this writer, appears to have very poor foundation. He also, as well as the author before mentioned, has no regard to the information which the monuments have furnished, since the beginning of this century, upon the question concerning the cultivation of the vine in Egypt. He does not even seem to have noticed that which Heeren has adduced from the Description of the French scholars.^[62] In vindication of the author of the book of Genesis, he assumes that there is no mention made of wine in the passage, but of drinking the newly expressed, unfermented, unintoxicating juice of the grape. The procedure described in the chapter supposes an evasion, consequently the continued existence of the prohibition of wine, and an observance of this prohibition; and it is an escape from a difficulty which besides him, Rosenmueller has also borrowed from J. D. Michaelis,^[63] for whom it was exceedingly convenient, but yet it is nothing more than an escape from difficulty. It rests upon the fact that one does not pay attention to what passes in dreaming, and it does not take into account that the words, “I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup,” if they are separated from their connection with the dream, show a procedure in the preparation of the royal drink, which has nowhere else any analogy. Besides, the employment of cup-bearer, as a distinguished office at court, could scarcely exist, where the drink and its preparation are so extraordinarily simple—the latter such as is elsewhere practised only by children. Still further, if the passage in Plutarch be allowed to have any force, we cannot even by this explanation free ourselves from difficulty. For, according to Plutarch, wine was considered by the Egyptians as the blood of Typhon, inasmuch as it was the product of the vine, and not in consequence of its having previously undergone a fermentation.

[61] In dem Comm. zur Genesis, S. 513.

[62] Ideen, Aegypt. S. 362. The full title of this Work, which is so often quoted byHenstenbergas the Description, is, “Description Deuteronomy 1’Egypte, ou Recueil des Observations et des Recherches pendant l’Expédition de l’Armée Française.” It consists of 25 volumes, with more than 900 engravings and 3000 sketches. The last number appeared in 1826. It is composed of the documents prepared by the eminent savans and artists who accompanied Bonaparte in his expedition to Egypt. It was printed at the expense of the French Government, and “corresponds in the grandeur of its proportions," says a writer in the Am. En., “to the edifices which it describes.”

[63]Mos. Laws, Vol. III. p. 120.

Even the accounts of ancient authors permit us not to doubt, that from the most ancient times, the vine was cultivated in Egypt. Herodotus in many ways contributes to this proof. Thus, according to him, dried grapes appear among the things which are placed in the body of the bullock offered to Isis, together with bread, honey, etc.^[64] The grapes can only have reference to the domestic culture of the vine. Also the identification of Osiris with Bacchus in Herodotus^[65] is an argument for the origin of the cultivation of the vine in Egypt. Bacchus and wine stood, at least according to the popular idea which is all that is here important, in indissoluble union. Diodorus,^[66] in like manner, not only asserts the identity of Osiris and Bacchus, but also expressly attributes to Osiris the discovery of the art of cultivating the vine.^[67] “But it is said that he first discovered the vine near Nysa, and after having acquired skill in the management of its fruit, first made use of wine himself, and taught other men the planting of the vine-stock, the gathering of the grapes, the drinking of wine, and its preservation.” But the authority of Diodorus is of itself sufficient to outweigh that of Plutarch. Further, according to Hellanicus in Athenaeus, the cultivation of the vine was first discovered in the Egyptian city Plinthinus.^[68] But these passages of ancient authors have no longer much interest for us, since we have upon the monuments a testimony for the origin of the culture of the vine in Egypt far more sure, and sufficient in itself. How little that assertion of Herodotus^[69] agrees with these was first remarked in the Description.^[70] Since then, the proofs from the monuments for the cultivation of the vine have very much multiplied, and the fact may now, since the appearance of Champollion’s Letters and the Works of Rosellini and Wilkinson, be considered as fully settled. According to Champollion there are found in the grottoes of Beni Hassan, “representations of the culture of the vine, the vintage, the bearing away and the stripping off of the grapes, two kinds of presses, the one moved merely by the strength of the arms, the other by mechanical power, the putting up of the wine in bottles or jars, the transportation into the cellar, the preparation of boiled wine,”^[71] etc. Rosellini^[72] has a separate section on grape gathering and the art of making wine.

[64]“Quae pertinent,” remarks Creuzer, Comm. 1. p. 115, “ad frumenta inventa vitesque cultas,” etc.

[65] 2. 42 and 144.

[66] In Book I. chap. 11.

[67] 1. 15.

[68] Compare this and other passages quoted in Jablonski, Opusc. II. p. 119 seq. 1. 432, 72.

[69]2. 77.

[70] T. 6. p. 124. ed. Pancret. It is there said: “Among the numerous details given by Herodotus concerning the diet of the Egyptians, this is found: As they have not the vine, they drink beer (2. 77). Our paintings prove, conclusively, that the Egyptians cultivated the vine, and also made wine. Many critics have previously remarked, that this observation of Herodotus wants accuracy.”

[71] 8.51.

[72] Vol. II. 1. p. 365 et seq.

“Numerous,” says he, “are the representations in the tombs, which relate to the cultivation of the vine, and these are found, not merely in the tombs of the time of the 18th and some later dynasties, but also in those which belong to the time of the most ancient dynasties.” “The described pictures,”^[73] it is said, “show more decidedly than any ancient written testimony, that in Egypt, even in the most ancient times, the vine was cultivated and wine made.” In the inscriptions of the time of the Pharaohs, at least seven different kinds of wine are represented, among which is the wine of Lower Egypt and the wine of Upper Egypt.^[74]Wilkinson^[75] gives the engraving and description of an Egyptian vineyard, and the different kinds of labor bestowed on it. In a painting^[76] from Thebes, boys are seen frightening away the birds from the grape clusters. In one from Beni Hassan, the kids appear which are allowed to browse upon the vines after the vintage. The substance of what is communicated by Rosellini and Wilkinson, with the necessary plates, can be found in Taylor.^[77]

^[73] Page 373.

[74]Page 377.

[75]Vol. II. p. 143 et seq.

[76] Page 149.

[77] Page 48 et seq.In the passage to which the author refers, I have given representations of a vineyard, and of various kinds of wine-presses. Here I may add, that grapes do not appear to have been very abundant in the valley of the Nile; for the crushed pulp which remained after the grapes were trodden in the press, instead of being thrown away, as is usual in most wine-growing countries, was carefully collected by the Egyptians, and placed in a bag, made of flags or rushes, in which the palp was compressed, by twisting the end of the bag with staves or handspikes. Even after it had undergone this process, the pulp was deemed too valuable to be thrown away, and the pressure on the bag was increased, by some of the workmen throwing their whole weight on it, until every drop of the precious fluid was squeezed out. Mirhaud (Con. d’Orient) says, that the clusters and grapes are very small in Egypt; and this explains the surprise of the spies at the enormous produce of the vines in southern Palestine. The assertion of Herodotus, that there is in Egypt no vine, must be considered as an entire mistake. The attempt made first by Dupuy^[78] and Larcher,^[79] finally also by Bähr, to rescue his authority, without disparaging the witnesses who attest the existence of the cultivation of the vine in ancient Egypt, by saying that Herodotus speaks only of a part of Egypt, the cultivated part, has been already set aside as inadmissible by Rosellini. “Certainly,” says he,^[80] “Herodotus speaks only of fertile Egypt, but only there could the vine be cultivated, and most certainly was cultivated. The remainder was either desert or swamp.”^{[81] [78]} In the Mem. de I. Acad. d. Inscr. t. 31. Hist. p. 20.

[79] Upon Herod. 2. p. 333.

[80] Page 374.

[81] Even Bähr says, in remarking upon the words,ὁι μὲν περὶτὴν σπερομένην Λὶγυπτον οἰκέουσι, in the beginning of C. 77. B. II: “Est enim Aegyptus ad Nili utramque ripam sita per aliquot dierum itinera fertilis frugibusque colendis apta, quam rustici incolae habitant; quaesequuntur regiones pastorum potius sunt atque nomadum neque frugum capacea.” See also Heeren, S. 146 ff. The many representations on the monuments of wine-offerings, which the kings present to the gods, show how little reliance is to be placed on the assertion of Plutarch, that before the time of Psamaticus wine was neither offered nor made use of as drink.^[82] This is one of those numerous fabrications, by which the Egyptians attempt to give astonished foreigners an idea of the nobility and piety of their ancestors. Even Herodotus does not think of anything at all like this. If wine had been considered as the blood of Typhon, how could it be explained, that even in his time, the priests received a regular allowance of wine.^[83]Their practice would surely have corresponded to their theology, if indeed the kings and the people had been led astray by Grecian customs.

[82] Comp. Ros. S. 376. Wilk. II. p. 164 et seq. According toWilkinson, p. 168, men are seen in the sculptures who, unable to walk from excess in drinking, are carried home from a feast by servants. For proof, that the prohibition of wine and other intoxicating drinks to the priests who were to perform the service of the sanctuary, in Leviticus 10, v. 8 seq., was not inappropriate among a people who had come from Egypt, where both wine and other intoxicating drinks were much loved, see Wilk. Vol. III. p. 172 seq.

[83] Comp. 2. 37. When v. Bohlen asserts, that the vine could not have found entrance into Egypt, except at some few points, on account of the inundation, we can against this refer to Michaud among others, who says, vines flourish in Egypt in the water like water-plants.^[84] And when J. D. Michaelis alleges, that the Delta is in August and September, the months of the wine-harvest, entirely overflowed,^[85] we, in opposition to him, refer to Hartmann,^[86] according to whom the grape-gathering takes place in part even in July, and is finished in August, while the inundation, as a general thing, does not begin until the end of August, and never before the middle of that month.^[87]

^[84] T. 7, der Correspondenz aus dem Orient. p. 12. Compare also concerning the cultivation of the vine in the Delta, Hartmann, Aegypten, S. 187.

[85] See passage above referred to.

[86] Page 214-215.

[87] Page 118.

We add here, in conclusion, an explanation from Egyptian antiquity, of some objections, which, although they have not yet been, easily might be made to the credibility of the Pentateuch.