AvenHey #ClassicsTwitter, this site says the practice of toasting began in Ancient Greece to prove some wasn’t poisoned. Leaving all else aside, do you know of any evidence that the practice of drinking from a communal cup/jug was to show it was safe? https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/articles/the-history-of-toasting
I ask because I’d never heard that poisoning your guests was a particularly common thing in Greece (much the opposite) & I feel like that’s a story that sounds plausible but has no basis. I know toasting was a thing, but for the gods/commemoration/honoring people, surely.
Wim🧮@AvenSarah I was reading about food-tasting in ancient Greece and Rome a while ago, and there was a discussion of the role of the cup-bearer, who brought the wine to the ruler and also to his guests. From that discussion, it seems they all got separate cups. The cup-bearer had to taste it to show to the ruler they hadn't poisoned it. The custom of drinking from a communal cup did not occur in any of the papers I read.
But I am not a scholar of antiquity, I just read some papers.
But I am not a scholar of antiquity, I just read some papers.
Fade@AvenSarah That sounds about as plausible as the Tumblr post that used to make the rounds about how the Medusa head was used to mark shelters for battered women fleeing their husbands in ancient Athens.