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Making wine
#1
I have a few questions about ancient wine-making that hopefully someone can answer. I’ve been reading Longus’ pastoral Daphnis and Chloe and came across this passage:

Quote:This one was busy with a small hook for cutting the grape clusters, that one was looking for a stone big enough to crush the clusters of juicy grapes, and another hunted for a dry stick smoothed by blows so that the must of the grapes could be carried out at night under the lead of a lantern… Daphnis lifted grapes in baskets and emptied them into the presses and stomped on them.

First, if people stomped on the grapes (I suppose the traditional image of wine-making), what was the big stone used for? Was it used before stomping, or after, or what?

Second, what is going on with the dry stick? I assume the must was beaten with the stick, but I don’t understand the phrase “carried out at night under the lead of a lantern.”
David J. Cord
www.davidcord.com
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#2
You may find the answer here. (No promises, though.)
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#3
You've intrigued me, now.
Quote:..., and another hunted for a dry stick smoothed by blows so that the must of the grapes could be carried out at night under the lead of a lantern

I think your translation is faulty (or extremely archaic). The new-ish Oxford World's Classics version reads:
Quote:... a sixth was making a bundle of dry withies, which had been pounded and shredded for use as torches, so that there would be light for conveying the grape-juice after dark.
The phrase literally reads "another [was looking for] a dry withy which had been shredded and pounded, so that, by night, the grape-juice would be carried in the light".

The torch (or lamp) seems to be understood.
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#4
Aha. Yes, my translation is a very old one, and it could also be faulty. Thanks.
David J. Cord
www.davidcord.com
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