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Greek Mythology >> Greek Gods >> Rustic Gods >> Acratus (Akratos)

AKRATOS

Greek Name

Ακρατος

Transliteration

Akratos

Latin Spelling

Acratus

Translation

Unmixed-Wine (akratos)

Acratus | Greco-Roman mosaic from Zeugma | Gaziantep Museum
Acratus, Greco-Roman mosaic from Zeugma, Gaziantep Museum

AKRATOS (Acratus) was the demi-god (daimon) of the drinking of unmixed wine. The Greeks traditionally drank their wine mixed with water so Akratos was no doubt regarded as a deity of festive excess.

He was an attendant of the god Dionysos and a companion of Euphrosyne (Good Cheer).


PARENTS

Nowhere stated


CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 2. 5 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"[In the shrine of Dionysos at Athens :] Here there are images of . . . Apollon . . . and Akratos (Acratus), a daimon attendant upon Apollon; it is only a face of him worked into the wall."

Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 39c - 39d (trans. Gullick) (Greek rhetorician C2nd to C3rd A.D.) :
"Polemos says that in Mounykhia (Munychia) [in Attika] honours are paid to a hero [or daimon] Akratopotes (Acratopotes, Drinker of Unmixed Wine), and that among the Spartans statues of heroes [or daimones] named Matton (Kneader) and Keraon (Ceraon, Mixer) have been set up by certain cooks in the public mess."


ALTERNATE NAME SPELLINGS

Greek Name

Ακρατοποτης

Transliteration

Akratopotês

Latin Spelling

Acratopotes

Translation

Drinking of Neat Wine (akratopoteô)


SOURCES

GREEK

OTHER SOURCES

Other references not currently quoted here: Polemo Historicus 40 (Keraon and Akratopotes).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.