In vino veritas

Probably the best known and most quoted saying about wine. However, the original was written in ancient Greek, as it is attributed to the Greek poet Alcaeus (*630 BC) from the Greek island of Lesbos and means "There is truth in wine". This is to say that under the influence of alcohol, people are far more willing to tell the truth or openly give in to their feelings than when they are sober. The phrase was also often used in connection with "in aqua sanitas", which means "in water lies health".

The saying was used by many great minds. These included the Greek philosophers and poets Theognis (around 600 BC), Aeschylus (525-456 BC), Plato (427-347 BC) and Theocritus (300-260 BC), as well as the Latin version by the Roman authors Horace (65-8 BC) and Pliny the Elder (23-79). A well-known dispute in the drama "Wallenstein - Piccolomini" by Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) also describes this phenomenon: (Terzky) The wine speaks from him! Do not hear him, I beg you. (Isolani) Wine invents nothing, it only talks it out.

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In vino veritas

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