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Question 45. Why is it that in the solemn feast called
Veneralia they let wine run so freely out of the temple of
Venus?
Solution. Is this the reason (as some say), that Mezentius the Etrurian general sent to make a league with
Aeneas, upon the condition that he might have a yearly
tribute of wine; Aeneas refusing, Mezentius engaged to
the Etrurians that he would take the wine by force of
arms and give it to them; Aeneas, hearing of his promise,
devoted his wine to the Gods, and after the victory he
gathered in the vintage, and poured it forth before the
temple of Venus? Or is this a teaching ceremony, that
we should feast with sobriety and not excess, as if the
Gods were better pleased with the spillers of wine than
with the drinkers of it?
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
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