Drinking culture of ancient Egypt and the fascinating stories of Cleopatra.

The drinking culture of Egypt - This was a country built on alcohol, everyone from pharaohs to peasants drank, workers drank, even children were boozing. So why has a country built on booze seemingly gone completely sober?

Whilst we are on the subject of drinking in Egypt, we must mention one of the most famous Egyptian drunks and my favourite woman of history… Cleopatra.

Who exactly was Cleopatra and why was she so famous? What are the stories of her rise to the throne, the incest and her relationships with roman generals Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

Finally what was the true story of Cleopatra and why do people believe her to be nothing but a self obsessed, drunken whore?

This article has been covered in my latest episode of Nightcap, the podcast retelling stories of myth and murder, lies and legends in the world of drinks. Listen in here on Smartblend or check it out on Spotify here if you don’t feel like reading.

Todays drinking culture in Egypt

Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash

Drinking in Egypt is rarely seen outside the resorts and tourist areas, the dominate religion of Egypt is Islam with 90% of Egyptians being Muslims.

In Islam, alcohol is generally considered to be forbidden, and since the country is heavily influenced by Islamic culture, alcohol is usually seen with disapproval.

Although it’s not illegal to drink in Egypt, it sure is frowned upon, in-fact, drinking in the streets is a strict no go which could even lead to an arrest.

During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Egyptian states ban the sale of alcohol to Egyptian nationals regardless of their religious beliefs, even though 10 percent of the Egyptian population is Christian. You can still purchase alcohol with a foreign passport but once again, frowned upon.

However, this was not always the way… 

Ancient Egypt drinking culture

Beer and wine played an important role in ancient Egypt, in-fact some of the earliest records of wine production dated some 5000 years ago come from Egypt with the production of herbal wine. But we will come back to the wine, first, lets talk about beer.

Beer culture in ancient Egypt

A Syrian mercenary drinking beer in the company of his Egyptian wife and child, c. 1350 BC.

The tipple of choice in Egypt during the time of the pharaohs was beer as water was unsafe to drink. This is something we see in many cultures from Vikings to Anglo Saxons. Water was often contaminated with a number of life threatening nasties, by fermenting that water you create a safer drink, you also happen to produce alcohol, once you throw in some wheat, grains and/or barely, you get yourself beer.

Beer making methods have changed over the years but the process is relatively the same, turning the starches from grains into sugars, adding water and fermenting. Check out my recipe for how to make 5 gallons of Munich styled pilsner lager at home and you will see just how easy it can be.

So, beer was safer than water to drink and so every Egyptian from the pharaohs to the peasants drank beer daily, even workers who built the pyramids were paid in, you guessed it, beer!

This beer would have been around 3-5% and the workers would have been given rations of 4-5 litres of beer a day. Just remember that next time someone turns their nose up at you for having a lunch break pint, the world renown pyramids of Egypt, left standing after some 4,500 years with still no real clue on how they did it, were built by, quite possibly, drunks.

The pyramids were built on beer.

Wine culture in ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptian wine Amphoras Louvre by Vania Teofilo.

Whilst beer was a daily essential, wine was more of a luxury and only drank by those who could afford it.

Wine was more for dining, entertainment, and a showcase of class. Grapes would be grown around the river Nile. But wine wouldn’t just be made from grapes, it would also be produced from figs, pomegranates, dates and figs, likely flavoured further with herbs.

Worshiping Alcohol

If I go down my local pub on a saturday night I see an array of people worshipping alcohol with blessed pints of Strongbow Darkfruit, but Egyptians took this one step further.

Ancient Egyptians thought that alcohol had affects that brought you closer to the gods (basically, being drunk was getting a 1 on 1 phone call with the gods) and almost every god had some kind of link to alcohol from gods of beer and wine to the goddess of harvesting.

And although alcohol was worshipped for the gods and Egyptians built a culture around drinking, there is one person that stands out as one of the most influential and controversial drinkers of the day, and that is nonother other than cleopatra.

Who was Cleopatra

Cleopatra - source

The story of cleopatra is a loooong one, so many interesting twists and turns that if I mentioned them all here you’d be reading for 1 week straight, to keep it simple, here’s a quick bio from Biography online that basically sums up the question of “who was cleopatra”

Cleopatra VII Philopator (69 BC – August 12, 30 BC) was an Egyptian Queen and the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Cleopatra was a member of the Greek-speaking, Ptolemaic dynasty, who ruled Egypt from 300BC to 30 BC. Deposed from power by her brother, Cleopatra aligned herself with Julius Caesar to regain the throne. After Caesar’s murder, she became the lover to Mark Anthony. But, after Mark Anthony had been defeated by the forces of Octavian in the Roman Civil War, Anthony and Cleopatra committed suicide, rather than fall into the hands of Octavius. Her death marked the end of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt – and Egypt became absorbed into the Roman Empire. - source

For more information on who Cleopatra was in an interesting and quite funny watch, check out this CBBC horrible history song made for kids, trust me, its a good listen…

The fascinating stories of Cleopatra

Cleopatra, Love and Incest

Incest was not uncommon with ancient Egyptians, Cleopatra herself is thought to be a product of incest between her mother and father being brother and sister, but Cleopatra really took it to another level.

In order to reign in Egypt she married her brother Ptolemy XIII, who was 10 years old at the time (she was 18).

After her brother caught on to cleopatra trying to take the throne, he banished her from Egypt.

It was then when she used her skills of seduction to align herself with roman general Julius Caesar by having herself wrapped inside a rolled up rug which was smuggled into Caesars room. When the rug was opened, Cleopatra rolled out and immediately charmed Caesar dressed in all her finery.

Cleopatra meeting Julius Caesar. - source

After Ptolemy XIII’s death by her Roman-Egyptian armies, Cleopatra married his younger brother Ptolemy XIV. She was 22; he was 12. During their marriage Cleopatra continued to live with Caesar privately and acted as his mistress.

She then allegedly poisoned her new lover and co-ruler sibling so her own son could take the throne as her co-ruler.

Soon after whilst cleopatra and Caesar were in Rome, Caesar was assonated, and brutally assassinated at that, he was stabbed over 24 times with other 40 people involved.

Assassination of Julius Caesar - source.

Cleopatra then set her sights on the new Roman politician and general, Mark Antony. Whom happened to be a relative of Julius Caesar,

Cleopatra dramatically played on Mark Antony’s fascination for Greek culture and his love of luxury. She approached Tarsus by sailing up the Cydnus River in a magnificent boat with a golden prow, purple sails, and silver oars.

Musicians played whilst Cleopatra reclined under a gold-embroidered canopy dressed as Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. She was fanned by youths dressed as Eros and waited upon by girls dressed as sea nymphs, while servants wafted perfume. Using her image as a political tool

Cleopatra believed herself to be a living goddess and was aware of the relationship between image and power.

Using this knowledge, she would appear dressed as the goddess Isis at ceremonial events, and surrounded herself with luxury. Similar to how she wooed Mark Antony and Julius Caesar.

The on-going theme is that she used her looks to gain power. Roman propaganda painted her as a dangerous and seductive temptress who would use her beauty to seduce men into giving her power, they even referred to her as a ‘Drunken eastern whore.’

However, evidence points to her maybe not being this great vision of beauty, coins depict her in not so great of a light, it seems she may have covered herself in wealth to create this vision of beauty, much like people do today with clothes and make up, and early influencer if you will.

Cleopatra true depiction on a coin.

Rending of what cleopatra really looked like.

Drinking with Cleopatra

This is an article about drinking and so we should mention all the unusual stories of cleopatra and alcohol.

#1 Cleopatra and Mark Antony formed their own drinking club.

Cleopatra and Mark Antony formed their own drinking society known as the “Inimitable Livers.” The group engaged in nightly feasts and wine-binges, and its members occasionally took part in elaborate games and contests. One of Antony and Cleopatra’s favourite activities supposedly involved wandering the streets of Alexandria in disguise and playing pranks on its residents.

#2 Cleopatra and the pearl - the most expensive cocktail ever

Cleopatra bet Mark Antony that she could host the most expensive dinner in history.  After mark accepted, she crushed one large pearl from a pair of earrings and dissolved it in a goblet of vinegar, before gulping it down and winning the bet with what would become, the most expensive cocktail every, a pearl and vinegar…

For prospective, the pair of pearls where some of the largest and most expensive in the world, it’s been estimated the two pearls’ worth at 60 million sestertii, would be roughly worth $28.5 million in today’s dollars.

#3 Bathing in wine and donkey milk

Famously, Cleopatra bathed in donkey milk and wine baths. She believed that her donkey milk baths had anti-ageing and skin smoothing properties whilst wine baths where moisturizing.

How did she die

Cleopatra's suicide depicted.

With all things Cleopatra, nothing was an uninteresting thing, including her death.

Rival Roman leader Octavian eventually took over the Egyptian city of Alexandria where Cleopatra was.

A spy informed Cleopatra that Octavian intended to bring her back to Rome to be paraded as a prisoner in his Roman triumph (Game of Thrones shame style) she decided to avoid this humiliation by taking her own life, which she did by having a servant bring her an asp (a small viper) or an Egyptian cobra which she had bite her breast, or arm, or both. Story’s change but the image most depicted is that of a bite on the breast.

The asp was a symbol of royalty to the Egyptians, while the cobra was associated with Cleopatra’s favourite goddess, Isis. So either way it was quite political. She was 39 years old.

A message sent to Antony informed him that she had died by suicide. Antony ordered his slave Eros to kill him, but instead, Eros killed himself with his sword. In despair, Antony stabbed himself through the stomach with a sword.

It’s worth noting that the suicide story is often debated as not being true, but interesting nevertheless.

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