Maron's wine

Maron's wine is a potent, unblended black wine given to Odysseus by Maron, the priest of Apollo at Ismarus, which Odysseus uses to intoxicate and blind the Cyclops Polyphemus, a decisive act that enables his escape but also provokes Polyphemus's curse and Poseidon's enduring wrath.

Origin and Nature

Maron's wine originated as a gift of hospitality and gratitude. When Odysseus sacked the city of the Cicons at Ismarus, he and his men spared the life of Maron, the priest of Apollo, along with his wife and child, out of respect for his sacred office. In return, Maron made Odysseus presents of great value: seven talents of fine gold, a bowl of silver, and twelve jars of an unblended sweet wine of the most exquisite flavor. This wine was so extraordinarily strong that Maron customarily mixed twenty parts of water to a single part of wine, and yet the fragrance from the mixing-bowl was so exquisite that it was impossible to refrain from drinking. Odysseus filled a large goatskin with this wine and took a wallet full of provisions when he set out to explore the land of the Cyclopes, for his mind misgave him that he might have to deal with some savage who would respect neither right nor law.

Use Against Polyphemus

When Odysseus and twelve of his best men were trapped inside the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus, who had already devoured several of the crew, Odysseus saw the wine as his only weapon. In the evening, after the Cyclops had made his supper of two more men, Odysseus approached him with an ivy-wood bowl of the black wine. He offered it to Polyphemus, saying he was bringing it as a drink-offering in the hope that the Cyclops would take compassion on him and further him on his way home. Polyphemus was so delighted with the taste that he begged for another bowlful, declaring that the wine drank like nectar and ambrosia all in one. Three times Odysseus filled the bowl for him, and three times the Cyclops drained it without thought or heed. When the wine had got into his head, Odysseus told Polyphemus that his name was "Noman." The Cyclops, now thoroughly drunk, reeled and fell sprawling face upwards on the ground, where a deep sleep took hold upon him. He then turned sick and threw up both the wine and the gobbets of human flesh on which he had been gorging. This intoxication gave Odysseus and his men the opportunity to drive the red-hot beam of olive wood into Polyphemus's single eye, blinding him and enabling their eventual escape from the cave.

Consequences and Significance

The use of Maron's wine set in motion a chain of events that defined the remainder of Odysseus's journey. As Odysseus sailed away, he taunted Polyphemus and revealed his true name, whereupon the Cyclops prayed to his father Poseidon that Odysseus might never reach his home, or if he must, that he should do so late and in sore plight after losing all his men. Poseidon heard this prayer and thereafter persecuted Odysseus relentlessly, preventing his return for many years. The wine thus served as both the instrument of Odysseus's cunning victory and the indirect cause of his prolonged suffering. It exemplifies the Odyssean theme of metis—cunning intelligence—triumphing over brute force, but also illustrates how even a successful stratagem can incur divine wrath. The wine itself, a product of civilized hospitality and gratitude, was turned to a tool of savage deception, bridging the worlds of proper xenia and its monstrous violation. Its extraordinary potency, requiring a twenty-to-one dilution, marks it as a substance of almost magical power, fitting for an encounter with a creature outside the normal human order.