In vino veritas
In vino veritas is a Latin sentence that means in German: "The truth is in wine ".
The version “Truth lies in wine.” ( Ancient Greek Ἐν οἴνῳ ἀλήθεια. En oinō alētheia. ) Comes from Erasmus of Rotterdam . The connection between wine and truth goes back to the poet Alkaios of Lesbos . The Roman historian Tacitus described how Teutons always drank wine at council meetings because they believed no one could effectively lie when drunk.
The phrase was often used in connection with “in aqua sanitas”, which means “health is in water”.
Similar proverbs exist in other languages and cultures. These sentences are translated as follows:
- Chinese: "After the wine comes the true speech."
- Babylonian Talmud : "Wine comes in, a secret comes out."
- Persian: "If you are drunk, you are telling the truth." (مستی و راستی)
- Russian: «Что у трезвого на уме, то у пьяного на языке» ("What the sober thinks, the drunk chatters.")
In the 1770s Benjamin Cooke wrote a polyphonic song entitled "In Vino Veritas". The rhymes were written as follows in the original version:
- Round, round with the glass, boys, as fast as you can,
- Since he who don't drink cannot be a true man.
- For if truth is in wine, then 'tis all but a whim
- To think a man's true when the wine's not in him.
- Drink, drink, then, and hold it a maxim divine
- That there's virtue in truth, and there's truth in good wine!
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/wissenswertes-ueber-wein-in-vino-veritas.2193.de.html?dram:article_id=332846
- ^ Warren, Thomas, ed. A collection of catches, canons & glees . Wilmington, Delaware: Mellifont Press, 1970. ISBN 0842000267 .
