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Why on the festival of the Veneralia do they
pour out a great quantity of wine from the temple of
Venus?1
Is it true, as most authorities affirm, that Mezentius,
general of the Etruscans, sent to Aeneas and offered
peace on condition of his receiving the year's vintage?
But when Aeneas refused, Mezentius promised his
Etruscans that when he had prevailed in battle, he
would give them the wine. Aeneas learned of his
promise and consecrated the wine to the gods, and
after his victory he collected all the vintage and
poured it out in front of the temple of Venus.
Or is this also symbolic, indicating that men should
be sober and not drunken on festival days, since the
gods take more pleasure in those who spill much
strong drink than in those who imbibe it?
1 Cf. Ovid, Fasti, iv. 877 ff.: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, i. 65; Pliny, Natural History, xiv. 12 (88), where the authority cited is Varro. Plutarch speaks of the festival of Vinalia (April 23) as Veneralia perhaps because Venus (together with Jupiter) was the protecting deity of the vine.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
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