De Plantatione

Philo Judaeus

The works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus, volume 1. Yonge, C. D., translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.

The ancients called unmixed wine οἶνος, and also μέθυ. At all events, this latter name is used in very many passages of poetry, so that if those names are accounted synonymous which are applied to one subject, then οἶνος and μέθυσμα, and other words derived from them will differ in nothing but sound, and the being overcome with wine (οἰνου̃σθαι), and the being drunk (μεθύειν), are one and the same thing.

And both these words intimate a taking of too much wine, which nevertheless there may be many reasons for a good man not turning away from; and if he be overcome with wine he will also be drunk, being nevertheless not made in any respect the worse by his drunkenness, but remaining the same as if he had simply been well filled with wine.