Acratus

Acratopotes
Acratus, Greco-Roman mosaic from Zeugma, Gaziantep Museum
God of Unmixed Wine
General Information
Species	God, Daemon
Gender identity	Male

Acratus (left) and Euphrosyne

In Greek mythology, Acratopotes (Ancient Greek: Ἀκρατοπότης) or Acratus (Ancient Greek: Ακρατος) is the god or spirit (daimon) of drinking unmixed wine. As wine was normally drank when mixed with water in Ancient Greece, Acratus/Akratos may have been associated with festive excess. He is the husband of Euphrosyne according to a mosaic.

Mythology

In Greek mythology, Acratopotes, the drinker of unmixed (as in not diluted with water) wine, was a hero worshiped in Munychia in Attica. According to Pausanias, who calls him simply Acratus, he was one of the divine companions of Dionysus, who was worshiped at Attica. Pausanias saw his image at Athens in the house of Polytion, where it was fixed in the wall.

Acratus was the demi-god (daimon) of the drinking of unmixed wine. The Greeks traditionally drank their wine mixed with water so Akratos was no doubt regarded as a deity of festive excess.

He was an attendant of the god Dionysos and a companion of Euphrosyne (Good Cheer) according to a mosaic.

“	[In the shrine of Dionysus at Athens :] ...Here there are images of . . . Apollon . . . and Akratos, a daimon attendant upon Apollon (Dionysus); it is only a face of him worked into the wall...	”
–Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 2. 5 (trans. Jones)

Acratopotes is also mentioned along with Matton and Ceraon, and were said to be heroes worshiped in Sparta in Attica by Athenaeus who cites Polemos.

“	"Polemos says that in Munychia [in Attika] honors are paid to a hero [or daimon] Acratopotes (Drinker of Unmixed Wine), and that among the Spartans statues of heroes [or daimones] named Matton (Kneader) and Ceraon (Mixer) have been set up by certain cooks in the public mess."	”
–Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, Book 2 Chapter 9 39c - 39d (trans. Gullick)