Changes

===The Production and Types of Ancient Egyptian Alcohol===

Unlike today, the ancient Egyptians did not possess a variety of different types of alcohol, with only wine and beer being available because the distillation process was yet to be discovered. Wine, known in the ancient Egyptian language as <i>irep</i> was most commonly produced from fermented grapes, but wine made from palms and dates were also consumed. The process was extremely simple and not very different than methods used today to make wine: the grapes or dates were pressed in a container and then the liquid was bottled into vases. The final product had varying degrees of alcoholic content and could be either white or red wine. Although the process was easier than making beer, the fruits needed to make wine were less plentiful and therefore wine became the alcoholic beverage most consumed by nobles. <ref> Lucas, A. and J.R. Harris. <i>Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries.</i> (Mineola, New York: Dover, 1999), p. 16</ref>

===Alcohol for Leisure and Sustenance===

[[File: Ancient_Egyptian_wine_Amphoras_Louvre.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|A Cache of Ancient Egyptian Wine Amphoras in the Louvre, Paris]]

Wine and beer were consumed by all classes of ancient Egyptians for leisure and pleasure in a number of different settings. Wine was favored by the royals for its taste, as well as its intoxicating effects. The prime wine growing regions of ancient Egypt were actually not in the Nile Valley itself, but hundreds of miles to the west in the oases of the Sahara Desert with the Kharga and Bahriya Oases being the most renowned. Modern scholars believe that wine production probably began even before Egypt was a unified state around 3100 BC, but by the Old Kingdom (ca. 2686-2181 BC) there was a full-fledged wine industry in Egypt. <ref> Kemp, Barry J. “Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period.” In <i>Ancient Egypt: A Social History.</i> Edited by Bruce G. Trigger, Barry J. Kemp, David O’Connor, and Alan B. Lloyd. (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 120</ref>

===Alcohol and Ancient Egyptian Religion===

[[File: Beer_Jar.jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|A Well-Preserved Beer Jar]]

In the ancient Egyptian religion, both wine and beer played varying roles. Although the ancient Egyptians were not known for elaborate myth cycles, the myth known as <i>The Destruction of Mankind</i> was particularly popular during the New Kingdom. The story was essentially an allegory about the sometimes capricious nature of the gods and the problem of hubris within humans and how alcohol was used to alleviate the situation. In the story, the sun-god Re was angry with humans because they became arrogant and rebelled against him and the other gods, so he sent his eye to earth, which transformed into the lioness goddess of war, Sekhmet. Re watched as Sekhmet efficiently killed all humans in her path, drinking their blood in the process. Eventually, Re had second thoughts about the situation, but was unable to stop Sekhmet so he devised a plan that involved alcohol. The sun-god had his high-priest mix red ochre with beer in an effort to fool the lioness goddess. The story states: