"The Egyptian beer was made from barley; but, as hops were unknown, they were obliged to have recourse to other plants, in order to give it a grateful flavour; and the lupin, the skirret, and the root of an Assyrian plant, were used by them for that purpose. ...The account given by Athenæus of Egyptian beer is that it was very strong, and had so exhilarating an effect that they danced, and sang, and committed the same excesses, as those who were intoxicated with the strongest wines: an observation confirmed by the authority of Aristotle... distinguishing persons suffering under the influence of wine and beer... how invariably the former in that state "lie upon their face, and the latter on their backs." ... The Greeks and Latins comprehended every kind of beverage made by the process of fermentation under the same general name, and beer was designated as barley-wine; but, by the use of the name zythos, they show that the Egyptians distinguished it by a totally different appellation."