12. Kottabos was the Ancient Greek art of flinging wine
As well as their pioneering work in the fields of science, philosophy, and mathematics, the Ancient Greeks also invented what may be the world’s first drinking game. Kottabos, or κότταβος, was a popular game played at symposia (drinking parties). Players would drink most of their goblet of wine before flinging the remainder at targets in basins, without the liquid losing its essential form. Both the airborne wine and the sound of it hitting the basin were known as latax (λάταξ). Kottabos players had to maintain a reclining posture, and fling the latax with only a flick of the wrist.
Despite being a ridiculously lazy activity, Kottabos players were viewed in the same light as those actual athletes who threw javelins in the Olympics. The sport’s popularity also meant that people would gamble heavily on competitions, and the wine-flinger took his success at the game as an omen for their future prosperity in other areas of life. References to the game dramatically reduced after the wine-loving Romans conquered Greece, and Kottabos has never been revived. If you fancy starting your own Kottabos revival, it’s probably best not to fling wine around in your parents’ living room. A frat house, perhaps?
