In vino consolatio
Year: 2023

Debate and dispute literature are present in Armenian from the very beginning of the Armenian literary tradition, but native compositions of dispute poetry only date to the 12th c. Matenadaran MS 8029 (prior to 1376) contains within it a dispute poem between a philosopher, grape, and wine attributed to Tērtēr Erewancʽi (ca. 1300–1360). In the poem, the philosopher accuses wine of ruining lives and of driving people to sin. In its defense, wine argues that it was not created for evil purposes, bu