Cupbearer
servant whose task is to pour, (taste) and serve the drinks at the royal table
A cupbearer is traditionally the person who fills the cups and serves the wine.[1] In a medieval court (royal), the cupbearer brought his lord's ale or wine and tasted it to make sure it was not poisoned.[2] The cupbearer was often a person of high rank. It was a distinct honor to be a cupbearer to a king.[3] In the Bible, Nehemiah was cupbearer to the Artaxerxes I of Persia.[4]
A cupbearer serving his lord
References
change- ↑ "cupbearer". Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
- ↑ Melitta Weiss Adamson, Food in Medieval Times (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004), p. 163
- ↑ Anne Fitzpatrick-McKinley, Empire, Power and Indigenous Elites: A Case Study of the Nehemiah Memoir (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2015), p. 186
- ↑ Katherine Harris, Nelson's Foundational Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004), p. 511