Greece, the land of myths and Mythos. The missus and I went there for our honeymoon, but that was so long ago that back then Zeus and Hera were only dating. I’ve heard a lot of Greek myths over the years. We even reviewed The Odyssey, the beer of course, the book is far too long to actually read.*
As for Greek myths, they have just about everything you could want in an adventure tale. Monsters, Queen’s in distress, hero Kings, a Cyclops, the Minotaur, beautiful witches, visits to the underworld (the hell you say), Medusa, benevolent Gods and vengeful ones, triumphant returns and killing galore, but no unicorns. So why does this Greek beer Mythos have a unicorn for a logo?
It appears that the ancient Greeks were aware of unicorns but they weren’t myths, to them they were real beasts in the faraway and exotic lands of Asia. Apparently in the Bible unicorns are mentioned a number of times.** Unfortunately there are none around today.
Another keg of beer or the unicorns? We don’t have room for both. What’s it going to be?
I did some research and it seems that according to the leading modern day authority on unicorns, The Irish Rovers, that God had explicitly told Noah not to forget the unicorns. However, while Noah was loading the boat, the unicorns were “playing silly games” and wouldn’t come. So the waters came down and floated them away and that’s why sure as you’re born, you’re never gonna see no unicorn.*** I wonder if that’s where the expression “missed the boat” came from?****
One of Olympic Brewery’s contributions to Greek culture is their lager Mythos. They also brew the popular Greek beer Fix which has been around since 1864. However since 2018 Olympic has become a part of Danish culture, that is when Carlsberg bought them.
Full throttle out of the bottle. A slim trim 330mls and a snap cap to boot. Reminds me of my skinny little Greek beer of days gone by. The aroma out of the bottle is a bit off-putting, high and grainy. It probably needed to breathe, I certainly did after taking a whiff. But my main intention is to drink it, a swigger not a snifter. First taste is light malt grain and lager sweet with a very slight bitter finish. Extremely easy drinking. Now the sweet is gone leaving a nice fresh and crisp lager. Very refreshing. A bottle rocket, that 330ml became 0 ml quicker than you could say “where did all the unicorns go”. Well OK, not quite that quick but pretty damn quick. Like Greece lightning.
A summertime Island of Crete treat.
*Editor’s Comment: Some of us have read The Odyssey, a true classic. As ancient poetry is has 12,110 lines, which depending on the book edition can run from 320 to 575 pages.
**Editor’s Comment: The Hebrew word “re’em” is found in a number of Biblical passages and has been translated to unicorn. Modern day translations will often refer to it as a wild ox.
Job 39:9–10: “Will the unicorn consent to serve you? Will it stay by your manger at night? Can you hold it to the furrow with a harness?”
***Editor’s Comment: The 1962 Irish Rover’s song “The Unicorn” was written by Shel Silverstein. The same Shel Silverstein that wrote a number of children’s books. He also wrote the 1969 Johnny Cash hit song “A Boy named Sue” and was the recipient of two Grammy awards for his songs.
****Editor’s Comment: Nope, you sure missed the boat on that one. The expression “missed the boat” first appeared in the 1800’s and was quite literal, referring to someone who was late and had actually missed the boat.
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