Ancient Greek cuisine

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ancient Greek cuisine was characterized by its

agricultural hardship, but a great diversity of ingredients was known, and wealthy Greeks were known to celebrate with elaborate meals and feasts.[1]
: 95(129c) 

The cuisine was founded on the "Mediterranean triad" of

legumes. Research suggests that the agricultural system of ancient Greece could not have succeeded without the cultivation of legumes.[3]

Modern knowledge of ancient Greek cuisine and eating habits is derived from textual, archeological, and artistic evidence.

Meals

Myrina, Louvre

In the Homeric epics of the Iliad and Odyssey, three meals are mentioned.

  1. Ariston (ἄριστον)
  2. Dorpon (δόρπον) or Dorpos (δόρπος)
  3. Deipnon (δεῖπνον)

Ariston was the early meal, while dorpon was the late meal. Deipnon could be either, without reference to time.[4][5]

In the later age Greeks had the below meals:

  1. Acratisma (ἀκράτισμα)
  2. Ariston
  3. Deipnon

Acratisma was the early meal (similar to the ariston of the homeric age), ariston was the middle meal and deipnon was the evening meal (similar to the dorpon of the homeric age).[4][5]

Description of the meals

Breakfast

dates or olives.[7] They also ate a sort of pancake called τηγανίτης (tēganítēs), τηγανίτης (tēganítēs)[8] or ταγηνίας (tagēnías),[9] all words deriving from τάγηνον (tágēnon), "frying pan".[10] The earliest attested references on tagenias are in the works of the 5th century BCE poets Cratinus[11] and Magnes.[12]

Tagenites were made with wheat flour, olive oil, honey and curdled milk, and were served for breakfast.[13][14][15] Another kind of pancake was σταιτίτης (staititēs), from σταίτινος (staitinos), "of flour or dough of spelt",[16] derived from σταῖς (stais), "flour of spelt".[17] Athenaeus in his Deipnosophistae mentions staititas topped with honey, sesame and cheese.[18][19][20]

Lunch

A quick lunch (ἄριστον áriston[21]) was taken around noon or early afternoon.[22]

Dinner

Dinner (δεῖπνον deīpnon), the most important meal of the day, was generally taken at nightfall.[22] An additional light meal (ἑσπέρισμα hespérisma) was sometimes taken in the late afternoon.[22] Ἀριστόδειπνον / aristódeipnon, literally "lunch-dinner", was served in the late afternoon instead of dinner.[23]

Epideipnis (ἐπιδειπνίς) was a second course at dinner.[24]

Eating customs

Men and women took their meals separately.[25] When the house was small, the men ate first and the women afterwards.[26] Respect for the father who was the breadwinner was obvious.[27] Slaves waited at dinners. Aristotle notes that "the poor, having no slaves, would ask their wives or children to serve food."

The ancient Greek custom of placing terracotta miniatures of furniture in children's graves gives a good idea of its style and design. The Greeks normally ate while seated on chairs; benches were used for banquets.[28] Tables - high for normal meals, low for banquets - were initially rectangular. By the 4th century BCE, most tables were round, often with animal-shaped legs (for example lion's paws).

Loaves of flat bread were occasionally used as plates; terracotta bowls were more common.[29] Loaves were usually flat, circular and indented into four or more parts, but there are instances which were also made in other forms, such as cubes.[30] Dishes became more refined over time, and by the Roman period plates were sometimes made out of precious metals or glass. Cutlery was not often used at the table. Use of the fork was unknown; people ate with their fingers.[31] Knives were used to cut the meat.[29] Spoons were used for soups and broths.[29] Pieces of bread (ἀπομαγδαλία apomagdalía) could be used to spoon the food[31] or as napkins to wipe the fingers.[32]

Social dining

As with modern dinner parties, the host could simply invite friends or family; but two other forms of social dining were well documented in ancient Greece: the entertainment of the all-male symposium, and the obligatory, regimental syssitia.

Symposium

Main article: Symposium
kottabos, a playful subversion of the libation, ca. 510 BCE, Louvre

The symposium (συμπόσιον sympósion), traditionally translated as "banquet", but more literally "gathering of drinkers",[33] was one of the preferred pastimes for Greek men. It consisted of two parts: the first dedicated to food, generally rather simple, and a second part dedicated to drinking.[33] However, wine was consumed with the food, and the beverages were accompanied by snacks (τραγήματα tragēmata) such as chestnuts, beans, toasted wheat, or honey cakes, all intended to absorb alcohol and extend the drinking spree.[34]

The second part was inaugurated with a

kottabos
. The guests would recline on couches (κλίναι klínai); low tables held the food or game boards.

Dancers, acrobats, and musicians would entertain the wealthy banqueters. A "king of the banquet" was drawn by lots; he had to direct the slaves as to how strong to mix the wine.[35]

With the exception of courtesans, the banquet was strictly reserved for men. It was an essential element of Greek social life. Great feasts could only be afforded by the rich; in most Greek homes, religious feasts or family events were the occasion of more modest banquets.

The banquet became the setting of a specific genre of literature, giving birth to Plato's Symposium, Xenophon's work of the same name, the Table Talk of Plutarch's Moralia, and the Deipnosophists (Banquet of the Learned) of Athenaeus.

Syssitia

Main article: Syssitia

The

hetairia
, pheiditia, or andreia (literally, "belonging to men").

They served as both a kind of aristocratic club and as a military mess. Like the symposium, the syssitia was the exclusive domain of men – although some references have been found to substantiate all-female syssitia. Unlike the symposium, these meals were hallmarked by simplicity and temperance.

Ingredients and dishes

First she set for them a fair and well made table that had feet of cyanus; On it there was a vessel of bronze and an onion to give relish to the drink, with honey and cakes of barley meal.

— Homer, Iliad Book XI[36]

Grains

Breads, cakes and biscuits

National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Cereals formed the staple diet. The two main grains were wheat (σῖτος sītos) and barley (κριθή krithē).[37]

When Greece was conquered by Rome during the 3rd century B.C., commercial bakeries were well known and spread. In fact Pliny the Elder suggests that the production of bread moved from the family to the "industrial" thanks to the work of skilled artisans (according to Pliny, starting from 171 BCE).[38] Plato favored home production over commercial production and in Gorgias, described Thearion the baker as an Athenian novelty who sells goods that could be made at home.[39]

In ancient Greece, bread was served with accompaniments known as opson ὄψον, sometimes rendered in English as "relish".[40] This was a generic term which referred to anything which accompanied this staple food, whether meat or fish, fruit or vegetable.

Cakes may have been consumed for religious reasons as well as secular.

dithyrambic style used for sacred Dionysian
hymns: "mixed with safflower, toasted, wheat-oat-white-chickpea-little thistle-little-sesame-honey-mouthful of everything, with a honey rim".

Athenaeus says the charisios was eaten at the "all-night festival", but John Wilkins notes that the distinction between the sacred and secular can be blurred in antiquity.[39]

Melitoutta (

Ancient Greek: μελιτοῦττα), was a honeycake[41][42][43] and oinoutta (οἰνοῦττα) was a cake or porridge of barley mixed with wine, water, and oil.[44] Placenta cake was a thin, flat cake of flour, mixed with cheese and honey.[45]

Itrion (ἴτριον), was a biscuit/cake made with sesame seeds and honey, similar to the modern Sesame seed candy.[46]

Kopte sesamis (κοπτὴ σησαμίς), sometimes called simply κοπτὴ, was a cake made from pounded sesame.[47]

Wheat

Wheat grains were softened by soaking, then either reduced into

wine yeast as leavening agents.[49] Dough loaves were baked at home in a clay oven (ἰπνός ipnós) set on legs.[50]

emmer wheat and barley.[51]

A simpler baking method involved placing lighted coals on the floor and covering the heap with a dome-shaped lid (πνιγεύς pnigeús); when it was hot enough, the coals were swept aside, and dough loaves were placed on the warm floor. The lid was then put back in place, and the coals were gathered on the side of the cover.[52]

The stone oven did not appear until the Roman period. Solon, an Athenian lawmaker of the 6th century BCE, prescribed that leavened bread be reserved for feast days.[53] By the end of the 5th century BCE, leavened bread was sold at the market, though it was expensive.[54]

Barley

Barley was easier to grow than wheat, but more difficult to make bread from. Barley-based breads were nourishing but very heavy.[55] Because of this, it was often roasted before being milled into coarse flour (ἄλφιτα álphita). Barley flour was used to make μᾶζα maza, the basic Greek dish. Maza could be served cooked or raw, as a broth, or made into dumplings or flatbreads.[48] Like wheat breads, it could also be augmented with cheese or honey.

In Peace, Aristophanes employs the expression ἐσθίειν κριθὰς μόνας, literally "to eat only barley", with a meaning equivalent to the English "diet of bread and water".[56]

Millet

Late Bronze Age in Macedonia and northern Greece.[57] Hesiod describes that "the beards grow round the millet, which men sow in summer."[58][59]

Millet is listed along with wheat in the 3rd century BCE by Theophrastus in his "Enquiry into Plants"[60]

Emmer

Black bread, made from emmer (sometimes called "emmer wheat"), was cheaper (and easier to make) than wheat; it was associated with the lower classes and the poor.[3]

Legumes

lentils - which have been found in archeological sites in Greece dating to the Upper Paleolithic period. As one of the first domesticated crops to be introduced to Greece, lentils are commonly found at regional archaeological sites from the Upper Paleolithic.[61]

Lentils and chickpeas are the most frequently mentioned legumes in classical literature.[61]

  • Bitter vetch[3] – This plant was present in Greece from at least 8000 BCE, and was occasionally eaten in Classical times. Most ancient literature that mentions it describes it as animal food and having a disagreeable taste. Several classical authors suggest medicinal uses for it.[61]: 378 
  • Black beans – Homer mentions the threshing a black bean (not black turtle beans) as a metaphor in the Iliad[62]
  • Broad beans[3] – Broad, or Fava Beans are rare in archeological sites, but are common in classical literature. They were eaten both as main dishes and also included in desserts (mixed with figs). In addition to describing them as food, classical authors attribute various medicinal qualities to the beans.[61]
    : 380 
  • Chickpeas[60] – Chickpeas are mentioned almost as frequently in classical literature as lentils (by Aristophanes and Theophrastus among others), but are found rarely in archeological sites in Greece. As they are found in prehistoric sites in the Middle East and India, it is likely their use was a late addition to the Ancient Greek diet[61]
    : 376 
  • Grass peas[3] – Like bitter vetch, grass peas were grown in ancient Greece mainly for animal fodder, however they were occasionally eaten in times of famine [61]: 381 
  • Lentils[60] – Theophrastus states that "of the leguminous plants, the lentil is the most prolific"[63]
  • Lupin bean[60] – Lupin (or Lupine, Lupini) beans were present in the Mediterranean region from prehistoric times and were cultivated in Egypt by at least 2000 BCE. By classical times, the Greeks were using them for both food and animal fodder.[64]
  • Garden peas[3][65] – Peas are commonly found in some of the earliest archaeological sites in Greece, but are rarely mentioned in classical literature. However Hesiod and Theophrastus both include them as food eaten by Greeks[61]
    : 381 

Fruit and vegetables

In ancient Greece, fruit and vegetables were a significant part of the diet, as the ancient Greeks consumed much less meat than in the typical diet of modern societies.[66] Legumes would have been important crops, as their ability to replenish exhausted soil was known at least by the time of Xenophon.[67]

Hesiod (7th-8th century BCE) describes many crops eaten by the ancient Greeks, among these are artichokes[59] and peas.[65]

Vegetables were eaten as

Olives were a common appetizer.[70]

In the cities, fresh vegetables were expensive, and therefore, the poorer city dwellers had to make do with

dried vegetables. Lentil soup (φακῆ phakē) was the workman's typical dish.[71] Cheese, garlic, and onions were the soldier's traditional fare.[72] In Aristophanes' Peace, the smell of onions typically represents soldiers; the chorus, celebrating the end of war, sings Oh! joy, joy! No more helmet, no more cheese nor onions![73] Bitter vetch (ὄροβος orobos) was considered a famine food.[74]

chick peas, and beechnuts
.

Animals

See also: Animals in ancient Greece and Rome

Meat

kylix by the Epidromos Painter, c. 510–500 BCE, Louvre
.

In the 8th century BCE, Hesiod describes the ideal country feast in Works and Days:

But at that time let me have a shady rock and Bibline wine, a clot of curds and milk of drained goats with the flesh of a heifer fed in the woods, that has never calved, and of firstling kids; then also let me drink bright wine…[76]

Meat is much less prominent in texts of the 5th century BCE onwards than in the earliest poetry[

paunches and tripe
.

But above all I do delight in dishes

Of paunches and of tripe from gelded beasts,

And love a fragrant pig within the oven.

— Hipparchus (c.190 – c.120 BCE), [78]

Hippolochus (3rd Century BCE) describes a wedding banquet in Macedonia with "chickens and ducks, and ringdoves, too, and a goose, and an abundance of suchlike viands piled high... following which came a second platter of silver, on which again lay a huge loaf, and geese, hares, young goats, and curiously moulded cakes besides, pigeons, turtle-doves, partridges, and other fowl in plenty..." and "a roast pig — a big one, too — which lay on its back upon it; the belly, seen from above, disclosed that it was full of many bounties. For, roasted inside it, were thrushes, ducks, and warblers in unlimited number, pease purée poured over eggs, oysters, and scallops"[1]: 95(129c) 

salt, vinegar and blood.[29] The dish was served with maza, figs and cheese sometimes supplemented with game and fish.[81] The 2nd–3rd century author Aelian claims that Spartan cooks were prohibited from cooking anything other than meat.[82]

The consumption of fish and meat varied in accordance with the wealth and location of the household; in the country, hunting (primarily trapping) allowed for consumption of birds and hares. Peasants also had farmyards to provide them with chickens and geese. Slightly wealthier landowners could raise goats, pigs, or sheep. In the city, meat was expensive except for pork. In Aristophanes' day a piglet cost three drachmas,[83] which was three days' wages for a public servant. Sausages were common both for the poor and the rich.[84] Archaeological excavations at Kavousi Kastro, Lerna, and Kastanas have shown that dogs were sometimes consumed in Bronze Age Greece, in addition to the more commonly-consumed pigs, cattle, sheep, and goats.[85]

Fish

Fresh fish, one of the favourite dishes of the Greeks, platter with red figures, c. 350–325 BCE, Louvre

Herodotus describes a "large fish... of the sort called Antacaei, without any prickly bones, and good for pickling," probably

sea raven (korakinoi); black carp (melanes kyprinoi), porpoise (phykaina), and mackerel (scomber).[86]

In the Greek islands and on the coast, fresh fish and seafood (

Akraiphia, on Lake Copais, provides us with a list of fish prices. The cheapest was skaren (probably parrotfish) whereas Atlantic bluefin tuna was three times as expensive.[88] Common salt water fish were yellowfin tuna, red mullet, ray, swordfish or sturgeon, a delicacy which was eaten salted. Lake Copais itself was famous in all Greece for its eels, celebrated by the hero of The Acharnians. Other fresh water fish were pike-fish, carp and the less appreciated catfish. In classical Athens, eels,[89] conger-eels, and sea-perch (ὈρΦὸς) were considered to be great delicacies, while sprats were cheap and readily available.[90]

Fowl

Ancient Greeks consumed a much wider variety of birds than is typical today. Pheasants were present as early as 2000 BCE. Domestic

blackcap, Rock partridge, grebe, plover, coot, wagtail, francolin, and even cranes were hunted, or trapped, and eaten, and sometimes available in markets.[91]
: 63 

Eggs and dairy products

Eggs

Greeks bred

yolks and whole eggs were also used as ingredients in the preparation of dishes.[93]

Milk

Hesiod describes "milk cake, and milk of goats drained dry" in his Works and Days. Country dwellers drank milk (γάλα gala), but it was seldom used in cooking.[citation needed]

Butter

Butter (βούτυρον bouturon) was known but seldom used: Greeks saw it as a culinary trait of the Thracians of the northern Aegean coast, whom the Middle Comic poet Anaxandrides dubbed "butter eaters".[94]

Cheese and yogurt

The Odyssey.[91]
: 66 

Greeks enjoyed other

dairy products. Πυριατή pyriatē and Oxygala (οξύγαλα) were curdled milk products, similar to cottage cheese[95] or perhaps to yogurt.[96] Most of all, goat's and ewe's cheese (τυρός tyros) was a staple food. Fresh cheeses (sometimes wrapped in dragon arum leaves to retain freshness) and hard cheeses were sold in different shops; the former cost about two thirds of the latter's price.[97]

Cheese was eaten alone or with honey or vegetables. It was also used as an ingredient in the preparation of many dishes, including fish dishes (see recipe below by Mithaecus).[98] However, the addition of cheese seems to have been a controversial matter; Archestratus warns his readers that Syracusan cooks spoil good fish by adding cheese.

Spices and seasonings

The first spice mentioned in Ancient Greek writings is cassia:[99] Sappho (6th-7th Century BCE) mentions it in her poem on the marriage of Hector and Andromache.[100]: 44, ln 30  The ancient Greeks made a distinction between Ceylon cinnamon and cassia.[60]

Ancient Greeks used at least two forms of pepper in cooking and medicine:[101] one of Aristotle's students, Theophrastus, in describing the plants that appeared in Greece as a result of Alexander's conquest of India and Asia Minor,[102] listed both black pepper and long pepper, stating "one is round like bitter vetch...: the other is elongated and black and has seeds like those of a poppy : and this kind is much stronger than the other. Both however are heating...".[63]

Theophrastus lists several plants in his book as "pot herbs" including dill, coriander, anise, cumin, fennel,[103]: 81  rue,[103]: 27  celery and celery seed.[103]: 125 

Recipes

Homer describes the preparation of a wine and cheese drink: taking "Pramnian wine she grated goat's milk cheese into it with a bronze grater [and] threw in a handful of white barley meal."[104] (Book 11 of the Iliad)

One fragment survives of the first known cookbook in any culture, it was written by Mithaecus (5th Century BCE) and is quoted in the "Deipnosophistae" of Athenaeus. It is a recipe for a fish called "tainia" (meaning "ribbon" in Ancient Greek - probably the species Cepola macrophthalma),[105]

"Tainia": gut, discard the head, rinse, slice; add cheese and [olive] oil.[106]

silphium".[78]

Drink

National Archaeological Museum of Athens
.

The most widespread drink was water. Fetching water was a daily task for women. Though wells were common, spring water was preferred: it was recognized as nutritious because it caused plants and trees to grow,[108] and also as a desirable beverage.[109] Pindar called spring water "as agreeable as honey".[110]

The Greeks would describe water as robust,

goats' milk
, was not widely consumed, being considered barbaric.

The usual drinking vessel was the

kylix (a shallow footed bowl), and for banquets the kantharos (a deep cup with handles) or the rhyton
, a drinking horn often moulded into the form of a human or animal head.

Wine

See also: Ancient Greece and wine
kylix
with wine, c. 490–480 BCE, Louvre

The Greeks are thought to have made

Thásos, Lesbos and Chios.[121]

Cretan wine came to prominence later. A secondary wine made from water and pomace (the residue from squeezed grapes), mixed with lees, was made by country people for their own use. The Greeks sometimes sweetened their wine with honey and made medicinal wines by adding thyme, pennyroyal and other herbs. By the first century, if not before, they were familiar with wine flavoured with pine resin (modern retsina).[122] Aelian also mentions a wine mixed with perfume.[123] Cooked wine was known,[124] as well as a sweet wine from Thásos, similar to port wine.

Wine was generally cut with water. The drinking of akraton or "unmixed wine", though known to be practised by northern barbarians, was thought likely to lead to madness and death.

Arcadia rendered men foolish but women fertile; conversely, Achaean wine was thought to induce abortion.[126]

Outside of these therapeutic uses, Greek society did not approve of women drinking wine. According to Aelian, a Massalian law prohibited this and restricted women to drinking water.[127] Sparta was the only city where women routinely drank wine.

Wine reserved for local use was kept in skins. That destined for sale was poured into πίθοι

pithoi, (large terra cotta jugs). From there they were decanted into amphoras sealed with pitch for retail sale.[128]
Vintage wines carried stamps from the producers or city magistrates who guaranteed their origin. This is one of the first instances of indicating the geographical or qualitative provenance of a product.

Kykeon

Hecamede preparing kykeon for Nestor, kylix by the Brygos Painter, ca. 490 BCE, Louvre

The Greeks also drank

goat cheese.[129] In the Odyssey, Circe adds honey and a magic potion to it.[130] In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the goddess refuses red wine but accepts a kykeon made of water, flour, and pennyroyal.[131]

Used as a ritual beverage in the

Assembly with his bad breath.[132] It also had a reputation as a good digestive, and as such, in Peace, Hermes recommends it to the main character who has eaten too much dried fruit.[133]

Ancient writers

Timachidas the

Thasian, who was called Lentil-soup, Artemidoros, who was called the Pseudoaristophanean and Philoxenos, son of Leukadios wrote cookbooks.[134] Mithaecus[135] and Zopyrinus (Ζωπύρινος) wrote works on cookery.[136]

Athenaeus work called Deipnosophistae is an important source of recipes in classical Greece. Furthemore, in his work he mentioned several ancient authors (termed δειπνολόγοι), but their writings have now lost and only fragments quoted by him survive.[5]

In addition, some flat-cakes took their names from Philoxenos and were called Philoxenean (Φιλοξένειοι πλακοῦντες).[134]

Cultural beliefs about the role of food

Food played an important part in the Greek mode of thought. Classicist John Wilkins notes that "in the Odyssey for example, good men are distinguished from bad and Greeks from foreigners partly in terms of how and what they ate. Herodotus identified people partly in terms of food and eating".[137]

Up to the 3rd century BCE, the frugality imposed by the physical and climatic conditions of the country was held as virtuous. The Greeks did not ignore the pleasures of eating, but valued simplicity. The rural writer Hesiod, as cited above, spoke of his "flesh of a heifer fed in the woods, that has never calved, and of firstling kids" as being the perfect closing to a day. Nonetheless, Chrysippus is quoted as saying that the best meal was a free one.[138]

Persian Empire were considered so due to their luxurious taste, which manifested itself in their cuisine.[139] The Greek authors took pleasure in describing the table of the Achaemenid Great King and his court: Herodotus,[140] Clearchus of Soli,[141] Strabo[142] and Ctesias[143]
were unanimous in their descriptions.

In contrast, Greeks as a whole stressed the austerity of their own diet. Plutarch tells how the king of

Mardonius, equally ridiculed the Persians, "who having so much, came to rob the Greeks of their miserable living".[146]

In consequence of this cult of frugality, and the diminished regard for cuisine it inspired, the kitchen long remained the domain of women, free or enslaved. In the classical period, however, culinary specialists began to enter the written record. Both Aelian[147] and Athenaeus mention the thousand cooks who accompanied Smindyride of Sybaris on his voyage to Athens at the time of Cleisthenes, if only disapprovingly. Plato in Gorgias, mentions "Thearion the cook, Mithaecus the author of a treatise on Sicilian cooking, and Sarambos the wine merchant; three eminent connoisseurs of cake, kitchen and wine."[148] Some chefs also wrote treatises on cuisine.

Over time, more and more Greeks presented themselves as gourmets. From the Hellenistic to the Roman period, the Greeks — at least the rich — no longer appeared to be any more austere than others. The cultivated guests of the feast hosted by Athenaeus in the 2nd or 3rd century devoted a large part of their conversation to wine and gastronomy. They discussed the merits of various wines, vegetables, and meats, mentioning renowned dishes (stuffed cuttlefish, red tuna belly, prawns, lettuce watered with mead) and great cooks such as Soterides, chef to king Nicomedes I of Bithynia (who reigned from the 279 to 250 BCE). When his master was inland, he pined for anchovies; Soterides simulated them from carefully carved turnips, oiled, salted and sprinkled with poppy seeds.[149] Suidas (an encyclopaedia from the Byzantine period) mistakenly attributes this exploit to the celebrated Roman gourmet Apicius (1st century BCE) —[150] which may be taken as evidence that the Greeks had reached the same level as the Romans.

Specific diets

Vegetarianism

National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Orphicism and Pythagoreanism, two common ancient Greek religions, suggested a different way of life, based on a concept of purity and thus purification (κάθαρσις katharsis) — a form of asceticism in the original sense: ἄσκησις askēsis initially signifies a ritual, then a specific way of life. Vegetarianism
was a central element of Orphicism and of several variants of Pythagoreanism.

Empedocles (5th century BCE) justified vegetarianism by a belief in the transmigration of souls: who could guarantee that an animal about to be slaughtered did not house the soul of a human being? However, it can be observed that Empedocles also included plants in this transmigration, thus the same logic should have applied to eating them.[151] Vegetarianism was also a consequence of a dislike for killing: "For Orpheus taught us rights and to refrain from killing".[152]

The information from

cock
or selected animal parts.

It follows that vegetarianism and the idea of ascetic purity were closely associated, and often accompanied by sexual abstinence. In On the eating of flesh, Plutarch (1st–2nd century) elaborated on the barbarism of blood-spilling; inverting the usual terms of debate, he asked the meat-eater to justify his choice.[154]

The Neoplatonic Porphyrius (3rd century) associates in On Abstinence vegetarianism with the Cretan mystery cults, and gives a census of past vegetarians, starting with the semi-mythical Epimenides. For him, the origin of vegetarianism was Demeter's gift of wheat to Triptolemus so that he could teach agriculture to humanity. His three commandments were: "Honour your parents", "Honour the gods with fruit", and "Spare the animals".[155]

Athlete diets

Aelian claims that the first athlete to submit to a formal diet was Ikkos of Tarentum, a victor in the Olympic pentathlon (perhaps in 444 BCE).[156] However, Olympic wrestling champion (62nd through 66th Olympiads) Milo of Croton was already said to eat twenty pounds of meat and twenty pounds of bread and to drink eight quarts of wine each day.[157] Before his time, athletes were said to practice ξηροφαγία xērophagía (from ξηρός xēros, "dry"), a diet based on dry foods such as dried figs, fresh cheese and bread.[158] Pythagoras (either the philosopher or a gymnastics master of the same name) was the first to direct athletes to eat meat.[159]

Trainers later enforced some standard diet rules: to be an Olympic victor, "you have to eat according to regulations, keep away from desserts (…); you must not drink cold water nor can you have a drink of wine whenever you want".[160] It seems this diet was primarily based on meat, for Galen (ca. 180 CE) accused athletes of his day of "always gorging themselves on flesh and blood".[161] Pausanias also refers to a "meat diet".[162]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "LacusCurtius - Athenaeus — Deipnosophistae, Book IV.128A‑138B". penelope.uchicago.edu.
  2. ^ The expression originates in Sir Colin Renfrew's The Emergence of Civilisation: The Cyclades and the Aegean in The Third Millennium BC, 1972, p.280.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Flint-Hamilton 1999
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-1017596977
    .
  5. ^ a b c Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Cena
  6. ^ A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), Acratisma
  7. ^ Flacelière, p.205.
  8. ^ ταγηνίτης, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  9. ^ ταγηνίας, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  10. ^ τάγηνον, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  11. ^ Cratinus, 125, Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta
  12. ^ Magnes, 1
  13. ^ Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti, Meals and recipes from ancient Greece, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007, p.111
  14. ^ Andrew Dalby, Siren feasts: a history of food and gastronomy in Greece, Routledge, 1996, p.91
  15. ^ Gene A. Spiller, The Mediterranean diets in health and disease, AVI/Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991, p.34
  16. ^ σταίτινος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  17. ^ σταῖς, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  18. ^ Atheneaus, The Deipnosophists, 646b, on Perseus
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  20. ^ Athenaeus and S. Douglas Olson, The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII: Books 13.594b-14, Loeb Classical Library, 2011, pp.277–278
  21. ^ At the time of Homer and the early tragedies, the term signified the first meal of the day, which was not necessarily frugal: in Iliad 24:124, Achilles's companions slaughter a sheep for breakfast.
  22. ^ a b c Flacelière, p.206.
  23. ^ Alexis fgt.214 Kock = Athenaeus 47e.
  24. ^ Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Epideipnis
  25. ^ Dalby, p.5.
  26. ^ Dalby, p.15.
  27. ^ Politics 1323a4.
  28. ^ Dalby, pp.13–14.
  29. ^ a b c d Flacelière, p.209.
  30. ^ A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), Pistor
  31. ^ a b Sparkes, p.132.
  32. ^ Aristophanes Knights 413–16; Pollux 6.93.
  33. ^ a b Flacelière, p.212.
  34. ^ Flacelière, p.213.
  35. ^ a b Flacelière, p.215.
  36. ^ Homer (26 February 1898). "The Iliad of Homer: Rendered Into English Prose for the Use of Those who Cannot Read the Original". Longman's, Green – via Google Books.
  37. ^ Dalby, pp.90–91.
  38. ^ "BREAD AND BAKERS IN ANCIENT ROME | Cerealia".
  39. ^ a b Wilkins, John M. (2006). Food in the Ancient World. Blackwell. p. 128.
  40. ^ Dalby, p.22.
  41. ^ Suda, mu, 526
  42. ^ Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 3.114f
  43. ^ Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, μελιτό-εις
  44. ^ Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, οἰνοῦττα
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  47. ^ Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, κοπτός
  48. ^ a b Migeotte, p.62.
  49. ^ Galen, On the properties of Food 1.10; Dalby p.91: "Much bread was unleavened, but raised bread was well known; baking powder, nitron and wine yeast were both later used as raising agents".
  50. ^ Sparkes, p.127.
  51. ^ Flint-Hamilton 1999, p. 371.
  52. ^ Sparkes, p.128.
  53. ^ Flacelière, p.207.
  54. ^ Aristophanes, Frogs 858 and Wasps 238.
  55. ^ Dalby, p.91.
  56. ^ Peace 449.
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  61. ^ a b c d e f g Flint-Hamilton 1999, p. 375
  62. ^ Homer; Butler (Transl.), Samuel (1898). The Iliad of Homer: Rendered Into English Prose for the Use of Those who Cannot Read the Original. London: Longman's, Green. pp. 217 (line 589).
  63. ^ a b Theophrastus; Hort, Arthur (26 February 2019). Enquiry into plants and minor works on odours and weather signs, with an English translation by Sir Arthur Hort, bart. London W. Heinemann – via Internet Archive.
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  66. ^ Flint-Hamilton 1999, p. 374
  67. ^ Flint-Hamilton 1999, p. 373
  68. ^ The Frogs 62–63.
  69. ^ Dalby, p.89.
  70. ^ Dalby, p.23.
  71. ^ Dalby, p.90; Flint-Hamilton, p.375.
  72. ^ Flacelière, p.208.
  73. ^ Peace 1127–1129. Peace. trans. Eugene O'Neill, Jr. 1938. accessed 23 May 2006.
  74. ^ Demosthenes, Against Androtion 15.
  75. ^ Flint-Hamilton 1999, p. 379
  76. ^ Hesiod. Works and Days 588–93, trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White 1914. accessed 23 May 2006
  77. ^ Sparkes 1962, p. 123
  78. ^ a b "Athenaeus: Deipnosophists - Book 3". www.attalus.org.
  79. ^ Life of Lycurgus 12:12.
  80. ^ Apud Athenaeus 138d, trans. quoted by Dalby, p.126.
  81. ^ Life of Lycurgus 12:3 and Dicaearchus fgt.72 Wehrli.
  82. ^ Various History 14:7.
  83. ^ Peace 374.
  84. ^ Sparkes, p.123.
  85. ^ Snyder & Klippel 2003, p. 230
  86. ^ a b "Great Online Encyclopaedia of Constantinople". constantinople.ehw.gr.
  87. ^ "The Internet Classics Archive - The History of Herodotus by Herodotus". classics.mit.edu.
  88. ^ Dalby, p.67.
  89. ^ "Athenaeus: Deipnosophists - Book 4". www.attalus.org.
  90. ^ Davidson 1993, p. 54
  91. ^
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  92. ^ Athenaeus, Epitome 58b.
  93. ^ Dalby, p.65.
  94. ^ Athenaeus 151b.
  95. ISBN 0521812429
    , 689–696, p. 128-129 ; translator's notes p. 181-182
  96. ^ Dalby, p. 66
  97. ^ Dalby, p.66.
  98. ^ Athenaeus 325f.
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  103. ^ a b c Theophrastus (1916). Enquiry into plants and minor works on odours and weather signs, with an English translation by Sir Arthur Hort, bart. Vol. 1. London W. Heinemann.
  104. ^ Homer; Butler (Transl.), Samuel (1898). The Iliad of Homer: Rendered Into English Prose for the Use of Those who Cannot Read the Original. London: Longman's, Green. pp. 182 (Bk 11, line 630).
  105. ^ Dalby (1996), pp. 109-110.
  106. ^ Athenaeus. "Deipnosophistae", 325f; Bilabel (1920). English translation from Dalby (2003), p. 79.
  107. ^ Athenaeus (of Naucratis.); Yonge, C.D. (1854). The Deipnosophists; Or, Banquet of the Learned. Vol. v.3. London: H.G. Bohn. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  108. ^ Athenaeus 40f–41a commenting on Odyssey 17.208.
  109. ^ Athenaeus 41a commenting on Iliad 2.753.
  110. ^ Pindar, fgt.198 B4.
  111. ^ Σωματώδης sōmatōdēs, Athenaeus 42a.
  112. ^ Βαρυσταθμότερος barystathmoteros, Athenaeus 42c.
  113. ^ Κοῦφος kouphos, Athenaeus 42c.
  114. ^ Κατάξηρος kataxēros, Athenaeus 43a.
  115. ^ Ὀξύς oxys, Theopompus fgt.229 M. I316 = Athenaeus 43b.
  116. ^ Τραχὐτερος trakuteros, Athenaeus 43b.
  117. ^ Οἰνώδης oinōdēs, Athenaeus 42c.
  118. ^ Antiphanes fgt.179 Kock = Athenaeus 43b–c.
  119. ^ Athenaeus 44.
  120. ^ Apud Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus, 9:7–8.
  121. ^ Athenaeus 28d–e.
  122. Dioscorides
    , Materia Medica 5.34; Dalby, p.150.
  123. ^ Various History 12:31.
  124. ^ Athenaeus 31d.
  125. ^ E.g. Menander, Samia 394.
  126. ^ Various History, 13:6.
  127. ^ Various History, 2:38.
  128. ^ Dalby, p.88–9.
  129. ^ Iliad 15:638–641.
  130. ^ Odyssey 10:234.
  131. ^ Homeric hymn to Demeter 208.
  132. ^ Characters 4:2–3.
  133. ^ Peace 712.
  134. ^ a b Suda, tau, 599
  135. ^ A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Mithaecus
  136. ^ A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Zopyrinus
  137. ^ Wilkins, "Introduction: part II" in Wilkins, Harvey and Dobson, p.3.
  138. ^ Apud Athenaeus 8c–d.
  139. ^ For a comparison of Persian and Greek cuisine, see Briant, pp.297–306.
  140. ^ Herodotus 1:133.
  141. ^ Apud Athenaeus 539b.
  142. ^ Description of Greece 15:3,22.
  143. ^ Ctesias fgt.96 M = Athenaeus 67a.
  144. ^ Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus 12:13, trans. John Dryden. Accessed 26 May 2006.
  145. ^ Stratagems, 4:3,32.
  146. ^ Stratagems 4:82.
  147. ^ Various History 22:24.
  148. ^ Gorgias 518b.
  149. ^ Euphro Comicus fgt.11 Kock = Athenaeus 7d–f.
  150. ^ Suidas s.v. ἀφὐα.
  151. ^ Dodds, pp.154–5.
  152. ^ Aristophanes, Frogs 1032. Trans. Matthew Dillon, accessed 2 June 2006.
  153. ^ Flint-Hamilton, pp.379–380.
  154. ^ Moralia 12:68.
  155. ^ On Abstinence 4.62.
  156. ^ Various History (11:3).
  157. ^ Athenaeus 412f.
  158. ^ Athenaeus 205.
  159. Diogenes Laërtius
    8:12.
  160. ^ Epictetus, Discourses 15:2–5, trans. W.E. Sweet.
  161. ^ Exhortation for Medicine 9, trans. S.G. Miller.
  162. ^ Pausanias 6:7.10.

Works cited

Further reading

External links
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