Black soup
Type | Soup/broth |
---|---|
Region or state | Ancient Sparta |
Main ingredients | Pork meat, pork blood, salt, vinegar |
Black soup was a regional cuisine of ancient Sparta, made with boiled pork meat and blood, using only salt and vinegar to flavour. The soup was well known during antiquity in the Greek world, but no original recipe of the dish survives today.[1] The earliest recorded mention of the soup can be dated to the fifth century BC, in a comedy titled The Miners, written by Pherecrates.[2] The ancient sources provide contradictory accounts on whether the soup was a luxurious meal served only at banquets or a dish that could be afforded by all Spartiates. Throughout history, black soup has been praised by and associated with figures such as Benjamin Rush and Adolf Hitler although Hitler was vegetarian.[3][4]
Etymology
The ancient Greek author,
In
Ancient sources
The majority of the ancient sources that describe black soup were written by non-Spartan authors. These authors include
Other references to black soup are indirect. For example, in Aristophane's Knights, one of the lines in this comedy is "He has had tasty stews exported from Athens for the Spartan fleet."[28] Although the reference is not explicit, the fifth century BC poet[29] was suggesting that the Spartan version of stew was not as good as the stew cooked by the Athenians. Classics scholar David Harvey stated that the playwright was likely making fun of Spartan black broth in this passage.[30]
Suda Lexicon, a Byzantine Greek historical encyclopedia compiled much later during the tenth century AD,[31] states that zomós was a stock cooked using pig, cow, goat, sheep, or bear meat.[32] Julius Pollux's lexicographic work, Onomasticon, notes that the black broth was a Spartan dish cooked with meat and blood.[33]
Origin
According to what Euphron (a third-century BC comedy poet)[34] had written in one of his fragmentary[note 1] comedies, titled The Brothers, a cook mentions that a man named Lamprias was responsible for inventing the Spartan black soup.[36][37] However, this claim would be impossible to verify today.[21][38]
Ingredients
No recording of black soup's exact recipe exists today. Ancient literary sources, including historical, medical, and lexicographic, contain descriptions of black soup and its ingredients.[23] Through interpreting these sources, it can be concluded that the Spartans cooked this dish using pig's blood and meat, with salt and vinegar as the only condiments.[25] According to Plutarch's descriptions, the solid meat chunks in the soup were to be taken out and served separately to the younger attendees during banquets.[25]
In another work of Plutarch, De Tuenda Sanitate Praecepta, the author states that the
The British Hellenistic scholar
Occasions of consumption
How often the Spartans consumed black soup and whether it could be considered a delicacy are both debated questions in ancient sources. Seventh-century BC Spartan poet Alcman inferred that the food ordinary people in Sparta consumed was a pea soup, not the meat-based black soup. On this basis, the historian, Hans Van Wees, suggested that black soup could not be a dish that the average Spartans regularly consumed since it would entail the slaughtering of an animal.[54] For example, it was during royal sacrifices that pigs were part of the offerings.[55] There is also other contrary evidence suggesting that black soup was, in fact, a modest dish. In one of Matro of Pitane's poems, black soup appeared in the text alongside a dish named akrokólia (ἀκροκώλια). Akrokólia were boiled animal off-cuts, such as the skin, ears, and snouts, suggesting black soup belonged in the category of inexpensive dishes.[21]
Banquets
According to
During the Spartan banquets, the meal would end with
Religious celebrations
A scholia reference further implies that zomós was made using the leftovers from cooking the sacrificial meat during the Panathenaea celebrations. While the soup was served to the poor, the wealthier individuals could receive servings of the meat.[66] Several ancient fragmentary poetries, including Philyllius' The Island Towns and Epilycus' Coraliscus, have noted that during the Cleaver festival (kopis), black soup was served at the temple of Apollo in Amyclae, a city located in Laconia that was at the time under Spartan control. The same sources also recorded that aside from the soup, barley cakes and wheat loaves would be served as well.[67]
Military campaigns
There is no recording of the Spartans consuming black soup on military campaigns. The fifth century BC historian, Thucydides' account of the Spartan attack on Pylos in 425 BC includes a description of the Spartan army ration: ground corn, cheese, wine, and "any other food useful in a siege," which was not further specified in the passage.[68][69] While Spartiate soldiers were typically well-nourished, there is no ancient literary evidence that suggests that black soup was part of their regular diet on military campaigns.[57]
Domestic settings
Notably, the ancient sources do not provide accounts of whether black soup was cooked or served in domestic settings. The attendance of Spartan banquets was exclusive to male adult citizens.
Notoriety
The Spartan black soup was known to the other Greeks during antiquity.[60]
Plutarch also tells of an account of the Athenian general, Alcibiades attempting to fit into the Spartan society by eating black soup when he fled to Sparta from Athens due to political pressure.[74][75]
Plutarch's Life of Pelopidas has recorded that an inhabitant of Sybaris had once claimed, "it was no great thing for the Spartans to seek death in the wars in order to escape so many hardships and such a wretched life as theirs."[76] Historians such as Maciej Kokoszko and Joan P. Alcock have interpreted this claim as supporting evidence of ancient Sparta's unbearable customs and food.[61][77][57]
The broth's unique taste can be cross-referenced by a narration of how willing the Spartans were to share this dish with outsiders, as detailed in another work of Plutarch, the Life of Cleomenes. Cleomenes, a Spartan king who lived in the third century BC, once had a disagreement with his friend over serving the black soup to foreign visitors, who he argued could not appreciate the flavour.[78] Maciej Kokoszko theorized that the Spartans were reluctant to introduce this dish to those who were not part of their community likely because the soup had a unique taste.[61]
Modern associations
As Spartan history gained popularity in the United States in the late 18th-century, Benjamin Rush, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, is recorded to have praised the Spartan black broth.[3]
Adolf Hitler, a vegetarian in his later years, was an admirer of aspects of the ancient Spartan society, and noted their fondness for black soup. He compared the broth to Schwarzsauer, a regional dish of the German state Schleswig-Holstein.[79] However, it was the example of Roman soldiers eating fruits and cereals and the importance of raw vegetables that he promoted.[80] Shortly before World War II, a paper titled "Spartan Pimpfe" circulated in Germany. The essay claimed that Spartan youths would have black soup as lunch before attending sporting competitions.[81]
W. Geoffrey Arnott, a British Hellenistic scholar, suggested that "the Gypsies still served this dish at fairs in northern England up to the 1940s."[52][53]
See also
- Ancient Greek cuisine
- Laconophilia
- Syssitia
- Dinuguan, another soup or stew made from pork, pork blood, and vinegar
- Schwarzsauer
Notes
- ^ A "fragmentary" text refers to a piece of writing of a certain ancient author that has been passed down to modern scholars through "indirect transmission." "Indirect transmission" refers to how fragmentary texts are often quotations from the lost works of a specific ancient author cited in the writings of other ancient authors.[35]
References
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- ^ Andrew Dalby, Food in the Ancient World, From A to Z (London: Routledge, 2013), 352.
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- ^ Dioscurides. Euporista vel de simplicibus medicinis. 1.222.3-4, quoted in Pedanius Dioscorides, Pedanii Dioscuridis Anazarbei de Materia Medica Libri Quinque, ed. Max Wellmann (Berolini: Weidmann, 1914).
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- ^ Joan P. Alcock, Food in the Ancient World (London: Greenwood, 2006), 207.
- ^ Thuc. 4.26.5.
- ^ Devereaux, Bret (23 August 2019). "Collections: This. Isn't. Sparta. Part II: Spartan Equality". A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
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