Cuisine of Ancient Greece

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The diet of the ancient Greeks was characterized by its frugality, reflecting agricultural hardship^[1]. It was founded on the "Mediterranean triad^[2]": wheat, olive oil, and wine.

Contents 1 Daily diet 1.1 Bread 1.2 Fruit and vegetables 1.3 Meat and fish 2 Beverages 2.1 Wine 2.2 Kykeon 3 Social Dining 3.1 Symposium 3.2 Syssitia 4 Gluttons, gourmets and chefs 5 Specific diets 5.1 Vegetarianism 5.2 Athlete diets 6 Notes 7 Bibliography 8 External links

[edit] Daily diet

The Greeks had three meals a day:

• breakfast (ἀκρατισμός / akratismós) consisting of barley bread dipped in wine (ἄκρατος / ákratos), sometimes complemented by figs or olives;
• lunch (ἄριστον / ariston)^[3] taken around noon or early afternoon.
• dinner (δεῖπνον / deĩpnon), the most important meal of the day, generally taken at nightfall.

An additional meal (ἑσπέρισμα / hespérisma) was sometimes taken in the late afternoon.

The Greeks ate while seated, the use of benches being reserved for banquets. The tables, high for normal meals and low for banquets, were initially rectangular in shape. In the 4th century BCE, the usual table becomes round, often with legs shaped like animal legs (for example lion's claws). It was customary for the Greeks to place terra cotta miniatures of their furniture in children's graves, which gives us a good idea of the style for that period.

Loaves of flat bread could be used as plates, but terra cotta or metal bowls were more common. Dishes became more refined over time, and by the Roman period plates were sometimes made out of precious metals or glass. Use of the fork was unknown; people ate with their fingers. Knives were used to cut meat, and spoons similar to modern oriental spoons were used for soups and broths.

[edit] Bread

Cereals (σῖτος / sĩtos) formed the staple diet. The two main grains were wheat and barley. These were softened by soaking, then either reduced into gruel, or ground into flour (ἀλείατα / aleíata) and kneaded and formed into loaves (ἄρτος / ártos) or flatbreads, either plain or mixed with cheese or honey. Leavening was known, but the stone oven did not appear until the Roman period. According to a direction from Solon, an Athenian lawmaker of the 6th century BCE, leavened bread was supposed to be reserved for feast days. However, during the classical period leavened bread was sold in bakeries, though it was very expensive.

Barley was easier to produce but more difficult to make bread from. It provided a nourishing but very heavy bread. Because of this it was often grilled before milling, producing a flour (ἄλφιτα / álphita) which was used to make μᾶζα / mãza, the basic Greek dish. In Peace (v. 449), Aristophanes uses the expression ἔσθειν κριθὰς μόνας, literally "to eat only barley", with a meaning equivalent to the English "diet of bread and water". Many recipes for maza are known; it could be served cooked or raw, as a broth, or made into dumplings or flatbreads. Like wheat breads, it could also be augmented with cheese or honey.

[edit] Fruit and vegetables

The cereals were often served accompanied by what was generally referred to as ὄψον / ópson. The word initially referred to anything prepared on the fire, and, by extension, anything which accompanied bread. In the Iliad the term refers only to meat; in the Odyssey it is also used to refer to fish. In the classical period it came to refer to vegetables; (cabbage, onions, lentils, and beans) in soup, notably ἔτνος (étnos, "bean soup"), seasoned with olive oil, vinegar, γάρον/gáron — a fish sauce similar to Vietnamese nuoc mam — and herbs. According to Aristophanes (The Frogs, v. 62–63), bean soup was one of the favourite dishes of Heracles, who was always represented as a glutton in comedies. Raw or preserved olives were a common garnish.

In the cities, fresh vegetables were expensive and rarely eaten: the poorer city dwellers had to make do with dried. As for onions, these were symbolic of military life. In Peace (v. 529), Aristophanes uses the smell of onions as typically representing soldiers; in verses 1127-1129, the chorus, celebrating the end of war, sings Oh! joy, joy! no more helmet, no more cheese nor onions!^[4]

Fruits, fresh or dried, and nuts, were eaten as dessert. Important fruits were figs, raisins and pomegranates. Dried figs were also eaten as an appetizer or when drinking wine. In the latter case, they were often accompanied by grilled chestnuts, chick peas, and beechnuts.

[edit] Meat and fish

The consumption of fish and meat varied in accordance with the wealth and location of the household; in the country, hunting (primarily trapping by young men) allowed for consumption of birds and hares. Peasants also had farmyards to provide them with chickens and geese. Slightly wealthier landowners could raise some extra goats, pigs, or sheep. In the city, meat was expensive except for pork. In Aristophanes' day a piglet cost three drachma (Peace verse 374), which was three days wages for a public servant.

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..."^[5](v. 588-593). Meat is much less prominent in texts of the 5th century BC onwards than in the earliest poetry, but this may be a matter of genre rather than real evidence of changes in farming and food customs. The eating of fresh meat was accompanied by a religious ritual in which the gods' share (fat and bones) was burnt while the human share (meat) was grilled and distributed to the participants; there was however a lively trade in cooked and salted meats, which demanded no ritual.

For their part, the Spartans primarily ate pork stew, the famous black gruel (μέλας ζωμός / mélas zômós). Dicaearchus, quoted by Athenaeus gives us its composition: pork, salt, vinegar and blood. The dish was served with figs and cheese. The 2nd and 3rd century author Aelian, in his Miscellany (XIV, 7), claims that Spartan cooks were prohibited from cooking anything other than meat.

In the Greek islands and on the coast, fresh fish and seafood (squid, octopus, and shellfish) were common. They were eaten locally and also transported inland. Sardines and anchovies were regular fare for the citizens of Athens. They were sometimes sold fresh, but more frequently salted. Larger fish, particularly prized by gourmets, were very expensive, such as tuna and eels from lake Copais in Boeotia, whose absence from Athens during the Peloponnesian War is alluded to in The Acharnians.

[edit] Beverages

The most widespread drink was evidently water. Fetching water was a daily task for women. Though wells were common, spring water was preferred: it was recognized as nutritious — it caused plants and trees to grow — and also as a desirable beverage. Pindar called spring water "as agreeable as honey" (fragment 198 B4).

The Greeks would classify water as heavy, dry, acidic, sweet, sour, and wine-like, etc. One of the comic poet Antiphanes' characters claimed that his taste buds were so good he could identify all of the waters of Attica (fr. 179 Kock). Athenaeus (II, 44) states that a number of philosophers had a reputation for drinking nothing but water, a habit combined with a vegetarian diet (cf. below). Milk, usually goats' milk, was also drunk.

The usual drinking vessel was the skyphos, made out of wood, terra cotta, or metal. Critias, cited in Plutarch (Life of Lycurgus, IX, 7-8) also mentions the kothon, a Spartan goblet which had the military advantage of hiding the colour of the water from view and trapping mud in its edge. They also used a drinking vessel called a 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.

[edit] Wine

The Greeks are thought to have made red as well as rosé and white wines. As at the present time, many qualities of production were to be found, from common table wine to vintage qualities. The best wines, in general opinion, came from Thásos, Lesbos and Chios. 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 (but with honey, not sugar) and made medicinal wines by adding thyme, pennyroyal and other herbs. By the first century AD, if not before, they were familiar with wine flavoured with pine resin (modern retsina). Aelian also mentions a wine mixed with perfume (Various History, XII, 31). Finally, Athenaeus (I, 31d) mentions a cooked wine and a sweet wine similar to port from Thásos.

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.^[6] Wine was mixed in a krater, from which the slaves would fill the drinker's kylix with an oinochoe (jugs). Wine was also used as a generic medication, being taken to have medicinal virtue. Aelian mentions that the wine from Heraia in Arcadia rendered men foolish but women fertile; conversely, Achaean wine was thought to induce abortion (XIII, 6). 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 (II, 38). Sparta was the only city where women routinely drank wine.

Wine reserved for local usage was kept in skins. That destined for sale was poured into πίθοι / píthoi, (large terra cotta jugs). From here they were decanted into amphoras sealed with pitch for retail sale. Vintage wines carried stamps from the producers and/or city magistrates who guaranteed their origin. This is one of the first instances of indicating the geographical or qualitative provenance of a product, and is the basis of the modern appellations d'origine contrôlées certification.

[edit] Kykeon

The Greeks also consumed kykeon (κυκεών, from κυκάω / kykáô, "to shake, to mix"), which functioned as a cross between a beverage and a meal. It was a barley gruel, to which water and herbs were added. In the Iliad (XV, 638-641), the beverage also contained grated goat cheese. In the Odyssey (X, 234), Circe adds honey and a magic potion to it. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (v. 208), the goddess refuses red wine but accepts a kykeon made of water, flour, and pennyroyal. Used as a ritual beverage in the Eleusinian Mysteries, it was also a popular beverage, especially in the countryside: Theophrastus, in his Characters (IV, 2-3), describes a boorish peasant as having drunk much kykeon and inconveniencing the Assembly with his bad breath. It also had a reputation for good digestive properties, and as such, in Peace (v. 712), Hermes recommends it to heroes who have eaten too much dried fruit.

[edit] Social Dining

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

[edit] Symposium

Main article: Symposium

The symposium (συμπόσιον / symposion) — traditionally translated as "banquet", but more literally "gathering of drinkers" — was one of the preferred pastimes for the Greeks. It consisted of two stages: the first dedicated to food, generally rather simple, and a second stage dedicated to drink. In reality, wine was consumed with the food, and the beverages were accompanied by snacks (τραγήματα / tragếmata) such as chestnuts, beans, toasted wheat, or honey cakes; all designed to absorb alcohol and extend the drinking spree.

The second stage was inaugurated with a libation, most often in honour of Dionysus. This was followed by debate or table games, such as kottabos. The guests would stretch out on wall seats (κλίναι / klínai), with low tables serving to hold the food or game boards. Dancers, acrobats, and musicians might augment the evening. A "King of the Banquet" was drawn by lots, and had the task of directing the slaves as to how strong to mix the wine.

With the exception of dancers and courtesans, the banquet was strictly reserved for men, and served as an essential element of Greek social life. The great feasts were very much the domain of the very rich; in most Greek homes, religious feasts or family events were the occasion of more modest banquets.

The banquet served as the backdrop for a veritable genre of literature, for example: 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.

[edit] Syssitia

Main article: Syssitia

The syssitia (τὰ συσσίτια / ta sussitia) was, in ancient Greece, a common meal for men and youths in social or religious groups, especially in Crete and Sparta. An obligatrory meal, it was referred to variously as a hetairia, pheiditia , or andreia (literally, "belonging to men"), they formed a central part of life in many towns, filling a role as a type of aristocratic club as well as matching the functions of a military mess. Like the Symposium, the Syssitia was the exclusive domain of men - although some references have been found to all-female Syssitia. Unlike the Symposium, these meals were hallmarked by simplicity and sobriety.

[edit] Gluttons, gourmets and chefs

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 by Athenaeus (I, 8c) that the best meal was a free one.

Culinary and gastronomical research was rejected as a sign of oriental flabbiness: the Persian Empire was considered as decadent due to their luxurious taste, which manifested itself in their cuisine^[7]. The Greek authors took pleasure in describing the table of Great King Achaemenid and his court: Herodotus (I, 133), Clearchus of Soli (cited by Athenaeus, XII, 539b), Strabo (XV, 3, 22) and Ctesias (cited by Athenaeus, II, 67a) were unanimous in their descriptions.

In contrast, the Greeks took pleasure in underscoring the austerity of their diet. Plutarch, in Life of Lycurgus (XII, 13) tells how the king of Pontus, eager to try the famous Spartan "black gruel", bought a Laconian cook. "but had no sooner tasted it than he found it extremely bad, which the cook observing, told him, "Sir, to make this broth relish, you should have bathed yourself first in the river Evrotas."^[8]". According to Polyaenus (Stratagems, IV, 3, 32), On discovering the dining hall of the Persian royal palace, Alexander the Great mocked their taste and blamed it for their defeat. Pausanias, on discovering the dining habits of the Persian commander Mardonius, equally ridiculed the Persians, "who having so much came to rob the Greeks of their miserable living" (IX, 82).

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 begin to enter the written record. Both Claudius Aelianus (XII, 24) 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 (518b), mentions "Thearion the cook, Mithaecos the author of a treatise on Sicilian cooking, and Sarambos the wine merchant; three eminent connoisseurs of cake, kitchen and wine." 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 Atheneaus in the 2nd or 3rd century devote a large part of their conversation to wine and gastronomy. They discuss 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. The Suda (an encyclopaedia from the Byzantine period) mistakenly attributes this exploit to the celebrated Roman gourmet Apicius (1st century BCE — which may be taken as evidence that the Greeks had more impressive culinary anecdotes, in spite of later assumptions to the contrary.

[edit] Specific diets

[edit] Vegetarianism

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/áskêsis 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? (Though the philologist E. R. Dodds^[9] observes that Empedocles also included plants in this transmigration, thus the same logic should have applied to eating them.) Dodds also cites vegetarianism as a consequence of a dislike for killing, as expressed in Aristophanes' Frogs v. 1032 — "For Orpheus taught us rites and to refrain from killing".^[10]

The information from Pythagoras (6th century BCE) is more difficult to define. The Comedic authors such as Aristophon and Alexis described Pythagoreans as strictly vegetarian, with some of them living on bread and water alone. Other traditions contented themselves with prohibiting the consumption of certain sacred animals such as the white 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 his On the eating of flesh (Moralia book XII, 68), Plutarch (1st - 2nd century) reprises the theme of the barbarism of blood and, breaking with the usual formalities of debate, commands the meat-eater to justify his choice.

The Neoplatonic Porphyrius (3rd century), in his On Abstinence, associates 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 save the animals (IV, 22).

[edit] Athlete diets

Claudius Aelianus claimed that the first athlete to submit to a formal diet was Iccus de Taranto, an athlete of the 5th century BCE (XI, 3). Plato (Laws, VIII, 839e-840a) confirms that he followed a very strict regime, apparently accompanied by abstinence: "...during all the period of his training (as the story goes) he never touched a woman, nor yet a boy?" The phrase "Meal of Iccus" was apparently proverbial. For his part, Athenaeus (XI, 205) refers to ξηροφαγία / xêrophagía a diet based on dry foods, which he indicates was observed by athletes of late ancient Greece. Diogenes Laertius confirms this: according to him, a Pythagoras (either the philosopher or a gymnastics master) was the first to direct athletes to eat meat, while formerly they had been eating only dry figs, cheese and bread. The choice of meats was made based on a sort of doctrine of signatures based on similarity: eating goat to be able to spring like a goat, beef to be strong as an ox, etc.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

• (French) "Végétarisme, au commencement... " (French language article on origin of vegetarianism)
• A Taste of the Ancient World (University of Michigan)

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