Diet of Ancient Greece

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

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)[2] 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, use of benches being reserved for banquets. The tables, high for normal meals and low for banquets, were initially shaped as rectangles. In the 4th century BC, the usual table becomes round, often ornated with animal legs-like shapes (for example lion's claws). It was custom 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.

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 and (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.

Notes

  1. ^ This article was initially translated from the French wiki article fr:Alimentation en Grèce antique on 26 May 2006.
  2. ^ At the time of Homer and the early tragedies, the term signified the first meal of the day, which was not necessarily frugal: in canto XXIV v. 124 of the Iliad, Achilles's companions slaughter a sheep for breakfast
  3. ^ Aristophanes. Peace. trans. Eugene O'Neill, Jr. 1938. online at [1] accessed 23 May 2006
  4. ^ Hesiod. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica Trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White 1914. online at [2] accessed 23 May 2006
  5. ^ For a comparison of Persian and Greek cuisine, see P. Briant's, Histoire de l'Empire perse de Cyrus à Alexandre, Fayard, 1996, p. 297-306.
  6. ^ Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus XII, 13. trans. John Dryden. online at [3] accessed 26 May 2006.
  7. ^ E. R. Dodds, "Les Chamans grecs", in Les Grecs et l'irrationnel, Flammarion, "Champs" collection, 1977 (1st edn 1959), p. 158-159.

Bibliography

  • (French) Marie-Claire Amouretti, Le Pain et l'huile dans la Grèce antique. De l'araire au moulin, Belles Lettres, Paris, 1989 ;
  • Andrew Dalby, Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece, Routledge, 1996 ;
  • (French) Armand Delatte, Le Cycéon, breuvage rituel des mystères d'Éleusis, Belles Lettres, Paris, 1955 ;
  • (French) Marcel Détienne et Jean-Louis Vernant, La Cuisine du sacrifice en pays grec, Gallimard, "Bibliothèque des histoires" collection, Paris, 1979 ;
  • (French) Robert Flacelière, La Vie quotidienne en Grèce au temps de Périclès, Hachette, 1988 (1st edn 1959) ISBN 2-01-005966-2 ;
  • (French) Léopold Migeotte, L'Économie des cités greques, Ellipses, "Antiquité : une histoire" collection, 2002 ISBN 2-7298-0849-3, p. 62–63.

Index Greek Life

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