WHAT THE ANCIENT GREEKS ATE

By EDWARD E. CORNWALL, M.D.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

HEN we investigate the cooked goat’s stomach filled with blood diet of an ancient peo- and fat. ple, we look to their Milk, sweet milk, curdled milk, sheep’s literature for informa- milk, goat’s milk, curd, cheese and whey. tion, if they left any literature,Fowl ands and es- fish. Wpecially to their lighter and more pop- Wheat, barley, corn, rye, yellow grain, barley meal, bread and wheaten bread. ular, rather than to their more serious Olives, apples, grapes, pears, figs and writings; we expect to find more abun- pomegranates. dant allusions to the common things Olive oil, honey and salt. of life, including what the people ate, Water, wine, red wine, dark wine, in the former than in the latter. sweet wine, Pramnian wine, wine ten In this investigation of the diet of years old, wine mixed with water and the ancient Greeks, Homer’s “Odyssey” mead. and the comedies of Aristophanes have Dainties. been studied. The “Odyssey” is a novel The following articles of food are almost in the modern sense. It tells the mentioned in Aristophanes’ comedies: story of a hero who had many adven- Meat, boiled meat, minced meat, meat tures, triumphed over many dangers cooked in its own gravy, stews, roasted and difficulties, and Hnally came to a beef, pig, sucking pig, sow’s belly, sausage, happy ending; it abounds in descrip- sheep, veal, goat, stewed hare, leveret, tions of the intimate life of the Greeks tripe, paunch, grilled entrails, dog, fox, in a period not later than the lifetime mole, hedgehog, lyre, martin and otter. of Homer, which is supposed to have Milk, curd, cheese, fresh cheese, Sicilian been in the ninth century before cheese and cheese cake. Christ; and it contains many references Hens, cocks, chickens, geese, ducks, pigeons, wood pigeons, wild pigeons, to food and eating. The comedies of woodcocks, jays, chaffinches, water fowl, Aristophanes deal with the daily life of divers, wagtails, quails, thrushes, larks, the Athenians in the latter part of the cushats, wrens, blackbirds and eggs. fifth and early part of the fourth cen- Fresh fish, salt fish, flat fish, cuttle fish, turies before Christ. In them references tunny fish, mackerel, eels, Copiac eels, mul- to food and eating are numerous. From let, loach, sprats, skate, sharks’ heads, these two sources we get definite ideas anchovies, anchovies in oil, and oysters. of what the ancient Greeks ate. Flour, flour cakes, bread, well-baked In Homer’s “Odyssey” we find refer- bread, biscuits, wheaten cakes, rolls, frit- ters, barley loaf, oatmeal gruel, sesame, ence to the following articles of food: sesame bread, cake, wine cake, honey cake Ox, bull, heifer, goat, wild goat, kid, and pap. sheep, ewe, lamb, swine, sucking pig, Green stuff, leeks, onions, garlic, fresh deer, hare, meat, inner meat, roasted outer garlic, pickled garlic, lentils, peas, chick parts, boar’s chine, roasted entrails and peas, bruised peas, pea soup, beans, tur- nips, pumpkins, beet leaves, cucumbers, of water, and corn, too, in a wallet; and water cress, parsley, rue and laserwort. she set therein a store of daintics.” Olives, grapes, apples, pomegranates, Ulysses, entertained by King Alci- quinces, Attic figs, dried figs and beech nous, said to his host: “There is no nuts. more glorious or perfect delight than Water, wine, wine mixed with water when a whole people make merry, and and new wine. Olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt, thyme, the men sit orderly at feast in the halls marjoram, pennyroyal, anise, sage, sil- and listen to the singer, and a wine phium, silphium pickle, coriander seed bearer, drawing the wine, serves it and locusts. round.” Sweetmeats. Of the suitors who annoyed Ulysses’ patiently waiting wife, and who spared As illustrations of, or commentaries their own “stores of bread and wine” on the foregoing lists of foodstuffs, the and devoured those of Ulysses, it was following extracts from Homer’s said: “These resorting to [his] house “Odyssey” and Aristophanes’ comedies day by day, sacriflce oxen and sheep are given*: and fat goats, and keep revel and drink From Homer’s “Odyssey”: recklessly.” Nestor and his sons, entertaining When Ulysses, disguised as a beggar, Telemachus, “made ready the feast, visited the suitors who were revelling in . . . roasting some of the flesh and his house, they “sacrificed oxen, sheep spitting other.” They gave out “messes and stout goats and the fatlings of the of the inner meat and poured wine in boars; then they roasted the entrails a golden cup.” Then when they “had and served them round; and mixed roasted the outer parts and drawn them wine in a bowl, and the swineherd set off the spits, they divided the messes a cup by each man; and Philoctetus and shared the glorious feast.” . . . handed them the wheaten bread Ulysses’ company, having killed some in baskets, and Melanthius pourecl out wild goats, spent the “live long day the wine.” Ulysses received “his mess of until the going down of the sun, feast- the entrails, and . . . wine in a ing on abundant flesh and sweet wine.” golden cup.” In Cyclops’ cave Ulysses found “bas- After a fight had been arranged be- kets . . . laden with cheeses,” and also tween the cfisguised Ulysses and a regu- the “pails and bowls . . . wherein he lar beggar, the announcer said: “Here milked.” are goats’ bellies lying at the fire, that On the Island of Circe Ulysses “sat we laid by at supper time and filled day by day for the whole circle of a with fat and blood. Now whichever of year, feasting on abundant flesh and the two wins, . . . let him . . . take wine.” When Calypso sent Ulysses away on a his choice of the puddings.” raft, she provisioned the raft with “two From Aristophanes’ “Knights” (the skins of wine, and another, a great one, sausage seller speaking) : * The excerpts from Homer’s Odyssey are I slipped away to buy all the coriander taken from Butcher and Lang’s translation; seed and leeks there were in the rnarket, and those from Aristophanes’ comedies, from and gave them gratis as seasoning for the the translation published by the Athenian anchovies. . . . Society of London. May I be cooked in a stew; and if that is not enough, may I be grated on this Make excellent commodities flow to our table with cheese and then hashed. . . . markets, fine heads of garlic, early cucum- The daughter of the mightiest of the bers, apples, pomegranates, . . . geese, gods sends you this meat cooked in its ducks, pigeons and larks from Boeotia, own gravy, along with this tripe and some and baskets of eels from Lake Copais. . . . paunch. . . . Here are the legs; place them on the al- Now drink this beverage composed of tar. For myself, I mean to go back to the three parts of water and two parts of entrails and the cakes. . . . wine. . . . This oracle threatens our meat. Quick, I sold sausages near the gates, in the pour the libation, and give us some of the market for salted goods. . . . inwards. . . . I condemn him to follow my old trade, Cook three measures of beans, adding posted near the gates; he must sell sausages to them a little wheat, and give us some made of asses’ and dogs’ meat. figs. . . . They feasted on the flesh of oxen. From Aristophanes’ “Acharnians”: From Aristophanes’ “Clouds”: They completely stripped my penny- royal of its blooms. But will you buy any- I was cooking a sow’s belly for my fam- thing of me? Some chickens, or locusts? ily, and I had forgotten to slit it open. It swelled out, and suddenly bursting, Let the hares boil and roast merrily; discharged itself right into my eyes. keep them a-turning; withdraw them from the flames; . . . reach me the From Aristophanes’ “Wasps”: skewers that I may spit the thrushes. . . . I have not heard the word [tyranny] List, ye peoples! As was the custom of mentioned in fifty years, and now it is as your forefathers, empty a full pitcher of common as salt fish. . . . wine at the call of the trumpet; he who Twenty thousand of our people would first sees the bottom shall get a wine be eating nothing but hare and the purest skin. . . . of milk. Wrap me a little stale meat in a fig leaf. . . . From Aristophanes’ “Birds”: Take salt and thyme, and don’t forget Twenty pieces of boiled meat at half an the onions. . . . obolus apiece. Get some fish for me; I cannot bear From Aristophanes’ “Ecclesiazusae”: onions. . . . The wine and the water is already A cuttlefish just served, well cooked, hot mixed in the ewers, . . . the fish is being and well salted. . . . grilled, the hares are on the spit, and cakes Pass me over that dish of hare. . . . are being kneaded, . . . and the fritters How fat and well browned is the flesh are frying, the young women are watching of this wood pigeon. . . . the pea soup in the saucepans. . . . Which of the two is best to eat, a locust, Very soon we will be served a very fine or a thrush? . . . menu . . . oysters, salt fish, skates, sharks’ What a delicious cheese cake. . . . heads, left over vinegar sauce, laserpitium, Pour honey on the cake. lark with honey sauce, thrush, blackbird, From Aristophanes’ “Peace”: pigeon, dove, cushats, roast cocks’ brains, wagtails, hare stewed in new wine, gristle I have not provided myself with flour of veal and pullets’ wings. and cheese. [This appears to have been the regular army provision, with, prob- In comparing Homer’s and Aristoph- ably, onions.] anes’ lists of foodstuffs, some differ- ences are noted, as would be expected, ferred to as the winner’s reward in a since their dates are separated by nearly prize fight. half a millennium. In Homer’s time, In Aristophanes’ time, judging from according to the descriptions in the his lists of foodstuffs, the Greeks had a Odyssey, a banquet regularly consisted more varied diet than in Homer’s time, of animal flesh, bread and wine, and especially in the line of birds, fish, vege- often only of flesh and wine. Milk, tables and condiments. Their cooking, curds and whey are mentioned, but not also, had become more elaborate. usually in connection with the regular Onions and garlic figured largely in their diets, and also peas, beans and feasts. Fruits also are mentioned, but lentils. Fruit had a place. Milk, and es- seem not to have been served at these pecially cheese, was much in evidence. feasts, unless they are included in the Animal flesh and wTine continued to “dainties” occasionally referred to. No hold their prominent places; tripe and references to green vegetables are roasted entrails were still popular, and noted. The wine is usually described as the sausage had become an institution. being diluted with water before serv- These food facts, gleaned from ing. Stomachs and entrails of animals Homer and Aristophanes, suggest that appear prominently as foodstuffs; the ancient Greeks had a sufficient diet, roasted entrails are mentioned with and also, that they were great eaters of special respect; and a cooked goat’s animal flesh and drinkers of diluted stomach filled with fat and blood is re- wine.