The beginning and root of all good is the pleasure of the stomach.
(Epicurus, 341-270 BC)

Athenaeus, the writer of Deipnosophistes who lived in the 3rd century AD, describes a dinner held by euporos (well-off) Karanos on the occasion of his wedding.

At first, he says, everyone was offered a silver glass and a golden diadem. Then, silver and copper servings were placed on the tables, all full of goods: roasted chickens, ducks and geese, little lambs, hare, pigeons, turtle doves and partridge.

An intermission followed, for musicians and avlitrides (women entertaining people at dinners) to play. Second course consisted of a whole roasted piglet flat on its back on a silver tray and its stomach stuffed with roasted thrushes, orioles, oysters and cockles covered in egg yolk...

Today we know that our ancestors, especially the ones in Macedonia and Thessaly, really knew how to eat! For example, even since the 15th and the 14th century BC, the diet of Mycenaeans included cereal products, figs, honey and lots of types of cheese.

Ancient Greeks were the first to document recipes, since the 5th century BC. Texts that survived until today prove that our ancestors created the first gastronomic archive in the world.

Nonetheless, Plato never had potatoes. Socrates drank the conium without ever having tried pasta, tomatoes, sugar, oranges or lemon. Can you imagine life without potatoes or pasta? Well, you wouldn’t be able to find any of this and many others in ancient Greece but this doesn’t mean that their meals lacked variety; on the contrary! Food in ancient Greece was much different from what we know today, although something remained the same for 3,000 years: the love of wine.

It may be that ancient Greeks knew nothing about rice, sugar, corn, potatoes, tomatoes and lemon, still they used a big variety of spice, onion and green oil flavoured with mint or thyme, while they also made desserts using sifted flour and honeyed wine! Furthermore, there are references to bittersweet tastes which were unknown to Greeks till Chinese cuisine emerged! Theophrastus lists 5 varieties of radish, commenting that the one from Viotia is the sweetest. We even know that ancient Greeks had radish and bread for breakfast!

Most of ancient Athenians had slaves to perform the daily tasks, among which cooking was included. Hence, unlike modern people, they had a lot of time to devote in healthy nutrition and exercise. As for the athletes in ancient Greece, their diet consisted of nuts and dairy products, while after the 5th century BC meat was also added, mostly goat meat.

Ancient Greeks would start drinking wine at breakfast and they would continue all day long. Before you start to wonder how they managed it you need to know that they would never drink plain wine, they would always put water in it. In fact, their wine consisted more of water than of wine (according to Homer, two shots of water and one shot of wine was the most common way of drinking wine).

Some of the dishes one would find in ancient Greece are: pork with plums, stuffed piglet, creokakkabos (pieces of meat with sweet sauce made of honey, thyme and vinegar served with chickpea puree), chicken in thickly ground barley, swordfish in blueberry sauce, etc. They may sound weird, but they are both healthy and tasty.

In ancient Greece, eating habits varied from place to place. For instance, people in ancient Sparta would have a poor and bad quality diet, as well as the notorious black broth, in order to always be prepared for war. Equally plain was the food in Crete. Although today Cretan diet is not as it used to be in ancient times, it is generally admitted to be a model of healthy nutrition! So is Greek cuisine in general, which is probably the best cuisine in terms of healthiness and tastefulness. Well, ancient Greek cuisine was even better!!

It is also interesting to mention that ancient Greeks started making cheese much early in time. The first reference to cheese is made by Homer in Odyssey. Homer describes that, on his way back from the Trojan War the king of Ithaca Odysseus reaches the island of the Cyclopes (gigantic one-eyed creatures) and encounters their leader Polyphemus. Polyphemus – son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and nymph Thoosa – lives in a cave farming his sheep and making cheese. Odysseyis a sequel to the Iliad that refers to the Trojan War (middle 13th century BC) and in this Homer describes the difficulties encountered by the Greeks in exploring new places and in establishing colonies in the Mediterranean and in North Africa. According to many researchers the island of the Cyclopes is Sicily and if this theory is true Sicily was colonized much before the 8th century BC, probably in the 13th or even earlier. The same applies to the wider area of the Mediterranean and to Pontos (region in the Black Sea).

Pluto, in Lycurgus, describes the notorious Spartan Syssitions (meals): they consisted of the black broth (it is not exactly known what it was made of), boiled pork, wine, sweet pie and oat bread.

It is also said that Dionysus, tyrant of Syracuse, bought a cook from Sparta and ordered him to prepare the black broth that Spartans loved so much. However, he did not manage to swallow not even the first sip; he had to spit it out. And so the cook told him: In order for you to try this you must first do some Spartan exercise and then swim in the Evrotas river.