The custom of entertainments for men alone was far more common in antiquity than at the present day; for these banquets took the place not only of our parties and other social gatherings, but they also gave the men an opportunity, especially in the drinking which followed, while sitting together over their wine, to discuss at their leisure both serious and frivolous matters. There were also plenty of festive occasions which gave opportunities for these common banquets; a public or private sacrifice was a very common excuse, if only because the flesh of the victim—of which, as a rule, only the entrails were burnt—could be best made use of in this manner. There were also birthdays, funerals, victories in some contest or game, departure or return from a journey of a friend, etc.; all these occasions were celebrated by feasts, and there were also great public banquets, which were usually of a simpler character, owing to the number of guests and the fact that the expenses were publicly defrayed. Besides these meals, to which individuals invited their friends or relations, picnics were very common. Very often all who participated sent baskets of provisions into the house of one who gave up his rooms for the purpose; but it was even commoner for each to contribute a certain share of money, and thus to defray the expenses of the meal, which was taken at the house of one of the participants, or of some obliging hetaera. We do not know what arrangement was made about the wine, and whether the expenses of this were also defrayed out of the general charge.
Generally speaking, in the fifth and fourth centuries there was a great deal of simple and pleasant social intercourse; friends were invited without any ceremony, during the course of the day, to come to the evening meal. If they did not appear at the appointed hour, the meal began without them, and if the guest put in his appearance later on, this was regarded as a matter of course. It seems not to have been unusual to go even uninvited to the meal or to the Symposium which followed it, and one of the speakers in Plato’s “Symposium” suggests the following version of a line in Homer:—
“To the feasts of the good, the good unbidden go.”
Sometimes idle fellows, such as the parasites who were always hunting for a dinner, made too liberal use of this hospitality, or persons made their appearance who did not suit with the rest of the company and would have disturbed the general harmony. In such cases the door keeping slave received the order to send away certain persons, saying, “My master is not at home,” or else, “He has already retired to rest.”
The usual course of proceedings at one of these banquets was as follows. The invited guests, who according to custom had previously attended the bath, first took their places sitting on the couches placed ready for them. The slaves of the host, or even of the guests, who often brought them to help wait at table, then took off their masters’ sandals or shoes, and as the dust of the street might have soiled their feet, which were but slightly protected by the soles, these were washed once more by the slaves, a proceeding which was the more necessary, as in lying down they often rested on couches covered with very valuable coverlets. Hereupon they lay down, as a rule two guests on one sofa, but the monuments often show us three or even more persons on a single couch, and we cannot always determine with certainty whether the artist has adhered to the actual practice or introduced arbitrary changes of his own. In lying down they rested on their left elbow, or on numerous cushions at their back; the right arm was left free, in order to take the food from the table and reach it to the mouth; but plates, dishes, cups, etc., were also taken in the left hand. When the guests had all lain down and washed their hands in bowls handed round for the purpose, the little three-legged dining tables were brought in, which were always a little lower than the sofas. On these the food was arranged in dishes or plates, and always cut up small, for forks were never used at table, but only in the kitchen by the cooks for carving the meat, whilst the guests made use, instead, of a spoon or sometimes of a piece of bread hollowed out, and very seldom used a knife. Table cloths and napkins were unknown; the place of the latter was taken by soft dough, on which the fingers were rubbed. At large banquets, sometimes towels and water for washing the hands were handed round between the courses, and this was always done at the end of a meal. The practice of using the fingers for eating made this indispensable.
Luxurious living, which was of course unknown at Sparta, was far less common at Athens, too, than in many other Greek states, such as Thessaly, and in particular Sicily and Magna Graecia. In these places the gastronomic art was cultivated to a high degree, and there were books in which the various kinds of joints and ragouts, fishes and sweets, etc., were enumerated in verse, sometimes in a comic manner and sometimes with due seriousness. The Boeotians, on the other hand, had a bad name for consuming great quantities of food, and this of a coarse description. At Athens, in the classic period, meals were, as a rule, simple and modest. In the various descriptions of banquets handed down to us by different writers, no mention is ever made of the cooking, and the simplicity of Plato’s meals may be inferred from the somewhat malicious remark commonly made that those who had dined with Plato would be in excellent health next morning.
The meat most in use was that of the sacrificial animals, especially oxen, sheep, goats, and swine; this last was very popular, both roast and salted or smoked, and was also used for sausages. The ancients were acquainted with various kinds of sausage; we find allusions to these even in Homer; they were also acquainted with the practice of adulterating them by introducing the flesh of dogs or asses. In poultry, they had fowls, ducks, geese, quails, and also wild birds, such as partridges and wood pigeons; the special favourites were thrushes, which were a very popular dainty in the poultry market, where dishonest poulterers blew the birds up in order to make them seem fatter and in better condition. A favourite kind of game was hare, which is very frequently mentioned; they even had a proverb, “To live in the midst of roast hare,” which means to be in a land of plenty. Fish, too, was eaten in great quantities. In the Homeric period the taste for it did not yet exist, but in later times it was very much sought after. A special delicacy was eels, from Lake Copais, which are often mentioned, and were favourites with all the Athenian gourmets. Otherwise, sea fish was preferred to fresh-water fish, and there seems no end to the various kinds mentioned, which were also prepared in many different ways. The inexhaustible wealth of the neighbouring sea permitted even the poor people to have fish in plenty; in particular, the delicate sardines, which were caught in the harbour of Phalerum, and which were cheap and also quickly prepared, formed an important article of food for the Athenians. There were also great quantities of salt and smoked fish, which were prepared in the large smoking establishments of the Black Sea and on the coast of Spain, and brought by traders to Greece. The salted tunnies, herrings, etc., were excellent and also cheap, and therefore very common as food for the people. In the houses of the richer classes the finer kinds were also used—various sorts of fish sauces, caviar, oysters, turtles, etc., which added to the variety of the bills of fare, and could satisfy even the daintiest palates.
Under the heading of vegetable food, we must first of all consider bread and porridge. The kinds of grain chiefly used were wheat and barley, as well as spelt; rye was not cultivated in Greece, and rye bread was regarded as food for barbarians. Bread was made chiefly of wheat, and was white or brown, according to the greater or less addition of bran and the finer quality of the flour. But the common people did not eat much wheaten bread; the chief daily food of the poorer people was a kind of barley cake, called maza, a sort of porridge, which was moistened and dissolved in water, and of which there were various kinds with different savoury additions. This porridge seems to have resembled the polenta still used in the south, but was probably not much eaten by the richer classes. They had also green vegetables and salads, asparagus, radishes, mushrooms, lentils, peas, lupins, etc. These leguminous vegetables supplied nourishing fare for poor people, and were therefore sold by street cooks hot from the fire, at a low price. We find even in antiquity the fondness for onions and garlic still shown by southern nations, and these were eaten raw with bread. Besides salt, pepper, and vinegar, various spices were used to flavour the dishes, such as sesame, coriander, caraway, mustard, etc., and also silphium, which was much sought after, but very expensive, and was imported from Cyrene, but could no longer be obtained at the beginning of the Christian era. Olive oil was used for cooking.
The second course, which played an important part at large dinners, consisted of cheese (butter was not in use for food), all kinds of fruit, and cakes. Athens was especially distinguished for its cakes, because the excellent honey of Hymettus supplied good material for it; confectioners knew how to make the most various kinds of cakes, and often produced them in the shapes of animals, human beings, and other objects.
It is commonly supposed that the Greeks did not drink at all during their meals, but this is an untenable opinion. The great number of salt or highly-spiced dishes which they had, must of necessity have induced thirst. In fact, many allusions in the writers show us that some drinking went on during dinner, but in a very moderate degree when compared with the symposium which followed the meal, and only with a view to quenching thirst. In any case, when the last course was brought in, they took a draught of unmixed wine in honour of the “good genius.” Then the tables were taken away, and, if no drinking party followed, the guests arose from their couches after once more washing their hands. Usually, however, these banquets were followed by a symposium.