Greek Dining

The Greek dining room, or andron, known through archaeology, art, and literature, was typically the most ornate room in the home, often adorned with wall painting and mosaic for the man of the house and his guests to enjoy while eating and drinking. The andron was located close to the entrance of a Greek house, allowing visitors easy access without having to enter the parts of the home where the women lived and worked. The diners reclined on stone or wooden klinai, or couches, which were arranged around the center of the square dining room; each kline held one or two diners and there were typically seven to eleven couches in all, though some large rooms held even more. Small, low tables in front of each kline held the serving dishes and food. Entertainers and servers used the center of the room(1).

Meals were typically eaten twice a day, with the larger, second meal, or deipnon , being more elaborate than the lighter and earlier ariston . The deipnon, to which guests were often invited, was reserved for men, entertainers, servants, and hetairai (prostitutes); respectable women dined separately. Proper women enjoyed lunch, or ariston, with other women of the household or at the home of a female friend or relative; they did not go out to dinner (deipnon) but must have eaten in the kitchen or elsewhere in the home away from the men(2).

While the wealthy dined on delicacies such as meat, poultry, fresh fish and seafood, fine bread, and expensive wine, a typical meal for an average Athenian would consist of grains, fruits, vegetables, oil, and wine of a lesser quality(3). Grain was the most important food and made up the bulk of the Greek diet; barley-cakes were common fare among the lower classes, their quality ranging from extremely course slave food to the loaves of very finely ground barley flour eaten by those of greater means. Fine white wheat bread was consumed by wealthier classes. Wheat was considered more desirable and nutritious than barley and was probably more expensive: by Late Greek and Roman times, barley was considered fit only for animal fodder(4). Legumes (beans, lentils, and peas) were another essential element of the diet; they could be made into soups, added to stews, or eaten fresh for dessert(5). Fruits in the Greek diet included figs, olives, pears, apples, melons, raisins, pomegranates, and dates; these were often eaten as appetizers or with wine and nuts at the symposium (6). Vegetables, such as cabbage, beets, and mushrooms, were used as side dishes or cooked with meat and fish(7).

Meat was a rarity in the Greek diet, eaten by most people only during sacrifices, and fresh fish was quite expensive, at least in Athens, though dried and salted fish could be bought more cheaply(8). A table laden with meat or fresh fish was the ultimate symbol of wealth and luxury in dining. Other animal foods included snails and some insects, such as cicadas(9) . Eggs and dairy were also consumed in the Classical period; most dairy was eaten in the form of cheese, though yogurt and cream were not unknown(10).

Rounding out the Greek menu were the ubiquitous olive oil and vinegar as well as various other flavor enhancers. Condiments, which could include salt, onions, capers, sesame seeds, mustard, and cheese, were probably served in small, shallow saltcellars; these must have been essential elements to add variety and interest to the rather limited everyday diet of grains and vegetables (for more information on saltcellars click here (11). Spices, including fennel, dill, basil, and mint, were added to flavor foods while cooking(12). Honey, prevalent in the hills around Athens , was the only sweetener at the Greek table.

Food was served in dishes that were much like our own, and, like today, tableware varied in quality depending on the socio-economic status of the household. Very fine bowls and cups were fashioned of metal or stone, while common wares were of decorated or undecorated pottery. Various types of bowls made up the most basic tableware; available in many types and sizes, they served a variety of purposes in cooking, serving, and eating. Some more specialized types of bowls and plates were used as well. Popular in the sixth and fifth centuries, stemmed dishes were made in a range of shapes and sizes and likely were used to hold the nuts, olives , and fruits eaten as an appetizer or with wine during the 'dessert' course of the meal(13). The lekanis was a versatile serving dish with handles and a lid that could be turned upside down to become another dish (for an example of a lekanis in our collection, click here) (14). Plates were less common than bowls but also had many uses. A common type is the fish plate, decorated with fish and other marine life and with a depression in the center, perhaps for holding sauce; such plates may or may not have actually been used for the consumption of fish(15).

Dining in Greece , at all but the poorest homes, was a social occasion, and the food was enhanced by a beautiful presentation on the best tableware a household could afford in the best room of the house. Different methods of preparation and a variety of spices and condiments added interest to the rather plain foodstuffs, and one can imagine the convivial atmosphere and conversation of the diners seated close together would have added enjoyment to even the most mundane of meals.

Author: Summer Trentin

(1). For more on dining rooms, see John Wilkins, The Boastful Chef: The Discourse of Food in Ancient Greek Comedy (Oxford University Press 2000): 121-2; Katherine M.D. Dunbabin, "Ut Graeco More Biberetur: Greeks and Romans on the Dining Couch," in Meals in a Social Context: Aspects of the Communal Meal in the Hellenistic and Roman World , edited by Inge Nielson and Hanne Sigismund Nielson, 81-101 (Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press 1998): 82-9.

(2). See Wilkins, The Boastful Chef , 57-62; Andrew Dalby, Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece (New York: Routledge 1996): 12.

(3). See Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, The Oxford Classical Dictionary , 3 rd ed (Oxford University Press 1999): 603.

(4). On barley, see Thomas Braun, "Barley Cakes and Emmer Bread." In Food in Antiquity , edited by John Wilkins, David Harvey, and Mike Dobson (Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press 1995): 25-37; on cereals in general see Dalby, Siren Feasts , 89-92.

(5). On legumes see Dalby, Siren Feasts , 89-90.

(6). On fruits see Dalby, Siren Feasts , 76-82.

(7). On vegetables see Dalby, Siren Feasts , 82-7.

(8). On fish and seafood in the Greek diet, see Dalby, Siren Feasts , 66-76; Dwora Gilula, "Comic Food and Food for Comedy." In Food in Antiquity , edited by John Wilkins, David Harvey, and Mike Dobson (Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press 1995): 386-99; Peter Garnsey, Food and Society in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge University Press 1999): 116-8.

(9). Dalby, Siren Feasts , 62.

(10). Dalby, Siren Feasts , 66.

(11). On saltcellars, see Brian A. Sparkes and Lucy Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery of the 6 th , 5 th and 4 th Centuries B.C. 2 parts. Vol XII, The Athenian Agora (Princeton, N.J.: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens 1970): 132-8; Susan I. Rotroff and John H. Oakley, Debris from a Public Dining Place in the Athenian Agora (Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens 1992): 48.

(12). On spices and condiments see Braun, "Barley Cakes and Emmer Bread,"82-7; John Linton Myres, "Ancient Groceries." Greece & Rome 1953:1-10.

(13). Sparkes and Talcott 1970, 138-143.

(14). For a full definition of the type, see Andrew J. Clark, Maya Elston, and Mary Louise-Hart, Understanding Greek Vases: A Guide to Terms, Styles, and Techniques (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum 2002): 112; for stemmed dishes in the Athenian Agora see Sparkes and Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery , 197, plate 69 nos. 1549, 1550, 1553, 1554.

(15). See Wilkins, The Boastful Chef , 313, 337-41, for Italian and Sicilian fish plates.