Lecture 5: Classical Greece—Wine, Olive Oil, and Trade
season: bring in the wine grapes, fatten the lambs, and knead the
bread dough. The food is simple, fairly monotonous, and basic. Another feature of ancient Greek culture, from this early time
through classical times, is the public festival. These were organized
by the state and were basically a way to distribute meat to the
populace—a big communal barbecue, but also a sacrifi ce. There were a lot of different cults in Greece; different cities had
different protector gods, such as Athena for Athens. There were also
many different kinds of worship, such as the Eleusinian Mysteries,
which has to do with the cult of Demeter and the sprouting and
rebirth of grain in the spring. This cult also involves hallucinogenic
drugs like opium and some odd eating rituals. Another fi gure of archaic Greece is Pythagoras, who is sort of the
counterculture guru of this era. Even though we have no writings by
him, he was renowned for starting a sort of philosophical commune
in southern Italy, and he’s the fi rst person in the West to espouse
vegetarianism. He is famous for his Pythagorean theorem, which is
very important to mathematics.Classical Greece
In classical Greece (about 490 to 330 B.C.), the most interesting
food custom is the symposium, which was usually a time set aside
for after the main meal of the day (deipnon) in the evening, when
men laid around on couches drinking and discussing things. Unlike Plato’s symposium, a true symposium involved performers,
naked fl ute girls, and people telling dirty stories. Most importantly,
they drink a lot of wine. Greeks mixed their wine with water,
probably because it was fairly thick, sweet, and highly alcoholic. Plato merely appropriated this drinking-party form to present
a discussion. His particular brand of rationalism was meant to
counteract the wild, irrational rituals of the early Greeks. In fact,