Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

144 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
imported from the Black Sea region. In Athens, a particularly common
seafood was the anchovy or sardine, which was harvested
close to the Attic coast. Archestratos of Gela, a mid-fourth-century
b.c.e. poet who had a reputation for being a master cook, speaks of
it as follows:
Value all small fry as shit apart from the Athenian variety. I’m referring
to sprats, which the Ionians call foam. Get hold of it fresh from the sacred
arms of Phaleron’s beautiful bay [off the south coast of Attica]. What you
find in wave-girt Rhodes is also good, if it happens to be local. If you’d
care to taste it, you should also buy leafy sea anemones. Mix this in and
bake it all in a pan, grinding the fragrant flowers of the greens in olive oil.
(quoted in Athenaios, Professors at Dinner 285b-c)
A favorite delicacy was eels from Lake Kopaïs in Boiotia. Aristophanes
facetiously suggests that one of the greatest hardships that
the Athenians had to face during the Peloponnesian War was the
lack of Kopaïc eels, because the Boiotians had sided with the enemy.
The Boiotians accorded them a quasi-religious status, as we learn
from a Hellenistic historian named Agatharkides:
The Boiotians sacrifice to the gods Kopaïc eels of extraordinary size, putting
garlands on them, and praying over them, and casting barley seeds
upon them, just as they do with other sacrificial victims. When a foreigner
expressed amazement at the custom, a Boiotian replied that he had only
one explanation for it, that one should observe ancestral customs. It wasn’t
his business to justify such things to other people. (quoted in Athenaios,
Professors at Dinner 297d)
Vegetables, Fruit, and Other Foodstuffs
Popular vegetables included cabbages, asparagus, carrots, radishes,
cucumbers, pumpkins, chicory, celery, and artichokes. Onions,
garlic, and olives were also eaten in large quantities and provided the
staple diet for those serving in the army and navy. Legumes, though
high in protein, do not appear to have been regarded as an important
foodstuff. Fruits included grapes, figs, apples, pears, and dates.
Nuts were generally harvested wild. Almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts,
and chestnuts were widely distributed throughout Greece.
Olive oil, used in the preparation of many meals, was the principal
source of fat. It also served in religious rituals and was applied
to the body after exercise. The importance of olives for the Athenian