The classic Greek meal separates eating from conversing. The ariston (daytime snack) and deipnon (evening meal) are built around sitos — the staple food, almost always a barley cake or porridge — accompanied by opson, the 'that-which-enhances': olives, cheese, fish, vegetables. Then, with stomach settled, comes the symposion: tables are cleared, heads are crowned, wine is mixed with water in the krater, and tragemata (sweets) are served while conversation flows. For an Ionian philosopher like Anaxagoras, the portion of sitos is generous and that of opson deliberately meager: sobriety is a discipline of the mind.

Barley, the grain of the poor and the wise, is eaten as a kneaded cake (maza) or diluted as a drink (kykeon) — it is the common thread of a frugal table. Olive oil, poured raw, binds and flavors without masking: it is the king of seasonings in the Greek world, long before the butter of the Barbarians.