The Greek meal of the 4th century BCE revolves around sitos, the cereal base (maza barley cake, wheat bread), accompanied by opson, everything that "relishes" the cereal: olives, cheese, vegetables, fish, and more rarely meat. The main meal (deipnon) is taken at the end of the day, reclining on couches. Then comes the symposion, a time for drinking wine mixed with water and conversation, snacking on honey sweets and dried fruits. At the Macedonian court, the deipnon becomes a feast of roasted meat and grand wines.

Honey binds, preserves, and sweetens the Greek table just as warm wax binds the pigments in Apelles' encaustic. From the morning barley cake to the oxymel of the physicians of Cos, this golden thread links the workshop and the banquet.