In ancient Greece, the meal was built around *sitos* (the staple grain: barley cake or porridge) accompanied by *opson* (what 'enhances' it: vegetables, fish, cheese, honey), followed by *tragêmata* (sweets and dried fruits) washed down with wine cut with water. But for Hades and the powers below, one does not burn the portion on the altar as for the Olympians: they practiced the chthonian *thysia*, a 'downward' sacrifice — libations poured onto the ground into a *bothros* (pit), boiled rather than roasted foods, offerings left for the dead. Pomegranate and honey hold a special place.

Fruit-emblem of Hades: it was its six seeds that Persephone tasted in the Underworld, binding her forever to the subterranean realm. Symbol of hidden abundance underground and of cyclical return, the pomegranate marks almost everything connected to the lord of the dead.