The aristocratic Greek meal of the heroic age unfolds in two parts. The deipnon is the meal proper: diners sit or recline on klinai, with barley flatbread (maza) serving as the base for everything, accompanied by roasted meats on feast days, cheese, olives, and figs. Then comes the symposion, the time for drinking: wine mixed with water is passed around in the krater, honey sweets are nibbled, songs are sung, and libations are poured to the gods. Beyond the meal, the offering (a libation of milk and honey, first fruits placed on the altar) weaves the permanent bond between the table of humans and that of the Immortals.

Before sugar, before anything else, there is Greek honey—from thyme and savory—and toasted barley flour. The one perfumes offerings, cakes, and sacred drinks; the other, kneaded into maza, is the daily bread of both Sparta and Troy. Together they speak of Helen's table.