Medusa at the table

In mythological times, the Greek meal was not divided into starter-main-dessert. Everything revolved around the *sitos* (the cereal base: barley cake or porridge, the *maza*) accompanied by the *opson* (what is eaten "with" it: legumes, salted fish, cheese, olives). Then, at the symposion or to close the meal, came the *tragemata* — honey sweets, figs, dried fruits — and liquid or solid offerings intended for the gods and chthonic powers.

This fermented brine made from the entrails and blood of small fish was the umami of the ancient Greek world: a dark drop that salts, a marine depth wrested from the same sea where the Gorgons roam. It was used to season dried vegetables as well as preserved fish.