Orpheus at the table

In the ancient Greek meal, the table is arranged around sitos (the grain staple: barley or wheat, as flatbread or porridge) accompanied by opson (the "what-goes-with-it": oil, cheese, olives, fruit, sometimes fish). The deipnon, the evening meal, extends into the symposion, the time of wine mixed with water, songs, and tragemata (sweetmeats). But Orpheus brings a singularity: the Orphic tradition advocates abstinence from blood and animal flesh (and even beans) — so his cuisine leans toward grains, honey, fruits, and milk, an ascetic and mysterious table.

Barley — ground into toasted flour (alphita) or cracked into groats — is the heart of Greek diet and the pillar of Orphic rites. Married to golden honey, it becomes offering, initiation drink, and banquet sweet. This is the thread linking all these recipes: a bloodless cuisine, faithful to the precept of the Thracian bard.