Pandora at the table

The ancient Greek meal is organized around the sitos, the staple grain food (barley cake, wheat bread, porridge), accompanied by the opson, the "that-which-goes-with": olives, cheese, fish, vegetables, honey. People sit or recline according to rank, and everything begins or ends with a libation to the gods — a few drops poured before raising the cup to the lips. At Pandora's table, a creature born between heaven and earth, this sharing links the mortal table to that of Olympus.

Before cane sugar, honey is the soul of Greek sweetness, and olive oil the binder of everything. These two gifts — that of the bees, that of Athena — perfume both the offering placed on the altar and the daily barley cake.