Pericles at the table

In Athens, the main meal (deipnon) revolves around a pair: sitos, the cereal-based staple (barley cakes, wheat bread), and opson, the "accompaniment" — fish, olives, vegetables, cheese. People eat seated or reclining on klinai. After the meal comes the symposion, a regulated drinking session where wine, always mixed with water, flows with conversation. Sweets (honey, fresh cheese, figs) often close the meal or serve as offerings to the gods.

Gift of Athena to her city, the olive tree is sacred in Athens: its oil is exported in amphorae to the edges of the Greek world. Green, peppery, it binds the barley cake, makes the fish gleam, perfumes the honey. Under Pericles, Attic oil is both daily sustenance and political pride of the polis.