Perseus at the table

The ancient Greek meal revolves around sitos, the staple food (barley cake or porridge, wheat bread), accompanied by opson, the "what-you-eat-with-it": cheese, olives, fish, roasted meat on feast days. There is no French-style starter or dessert: honey sweets and wine diluted with water come later, during the symposion, the shared drinking moment when libations honor the gods before conversation and song.

Honey harvested from hills covered in wild thyme is the gold of the Greek table: it sweetens travel cakes, glazes banquet meats, and nourishes libations offered to the gods. Along with olive oil, ever-present, it marks almost every dish from the Argolid to the kingdom of Ethiopia where Perseus feasted.