The ancient Greek meal is organized around the sitos — the grain base (barley, sometimes wheat) that nourishes each day — accompanied by the opson, the "that-which-goes-with" (olives, cheese, fish, meat, herbs). After the meal comes the symposion, the time of shared drinking. Apart stands the thusia, the sacrifice: the smoke and bones wrapped in fat are burned for the gods, and the flesh roasted over fire is eaten among humans. It is precisely this sharing — the portion of the gods, the portion of men — that Prometheus established.

Prometheus's gift is not a dish but a technique: fire, which separates raw man from civilized man. His signature is therefore the very act of cooking, placed upon barley (krithê), the staple grain of the Greeks, and enhanced with olive oil and honey from Mount Hymettus.