The ancient Greek meal is not thought of in terms of starter-main-dessert, but as two poles: the sitos, the nourishing grain base (barley bread, flatbread, or maza porridge), and the opson, what accompanies it and gives it flavor (vegetables, cheese, olives, honey). At Pythagoras' table, opson excludes meat and fish: metempsychosis forbids devouring a soul. One eats sparingly, almost as an act of purification, and beans are banned for ritual reasons. Sweetness (honey, fig, sesame) serves as celebration.

In a kitchen without animal flesh, honey — especially the fragrant thyme honey of the Aegean hills — becomes the great enhancer: it sweetens festival cakes, perfumes the sacred drink, and softens the austerity of the diet. It embodies the permitted against the forbidden (the bean), the pure against the impure.