The Food and Geography of Greece

When a country is faced with this situation, it has three choices: (1) trade, (2) colonize, or (3) conquer. Greece did all three. It traded its staple crops, olive oil and wine. It founded colonies like Sicily to produce grain. But when it tried to conquer other territories, it was defeated and was conquered itself. Geography affected government in Greece by keeping it small and local, because travel over steep peaks and down deep valleys was difficult and time consuming.

Each city was like a small country and ruled itself. It is from the Greek word for these city-states-polis-that we get our word politics. The city-state of Athens was the birthplace of democracy, the form of government in which the citizens rule by voting. The United States and all other democracies are based on this. However, Greece was no political paradise: only free males were allowed to be citizens and to vote. Women had no say in the government and neither did much of the labor force, which was slaves.

The Greeks were a nation of sailors who lived on the abundant variety the sea provided: fish like mullet, turbot, grouper, sea bream; and eels, octopus, and squid. The measure of an ancient Greek cook was what he could do with fish. The first chef we know by name in history was a Greek man named Mithekos, from the city-state of Syracuse, in Sicily. His book of recipes-ingredients and instructions-mostly for fish, has disappeared. We know about it only because mention of it survives in other writings. Especially popular was the dark-fleshed bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus, native to the Mediterranean. These large fish-they can weigh almost a ton-were preserved in salt or olive oil, as they still are today in the Mediterranean. Bonito, the bluefin’s ten-pound relative, was wrapped in fig leaves and slow-cooked in the ashes.

Food, too, was democratic in Greece, at least until the fifth century B.C. Everyone ate the same modest meals based on olives and figs, goats and sheep, barley pounded into a paste, porridge, or unleavened bread. More than any other food, bread represented civilization because it was a completely human product, controlled by humans every step of the way. Vinegar was a favorite ingredient of the Greeks. Black pepper was also used, but was considered a medicine. Cows were not kept because of the shortage of pasture land, so a man who owned oxen was considered rich. However, he didn’t kill them because he needed them to plow his fields and for transportation. Goats and sheep were kept, but the young ones were reserved for ritual blood sacrifices to the gods.