Alimentación y Riqueza en Grecia Antigua: una mirada sobre Arquéstrato

Abstract

The present work, originating from a research project on History and Culture of
Food in Antiquities, seeks to problematize an important aspect of food in the ancient
Greek world: the question of the sources of investigation and their possibilities. What
material does the historian have at his disposal to investigate in the Greek world how
heroes, rulers, soldiers, rich and poor people, men and women were fed? Is it possible
to access the different social segments of the Greek world and find out what food,
banquets and the relationship between food and certain rites were like? We observe,
from these questions and others, the existence of limits of investigative possibilities
that, nevertheless, do not prevent us to know a little about the table of this distant
past. For this, we will follow the following path: first, we will observe some general
aspects of Greek food, to observe thematic possibilities dispersed in the written
tradition; in continuity, aspects related to material culture, from which elements of
Greek food culture are found; finally, we will reflect on a sui generis source on food
among the ancient Greeks that we have available: the poetry of Archestratus, which
is largely dedicated to talking about the kitchen from products, culinary methods,
utensils, furniture and agents of production that are probably linked to the culture of
a Greek elite with more resources for a more elaborate diet.