Food

Greek and Roman authors coupled food preparation and food consumption practices with particular peoples.

Herodotus: Egyptian priests: “food is sacred and prepared for them, and there is an abundance of beef and goose for each day, and they receiive wine from grapes. They are not allowed to taste fish.” These priests do eat beans and cannot even look at them for they are unclean. Egyptians sell the heads of consecrated and sacrificed bulls to the Hellenes in their communities. The Egyptians, because they curse these severed heads, do not eat them. Nor will Egyptians eat cows because they are sacred to Isis. They will not kiss the mouth of Hellenes, use their knives, nor cooking utensils if a cow has been sacrificed and eaten by these Hellenes. Egyptians believe that pigs are impure. They sacrifice pigs and eat pork on two occasions: sacrifices to Selene and Dionysus. They eat lotus fruits, which are as big as an onion, and also make wine from them. Cave-dwelling Ethiopians eat snakes, lizards, and other reptiles. The Atarantes who live around Mt. Atlas never eat meat. The Libyans eat meat and drink milk, but not consume cows (like Egyptians), the women of Cyrene because the cow is sacred to Isis; the women of Barcae do not eat cow or pigs. The Gygantes of North Africa “paint themselves red and eat apes that live in the hills in large numbers”. Sallust: The first peoples of Africa were the Gaetuli and the Libyans, who ate raw flesh and “fodder from the earth like beasts”. The Numidians consume milk and wild animals. They do not use salt. For them food is only for nourishment, “not a source of licentiousness and luxury”. Strabo: Egyptians mix suet into bread and brew barley beer (17.2.5 = RECW 7.4, p. 126). The Nomads in North Africa “eat roots more than meat” and milk rather than cheese for food. Pomponius Mela: People who live inland in North Africa “eat mostly the flesh of wild beasts so as to spare their flocks as much as possible.” The Atalantes, who live further inland, do not eat animal flesh. Juvenal: For Egyptians “it is a religious offence to violate the leek or the onion by biting into them. Oh, you saintly nations whose divinities grow in gardens!” He goes on to say that Egyptians do not eat “wooly mammals and that one can “feed on human flesh”. Athenaeus: Anaxandrides (New Comedy, fourth century BCE) in Cities wrote that Athenians cannot ally with Egyptians because of their customs: they do not eat cows, eels, or pigs, while the Athenians do.