CONCEPTS OF DIET AND NUTRITION IN ANCIENT WORLD

THEORY OF EATING

Why did people in the ancient world eat what they ate? This was obviously to keep fit and well, but also, more so than in present-day Western society, to keep alive. To avoid starvation people even ate grass or twigs. Crises of food shortage and hunger dominated an insecure life, so that a search for food or its production was the immediate priority. Primitive people in prehistoric societies avoided eating poisonous plants or other noxious substances. Slow poisons, such as food cooked in lead pans, however, could cause death without a person realizing the cause.

A second reason for eating certain foods was that people ate according to a belief or to follow a prescriptive regime. A belief in the humoral theory dictated some people's choice of food and when they ate it. Religious belief and celebration in festivities played a large part in what was consumed. This could be linked to supply. Poor people in Greece and Egypt ate most of their meat from sacrificial animals. Culture and tradition can determine what food should and could be eaten. Preference could be influenced by what one had as a child or the culture of the family or tribe. The Celts had a tradition based on butter, milk, and cheese. The Greeks and Romans preferred to use olive oil; in Egypt oil was obtained from seeds. People were influenced by or obeyed taboos, sometimes from choice or tradition, sometimes, as in the case of priests, because it was a condition of their profession. The Stoics practiced asceticism. The followers of Pythagoras, who believed that the souls of humans transferred after death to either humans or animals, practiced vegetarianism.

A third reason centered on taste and preference. Taste is determined in childhood, when children build up a visual prototype of favored foods. They will reject foods that do not match the prototype, probably because of an ancient survival mechanism that sets the pattern for future eating preferences. Thus foods that are harmful, such as poisonous toadstools, would be avoided. Some foods appealed more than others. Sweet tastes dominated, linked to ripe fruits and breast milk; a dislike of bitter tastes was linked to alkaloid toxins in plants. Scarcity would extend the range of foods that people were forced to eat. But when food was available in larger quantities or when people had the means to procure a greater variety of food, then choice would dominate. People might have preferred savory or sweet foods, meat, or vegetables, but choice was probably confined to the wealthy. Poorer people had little or no choice and ate what was available within their area. Conspicuous consumption of food was a sign of power and privilege. The rich could indulge themselves by tasting exotic foods unavailable to the poorer classes.

Taste is linked to a fourth reason: availability. Making food available was often a political necessity. The Egyptians stored corn in granaries so that it would be available in times of famine. The Roman emperors provided the citizens of Rome with a constant food supply to avoid unrest. Availability and the extension of choice of food often was subject to the weather. When St. Paul was being brought to Rome on a corn ship from Alexandria (Acts 27 AV), the ship was wrecked in a tempest and the wiieat cast out to try to lighten it. The Alexandrian corn fleet usually traveled in convoy, so if there were delays, the corn supply in Rome was often running dangerously low. Emperor Tiberius expressed forcibly Rome's dependence of food supply on the hazards of the weather.

Availability also depended on extending the distance from which food could be brought. Imports into a country and the introduction of new plants to supplement those gathered from the wild provided wider choice. The growth of long-distance trade was the area in which the Romans excelled. The expansion of the empire increased the availability and choice of food. Traders, under the protection and with the encouragement of an authoritative regime, were able to transport their goods along well-made roads to towns and cities where market halls and retail outlets were supplying agents for the buying public. In addition, soldiers stationed throughout the empire had to have supplies of food and money sent to them. This might mean the introduction of new foods such as liquamen,,wine, or olive oil, but, more importantly, the system put ready cash into the local economy, which could encourage trade not linked to a barter system.

HUMORAL THEORY

Health in the ancient classical world, as described in the writings of Hippocrates and Galen, was linked to the harmony of four bodily fluids, or humors. These were blood (hot and dry), phlegm (cold and moist), yellow bile or choler (hot and dry), and black bile or melancholy (cold and dry). In turn these were linked to the four elements of earth, fire, water, and air, analyzed in terms of cold, hot, wet, and dry, and from there transposed to the seasons.

These explained disease and human behavior in terms of interactions and the relative proportions of these fluids. The food and drink that a person consumed and therefore his or her diet could influence the humors and health. If blood was in the ascendant, then the person was sanguine; if phlegm dominated, the person would be melancholic.

The humors determined what should be in a person's diet, what illness or disease he or she could catch, and what might be his or her personality. The theory even applied to plants and animals, so that matching the right type of food to the person was essential. Hot and moist people had to eat similar foods except when they were unbalanced, in which case they had to eat cold and dry foods to correct the balance, and the reverse therefore followed. There was therefore a constant battle to achieve the correct diet.

A physician could control the humors by prescribing a regime of certain foods and drink or giving medicines counter to the type of humor. Bitter almonds and garlic neutralized phlegm, cabbage counteracted black bile, and honey and sweet liquids were the remedy for yellow^ bile. Hippocrates in his 'Regimen in Health', as well as discussing cooking methods, exercises, and bathing, prescribed a seasonal regime. In winter a person should eat a great deal but drink little. If he has wine, it should be diluted. Bread, meat, and fish, cooked dry, and a few vegetables would keep the body dry and hot. In spring liquid could be increased and bread and cereals reduced, and meat and fish should have more liquid in them. When summer conies, drinking liquids should be increased, foods made more watery, and vegetables eaten raw. In autumn the eating of cereals should be gradually increased, meat and fish should be cooked drier, and drinking should be more sparing. Even when traveling, a regime should be followed, and here the advice seems to be sensible.

The Greek physician Diodes of Carystus in the fourth century B.C. advised that if undertaking a long journey in summer, there should be a pause for lunch and a rest after this. If this is impossible, only a little food and drink should be taken, and the food should include some salt. In winter he advised that there should be no break, and, rather curiously, indicated that no food and drink should be taken. He might have intended that it would be as well for a person to ignore breaks and refreshment to reach the destination quickly before night set in and the cold weather increased.

There were some sensible theories dictating a regime. Some foods were prescribed to strengthen a stomach and stop it rumbling. These included quinces, olives in brine, raisins, and mustard. To prevent flatulence, chickpeas, beans, barley cake, lupines, fresh dates, figs, and beer should be avoided. Simple meals should consist of bread, cheese, and fruit. Attendance at a banquet or a rich meal was allowable, providing this was not done too regularly.

How many people followed these theories is problematic. Most poor people would have been more concerned about getting anything to eat than regulating a diet, but wealthy people who were under the control of a physician might have subjected themselves to a prescribed regime. Women, for example, were believed to have a cold and wet constitution. This could be corrected by prescribing hot and dry foods, which are those that had little liquid and were not saturated with spices. Women should avoid fish, fat, and anything from a newborn animal. They were not to drink a great deal of wine, although a little could be allowed. They were often denied meat, as this would raise the quality of heat and thus their sexual allure.

Physicians, however, had realized correctly that women require less food than men. Modern nutritionists have decreed that women need 2,000 calories per day while men require 2,500-4,000, depending on the degree of work they undertake. The ancient world, however, was a patriarchal society, and so it was inevitable that women, of whatever class, always got less food than men, unless they were in the more wealthy ranks of society.

FOOD SUPPLY

Two groups of people in the ancient world might eat better-quality meals with improved provision of food. The first was the army. Even in Egypt, where there was no organized commissariat, commanders made sure that the men were fed before campaigns. The Spartans ensured that their men relied on as little food as was required but enough to keep them fit. The Greeks did allow foraging, but it was the Roman army that had an excellent commissariat to supply food. The second group were the people who lived in towns, who ate well except in times of famine. Towns developed thriving and lively daily markets supplied by traders and people bringing in food from the country, who were only too eager to sell a cash crop. Some parts of Italy followed a nine-day cycle for their markets; other parts of the empire followed similar patterns. There were also occasional markets held as part of fairs and festivals.

The Greek agoras and Roman forums were built specifically to be lively centers for buying and selling of all kinds of goods and food. Some markets specialized in fish or meat. The Forum Boarium and the Forum Holitorium in Rome were the centers of a meat trade. The Greeks had markets on the quayside, so that when a ship came in fresh fish were for sale. Urban dwellers could obtain food easily and had the advantage of fresh fast food, bread, cooked meats, and sauces. They could eat reasonably well, with an increased variety of diet, or even more elaborate dishes if they had the advantage of hiring one of the cooks who waited in the marketplace to seek employment. They might even have a cook who knew some of the sophisticated recipes gathered in Apicius's book.

Food was a priority. If supplies were scarce, people would eat whatever they could; quantity, not quality, was the criterion. When food became more plentiful, consumer choice and discrimination were possible. In the towns and at culling and harvest time in the countryside, the problem might not be lack of food but a surplus. The gorging of food and indulgence in wine could result in liver complaints, heart attacks, and obesity. A rich diet, especially if laced with liquamen, caused bad breath. Worse could occur. Juvenal told the story of one woman who, arriving late for a dinner party in Rome, slakes her thirst with "a couple of pints before dinner to create a raging appetite; then she brings it all up again and souses the floor with the washings of her insides."

Self-indulgence and gluttony were both attributed to the Romans, not least because of Seneca's contemptuous and rather unfair comment that "from every quarter the Romans gather together every known and unknown thing to tickle a fastidious palate; the food which their stomachs by weakened indulgence can scarcely retain is fetched from the farthest oceans. They vomit that they might eat; they eat that they may vomit. They do not deign even to digest the feasts for which they ransack the wiiole earth." The Greeks also warned against shameless consumption of food, although it might be difficult to distinguish between gluttonous consumption of food and drink and gastronomic extravagance. Moralizing against both came from critics such as Seneca and Cicero. A warning against gluttony came from the Roman poet Persius, where a patient ignored the advice of his doctor: "Bloated with food and queasy of stomach he goes to bathe with sulphurous belching issuing from his throat.

But as he drinks his wine a shivering fit comes over him and knocks the hot glass from his hands; his bared teeth chatter, the savoury morsels drop from his slack lips. Then follow7 the trumpet and the candles and last the dear deceased, laid out on a high bier, and smeared with greasy unguents, sticks out his stiff heels towards the door."

Examples of obesity occur in Egyptian mummies, probably a consequence of eating too much fat, honey, and sweet cakes and excessive drinking. Mummies of Pharaohs Amenhotep III and Ramses III have large folds of skin on them, indicating that they were very fat. This may have been due as much to inflammation of the gallbladder as to overeating. Queen Hatshepsut is depicted on the wall of her temple at Deir el-Bahari as being grossly overweight. That obesity was not confined to the wealthy is shown by a wall relief of the Middle Kingdom where a grossly overweight harpist strains to reach the strings of the harp as he plays before Prince Aik.

People also become accustomed to types of food. Galen describes traveling near Pergamum when he was a young man. One day he came across some peasants who had already eaten their supper. Now the women were going to make bread. One woman put some wheat and water in a pot to boil, and then added some salt. Some of the mixture was scooped out and given to Galen and his companions to eat. This they felt they had to do partly out of courtesy for this hospitality and because they were hungry. When they had eaten they felt "it was as heavy as mud in their stomachs," and the whole of the next day they had very bad indigestion, no appetite, and were full of wind. "We also had blackouts before our eyes as nothing of what we had eaten could be evacuated," and this, he added, "is the only way by which indigestion can be relieved." The effect on Galen's stomach would be equivalent to eating newly baked bread, which, washed down with water, tends to swell. The peasants were more used to eating this simple fare than people who ate a greater variety of food.

DIET

The Mediterranean diet has been assumed to be a healthy diet, comprising mainly pulses, cereals, vegetables, fruits, olive oil, cheese, fish, and only a little meat. To reduce this even further, cereals, vines, and olives are considered to be the essential parts of a dietary regime. But the benefit of this diet depends upon its availability. Food may not be equally gained or shared. Vines and olives may not be grown everywhere with equal success. Some products may be left out or substituted.

In Egypt, sesame oil was used instead of olive oil. Even in Greece and Italy, wine and olive oil might not be readily available, although they could be provided by the wealthy as charity and at feasts given on festive occasions. People living near the seacoast or along the banks of a river would eat more fish, a good protein source and high in lysine, a vital amino acid. Those people living farther inland could have a supply of salted fish, but would be more dependent on land animals for their protein or, like the poor, eat more bread and pulses, which often led to indigestion and flatulence, an antisocial effect.

Cereals and pulses were dominant foods, for there wras no rival staple in the ancient world. Grain provided the bulk of food for the poor, rations for the soldiers, and supplies for urban residents. The superiority of the wealthy over their inferiors lay in their ability to obtain and consume other food than cereals and pulses.

The Celts living in the northern Europe could have a high-protein diet based on animal products. Meat is also rich in the B vitamins, especially B12, which combats anemia and tiredness. This diet would be adequate in good summers, less so in the winter. Lack of fodder entailed killing of cattle, ensuring a feast of meat in the autumn while the culling was taldng place, but little thereafter. Presumably every part of the animals would be used. Offal, although lower in energy value because of its lower fat content, has a protein content of high biological value and a high content of nicotinic acid, folk acid, and vitamin D.

Such a diet would be richer in fat and protein in summer than in winter. The fat content of the meat would be lower, because freeranging animals have five times less fat than domesticated breeds. The carbohydrate content of the subsistence diet could be high in winter if its basis was the thick pottage. Pieces of meat and fish added to it would provide protein; so would the eggs of chickens and those collected from wild birds. This type of diet, although rich in fiber, could lack certain vitamins and minerals, and as the science of nutrition was not known, supplementary foods would not be eaten, thus making the diet somewhat debilitating.

Though berried fruits, and dog rose hips in particular, can be used to make healthy syrups, rich in vitamin C, there would certainly be a lack of that vitamin in winter in northern Europe, so that scurvy would be a constant threat. Both Hippocrates and Pliny knew of this disease from their description of gum ulceration. Iron deficiency, which causes hemoglobin levels to fall, resulting in anemia, would probably be avoided if iron cooking pots and cauldrons were used and a diet eaten containing pulses and wiieat-germ cereals. A diet containing a large amount of indoles present in the cabbage family, dried beans, and lentils inhibits the formation of tumors. If lentils were part of a diet, then these would provide an excellent source of vitamins A, B, C, and D together with iron, phosphate, and potassium. Fat hen is particularly nutritious, providing iron, calcium, and vitamin B. Walnuts, hazelnuts, and other nuts can provide a valuable source of vitamin A.

One problem with a mainly cereal diet and especially the eating of bread made with a high fiber content is that as well as fiber it contains phytate; the consumption of this component interferes with the absorption of calcium and vital minerals such as iron, thus predisposing individuals to rickets and osteomalacia. Although rickets was not mentioned as a disease or as a specific ailment in parts of the ancient world, except as a deficiency in children, both it and osteomalacia have been found in bodies in Roman cemeteries, indicating a lack of vitamin D. No case of rickets was found in skeletal remains in Egypt.

Children of the upper classes in Greece and Rome were swaddled and kept indoors rather than allowed to run free, which would have created a propensity toward rickets. Children of the poorer classes would have had more freedom but were probably more subject to an early life of hard labor helping their parents, and this could have caused other problems. Rickets, however, arises out of dietary deficiencies, along with other disorders, including anemia and dwarfism, and these are more likely to occur in people who eat a largely cereal diet.

Vitamin D is essential for the uptake and utilization of calcium in the skeletal structure and for the absorption of calcium from the gut. Egg yolks, liver, and fish oils can provide this, but the best source is the action of sun on steroids in the skin. Lack of sun in winter could be a problem in the northern European regions. On the other hand, the inhabitants would spend more time outdoors, and thus skin would be more exposed than is the case today. In Mediterranean lands exposure to sun might cause other problems; in Egyptian texts there is mention of skin being like the hide of a crocodile.

Calcium intake would be higher in summer than in winter because of the availability of green leafy vegetables and more fresh milk and cheese. Milk has a high calcium content essential for strengthening bones, small amounts of phosphorous and potassium, and a significant amount of protein. Retinol, or vitamin A, essential to repair surface body tissue, is more present in summer milk than winter milk, and this is when milk production would be more prolific. The Celts, as a milk-drinking and butter-eating people, would benefit from this. The Greeks and Romans, who disliked milk and butter and regarded them as food for barbarians, would lack this benefit.

This, together with a lack of liver, kidneys, and fish oils, could result in eye diseases such as night blindness and keratomalacia, a softened, perforated cornea. Roman oculist stamps with their carved retrograde inscriptions are testimony to the numerous cakes of eye salve into which they were pressed and that were given to recipients hoping to use them for a cure. A good cure for eye problems was eating liver, which was prescribed regularly by classical writers, although it took some courage to eat goat's liver on an empty stomach, as prescribed by Herophilus, a physician of Alexandria in the third century B.C. As he also recommends an ointment of crocodile feces, vitriolic copper, and hyena bile mixed with honey, it was perhaps no wonder that his suggestion of goat's liver was equally regarded as questionable.

The Greek and Roman dislike or possible problem with milk might indicate a degree of lactose intolerance. The problem with unpasteurized milk is that it can carry disease-causing organisms, especially tuberculosis and brucellosis. Several examples of tuberculosis of the bone have been found in skeletons excavated from Roman sites; three were noted at the Roman town of Poundbury (England), which could have been caused by infected milk. In Egypt, bovine tuberculosis was rife from Neolithic times and was probably caused by close contact with livestock.

Fish provide an excellent source of protein, as it is rich in lysine, a vital amino acid lacking in a high-cereal diet; traces of vitamins C and D; and iodine. Calcium can be gained from eating the bones, and fluorine helps to prevent tooth decay. Fish need, however, to be transported, sold, and consumed rapidly. Growth of bacteria means that it deteriorates, becoming both smelly and dangerous to health. Fastidious eaters would avoid it, and even those who were short of food would be wary of its nausea-producing effects. Pliny and Columelia warned against eating fish that is anything less than fresh. In the second century A.D.Terentianus, a soldier stationed at Alexandria, wrote to his father, apologizing for not meeting him. He, with almost all the garrison, was unable to leave the camp for several days because of "so violent and dreadful an attack offish poisoning." Fish preserved in brine, however, kept for about a year and could be consumed during late winter and early spring, when food was scarce, or as a short-term response to famine. Iron is found in mollusks, so the huge consumption of oysters would be beneficial.

Roman adult taste tended toward the spicy and the robust. The Romans disliked bland tastes and added contrived sour, spicy, and bitter tastes by the use of herbs and spices. They countered those flavors by adding liquamen or olive oil. The oil blunted the bitter phytonutrients and, unknown to the Romans, had the added advantage of containing vitamin E. Care had to be taken, as oil could deteriorate, producing a rancid taste. Elaborate cuisine required that food should be civilized, or that wild food, as in the case of game and certain fruits, should be made more civilized. The trick of doing this was to bring them into the civilized area without overcooking; hence the use of condiments and sauces. Expert cooks made natural products unrecognizable, either in the specific dish or by misleading the diner. Hence vegetables were made into star and fish shapes. Roman cooks disguised meat as fish, indicating their patrons' preference for eating one product masquerading as another. One Apician entree was shaped like a fish and made to taste like a fish, but was in reality well-salted liver; another—pounded cumin, pepper, and liquamen with ground walnuts poured into brine—resembled a dish of salt fish.

Plants and vegetables, if used quickly, would provide much-needed nutrients especially vitamins A and K, found in leafy greens. Slow transportation results in overripe vegetables, so the quicker the transfer of food from garden to table or from supplier to consumer, the better. Salmonella and listeria can occur through eating tainted food, and fertilization with sewage can lead to E. coli infection. Apicius gives advice on preserving food and preventing it from going bad. The problem often lies with food storage, especially with fish sauces. Food poisoning need not result in death, providing that immunity has been built up. It is with people who are unused to bad food that problems occur. That people survived infestation has been revealed by the analysis of fecal remains from a cesspit at Carlisle and sewers at York (England). Whip worms and roundworms, both of which live in the intestines, were present in huge numbers. Heavy infestation of these can cause dysentery.

In Egypt, as elsewhere, many plants had medicinal as well as nutritional uses. The sycamore fig aided stomach and intestinal disorders. Its crushed leaves were used as a laxative and to cure hippopotamus bites. The sap was placed on scars to darken them. Leeks also darkened scars and relieved bites. Watermelon had a purgative effect.

Garlic, cooked with honey and vinegar, was used to expel tapeworm and parasites. Roasted in oil, garlic could be used to treat bruises. Garlic and goose grease were used as an eye drop, although the efficacy of this treatment may be doubted. Onions boiled in water were used as antibiotics, diuretics and expectorants, and even as vaginal douches. Even more problematic was a paste of peas, acacia leaves, honey, and moringa oil, which was used to stop bleeding from the womb.

Eating peas was believed to combat heart trouble. Lupine beans were used for mouth rinses and dressings and as a paste used for softening stiff limbs. Bean-meal paste mixed with honey was used for a prolapsed rectum. Lettuce-seed oil was used to mix ointments, which would soften limbs, and when applied to the head would cure headaches. Celery was given to retain urine, which was puzzling as celery juice was also given as a diuretic. Mixed with sweet beer it was said to relieve toothache, while mixed with oil and sweet wine it could be used as a contraceptive.

In order to keep well, people would rely on plant and folk remedies, which would provide additional nutrients to the diet, as in the case of fat hen. Coughs and colds were relieved by the traditional method of milk and honey. A more efficacious remedy was mixing horehound with wine. An amphora that had contained this mixture was found in the Roman fort of Carpow in Scotland, presumably having been issued to the troops to combat coughs in the cold climate. Fats with a high caloric value obtained from seeds were part of the Egyptian diet. The Greeks and Romans preferred olive oil, which was one of the main fats that helps to make a cereal diet palatable. A diet high in olive oil helps prevent coronary heart disease as well as mitigating the effects of arthritis, but probably few people lived long enough or lived such a sedentary life for heart disease to become a chronic health factor.

TABOOS

The Romans seem to have been uninhibited in their eating habits, apart from not eating cats, dogs, or horses, although horses could be eaten in cases of extreme provocation. Galen said that some people of necessity ate the flesh of young asses, that snakes were eaten in Egypt, and, with some exaggeration, that the Greeks ate tortoises every day.Both tortoises and turtles could be a food source, but not a popular one. Some parts of these reptiles were used in medicine. Galen, for example, made use of turtle blood and turtle bile.16 Caesar commented that the Celts did not eat hare, geese, or chicken, but reared them for amusement and pleasure. The remains of gnawed bones of these creatures on habitation sites prove that this taboo was ignored. The followers of Pythagoras and Empedocles in the late sixth and early fifth century B.C. would not eat animal flesh. They believed in the immortality of the soul and its reincarnation into another body. This could be either human or animal, and, if the latter, killing would be murder and eating could be cannibalism. Empedocles went even further and envisaged reincarnation into plant life. Porphyry of Tyre in the third century B.C. made a case for vegetarianism but was not concerned with the doctrine of reincarnation. He was more concerned with not eating animals because they have a soul. He regarded eating meat as not helping either the body or the soul, as it intensified human passions.

Pythagoras issued a specific taboo on eating beans. If a bean was split and exposed to the sun, it could smell of human semen. Pliny was also wary about eating beans because they could contain the souls of the dead. This would explain the use of beans in Roman rituals associated with the dead and their subsequent commemorating feasts. Herodotus claimed that the Egyptians did not eat beans, but beans have been found in Egyptian tombs, and although not as popular as other pulses, the broad bean was cultivated from the time of the Old Kingdom.

Herodotus was also responsible for present day Egyptologists believing for a long time that pork was taboo for the Egyptians. He said that any Egyptian who accidentally touched a pig would have to purify himself in the Nile. Egyptian priests were certainly forbidden to eat pork, which might have been self-denying ordinance rather than a taboo. Pigs were associated with the forces of darkness, especially as the god Seth, the enemy of Osiris, transformed himself into a black boar in his conflict with the sky god, Horus. Pigs were, however, kept on farms in the New Kingdom, and these are illustrated on tomb paintings. Although pork is not mentioned among offerings for the tomb dead, the pharaohs gave offerings of pigs to temples. Excavations of the workers' village at Tell el-Amarna have revealed a large pig farm and a considerable number of pig bones scored with knives. Possibly this meant that pork was eaten by the less wealthy as a cheap, low-status food. Pig bones, similarly scored, have also been found in excavations of other villages in Egypt. The distaste for pork may have been more to do with the unclean habits of pigs that wallow7ed in dirt and smelled or with the diseases that resulted from eating pork. Pork can transmit parasitic worms to human intestines, which cause trichinosis, resulting in pain, sweating, insomnia, and even death. Pork also spoiled more quickly than other meat and was probably taboo only to certain groups or, more understandably, at certain times of the year.

Egyptian priests considered it a religious duty to avoid salt, so they refused to eat food cooked with it. Plutarch made the sensible suggestion that they did this because eating salt sharpened the appetite and made them more inclined to eating and drinking. Sea salt was taboo to most of the population, as it was associated with the kingdom of Seth. Salt was brought from the Siwa oasis and elsewhere for the general population. Priests were reputed to avoid eating beans, onions, and garlic. Paintings in tombs show priests receiving offerings of these, but they may have passed them on as gifts to worshippers. They did eat very well of other foods. Herodotus said that "they have no expense and trouble in everyday life. The grain is ground for them and they enjoy a plentiful food supply of beef and goose; they also have proper wine." Wine was offered to Egyptian deities, but occasionally, as in the temple at Heliopolis, wine was strictly forbidden even in libations, and the priests were forbidden to drink it. Plutarch said that in other places the priests poured it on the altars of the gods, "in imitation of the blood of those enemies who had formerly fought against them. Sometimes the wine was merely sprinkled on the ground."

If Herodotus is correct, priests abstained from eating fish, and for some people eating some kinds offish was also taboo: "Therefore on the ninth day of the first month when all the rest of the Egyptians are obliged by their religion to eat a fried fish before the doors of their houses, they [the priests] only burn them not tasting them at all."

This taboo was because of damage that fish had done to the god Osiris. Osiris had been attacked by his brother Seth, who cut up the body and scattered the pieces. All were recovered by Isis, Osiris's wife, except for the phallus, which had been eaten by three fish, the lepidotus (the carplike barbus), the phargus (probably a catfish), and the oxyrhynchus (a common fish with an elongated snout). Isis created a replacement for the phallus and impregnated herself, producing Horus, who avenged Osiris, who became ruler of the underworld. In some parts of Egypt, priests trampled on and mangled fish as part of festival ritual.

At Esna, perch were not eaten. Thousands of mummified perch were found in tombs there. Sometimes the catch was dedicated to the spirit of the deceased and presented as a gift to the marsh goddesses Sekhet and Hathor. Animals were sacrificed to the gods. These included goats, poultry, and fish. The animals had their feet tied, were put on the ground, and then had their throats cut. The shoulders, thighs, ribs, rump, heart, and kidneys were put on the altar. The head was taken to market, sold to strangers, or given the poor. The altar offerings were burned at first. Later only certain portions were burned. The remainder was given to the priests or sometimes to those who had presented the sacrifice.

Roman priests also had food taboos. These included raw flesh and beans. Priests of Jupiter were forbidden to eat bread fermented with yeast. Sometimes they avoided wine because of drunkenness and or its association with Bacchic revels. Plutarch asked why priests did not touch flour or yeast. The answer was because they were incomplete foods. Flour and yeast had not yet become bread or attained the usefulness of food. Yeast was itself the product of corruption and produced corruption in the dough with which it was mixed, for the dough becomes flabby and inert. The priests also avoided raw meat because it was not a living creature and had not been cooked. It was repulsive, like a flesh wound.

Written by Joan P. Alcock in "Food in the Ancient World", Greenwood Press, USA,2006, excerpts pp.227-237 & 242-245. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.