ΕΓΧΕΙΡΟΓΑΣΤΟΡΕΣ

From 6 Athenaeus 645bc

ἐγὼ μὲν ἄρτους, μᾶζαν, ἀθάρην, ἄλφιτα,κόλλικας, ὀβελίαν, μελιτοῦτταν, ἐπιχύτους,πτισάνην, πλακοῦντας, δενδαλίδας, ταγηνίας.

Fragments

6 I [have, provide] loaves of bread, barley cake, porridge, barley groats, rolls, bread on a spit, honey cake, cupcakes, barley gruel, flat-cakes, barley cakes, pancakes.

Reading in translation is always problematic. One has to trust the translator to have gotten it right. In this fragment from Athenaeus, preserved in a work by the Greek comic poet, Nicophon (late 5th to early 4th century BCE), in his work Testimonia and Fragments (Loeb Classical Library LCL 415 p. 400-401), we have a bakery’s worth of baked goods: loaves of bread, barley cake, rolls, bread on a spit, honey cake, cupcakes, flat-cakes, barley cakes, and pancakes! Obvious questions: what is the difference between a loaf of bread and a roll? What is the difference between a barley-cake and a flat-cake? What is a cupcake?

“Bread on a spit” is one of those tantalizing breads whose mention is always brief, and in my experience, always lacking context. Is “bread on a spit” the same as the bread on a stick popularized by the American scouting movement? Who, exactly, was making bread on a stick? Was it a style prized as, say, a street food? Should we imagine a shepherd bread being sold in the city? Or a shepherd making bread on a stick while tending goats and sheep? Nostalgia? Regional specialty? The list implies equality between the items. “Honey cake” is on a par with “porridge” which is on a par with “bread on a spit.” Everybody knows porridge, so everyone must know “bread on a spit.”

If “bread on a spit” is a shepherd bread, then we can assume the shepherd carried flour, not baked breads. That implies a flour and water dough and that implies a relatively coarse flour to keep the crumb palatable.