We have one week to go for the finals of the Mythos Nude Art Festival. Many citizens from Mythos and from elsewhere have already submitted their art pieces, shown at the Morpheus Gallery on Mythos. There is still time for inspired Mythosians and friends; Until the 15th of April, everybody can participate and submit their nude art piece with fruit (click here for more information).
But what did they actually eat in Ancient Times, so we can make our art realistic?
Many Egyptians had a garden adjacent to their house, where they grew vegetables and fruit. Vegetables were grown all year round, irrigated by hand and formed an important part of their diet. Dates, figs and grapes were known from early times. Apple and pomegranate trees were brought to Egypt later, but pears, peaches, almonds, apricots and cherries were not introduced until the Roman period. Coconuts were an imported luxury fruit affordable only to the rich. [1] [2] Oranges and lemons were known but used more for medicinal purposes than in cookery. [3]
Offerings
In Egypt, sumptuous meals of beef, wild fowl, bread, fruit, vegetables, cake, wine and beer were given up to the gods three times a day. After making their offerings at the temple, the priests would adopt a ‘shame to let it go to waste’ policy and take them back home to their families. [4] In Greece, much of the agricultural offering was sold by the temple with the proceeds being used to pay for the daily upkeep of the temple complex. [5]
Food from the ‘New World’
Time passes … slowly …
Then America was ‘discovered’; Corn, potato, tomato, bell & chili pepper, vanilla, tobacco, beans, pumpkin, cassava root, avocado, peanut, pecan, cashew, pineapple, blueberry, sunflower, petunia, black-eyed susan, dahlia, marigold, quinine, wild rice, cacao, gourds, and squash were brought to Europe during and after the Columbus’ trips, and were therefore unknown in Ancient Times in Europe and Africa.
On the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), the first settlement in the New World, the native foods of the tribe became an important source of sustenance to the European colonizers. Tropical fruits that formed part of the native diet, such as pineapple, avocado, guava and papaya, became known to Columbus and his crew. [6] [7]
By the way, on subsequent voyages to the ‘New World’, Columbus brought with him European foodstuffs that would drastically change the cultural and ecological landscape of the Americas. The introduction of wheat was of particular significance. For thousands of years, bread had been a central part of the European diet. Wheat was not indigenous to the Americas, where maize was the native grain.
