Honey Tokens

The Hunt for an Ancient Delicacy

Hello and Welcome to the Dropout Classicist Newsletter! Today I bring you a hunger-filled tangent into the history of a Greek delicacy! You are welcome to come along for the ride with me. If you enjoyed this, and want to read more on Ancient History, Antiquity and Mythology, please consider subscribing!

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The food scene in Athens is amazing, no tourist can be in doubt of that. When I was fortunate to visit the city myself, any time not spent marvelling at museums was used wandering the streets in search of the next treat. Frequently, I found myself drawn time and time again to a modestly sized, brightly decorated and ever busy shop just off Monastiraki Square. They only sold one thing: Loukoumades.

The Delicious Culprit

Loukoumades, sometimes called Lokma, are a delightful treat. A cousin of the donut, they consist of a portion of round balls of dough, deep fried in oil. Traditionally, they are covered in honey and cinnamon, though the variety of sweet and savoury topping available is expansive. No matter what I had on them, they were delicious. Tourists and locals alike must agree, as the dish has varieties across the Mediterranean, each with their own meaning and significance. It is often claimed they date back to the Olympic Games, as a prize given to winners.

You will find this fact stated everywhere, from food blogs to TikToks, documentaries to recipes. The shop itself, titled Lukumades after the one dish they serve, boldly displays it on their website and in their marketing material. There is one thing you should never do in the view of a classicist with too much time on their hands, and that is defining the origin of your baked good in the ancient world. One day, after craving loukoumades for a while, I decided to do a little digging myself. So sit back, grab your honey snacks, and let us go on a journey.

Determining the diet of the ancient Greeks has always been a struggle. Our knowledge stems mostly from the writing of the wealthy, or from archaeological evidence of remains. Thus, it is already certain that tracking these treats through time will be rocky, and may lead us nowhere. Thankfully, this is a rare case where we have written sources cited. I cannot explain how much relief I felt, when the advertising material for Lukumades and many food blogs all pointed me in one direction: Callimachus.

Callimachus was an ancient poet, writing in the Hellenistic period (3rd century BCE), and based in Alexandria. Though his surviving work is mostly just fragments, it is easy to see his influence. He is mostly famous for his epigrams, short poems in a strict metre, and his now lost philosophy which went on to inspire the likes of Horace. He is also famous for something else, that being his catalogue of the library of Alexandria. This librarian, poet, philosopher and polymath is the first step on our journey. Most writing on loukoumades claim he is the first source from antiquity to mention them, though few give us a clue as to where in his works this is, and even fewer give a quote. By fewer, I mean one. Even worse, it seems to be misattributed.

The only direct links I could find were the following: a claim that he referred to them as ‘honey tokens’, a suggestion the poem in question was titled ‘the Vigil’, and another claim that he called them charisioi - ‘of thanksgiving’. Not much to go on. I decided to start with the charisioi lead, as that seemed the most promising. As the word is uncommon, it could be searched in a lexicon database. This provided me a direct link to a fragment, but alas it was an irrelevant one. The word is not used in that context to describe any form of sweet treat. But the lexicon also claimed it was used by an ‘Ar’ - likely referring to Aristotle and we will come back to this later.

The next course of action was to find a poem by Callimachus titled ‘the Vigil’. This proved difficult, but not fruitless. The results were an epigram titled ‘Pannuchis’, which translates roughly as ‘the all-nighter’ or ‘the Vigil’. Below is my translation:

In the chorus is Apollo - the lyre I can hear.

And I noticed the Erotes; Aphrodite too is here.

Hither, those glad of heart! All night …[]

And he, kept awake until the [squark] of the crows

Will seize the honey cake

and the prizes for the Kottabos contest:
He will kiss of those present, boy or girl.

…

A success, so it seems. We have reference to a honey cake, πυραμοῦντα, which is close to what we were looking for. But what is a Kottabos contest? It doesn’t sound like an Olympic sport. Well, that is because it isn’t. Kottabos was a game played in symposia, ancient drinking parties, wherein the participants flicked drops of liquid from their cups at a target. This certainly matches the vibe of the poem, more a nighttime drunken revelry than an athletic event. Nonetheless, we still find reference to honey cakes as a prize, which is not insignificant.

A Kottabos Contestant, flicking their cup like a catapult

Further digging through the works of Callimachus lead me to his poem Aeita, which is his epic spanning multiple topics. A disreputable source seemed to loosely claim what I was searching for was somewhere in the many fragments. I looked, but found nothing more relevant here.¹

So, now we have reached the end of that thread, it is time to pull on another. You may recall a few paragraphs ago I said we would return to the potential involvement of Aristotle. This was the path I intended to pursue next. Some of the blogs I started on claimed he too referenced loukoumades at the Olympics, and the link of him using the word ‘charisioi’ in the context of a sort of cake may be reference we need. Unfortunately, this path led only to a definitive maybe. Aristotle wrote a lot. In fact, that is an understatement. Aristotle wrote a lot. He covered everything. Logic, literary theory, rhetoric, fish breeding, elephants, olympic victors, you name it. I, dear reader, am only human. The reference in question claimed to be part of his treaty on Rhetoric. Scouring through I found no reference to honey treats despite several discussions of prizes in the Olympics and beyond.

That may seem like an end to our journey, but it is most certainly not. Half the reason I called it quits on chasing an illusory Aristotle fragment was that I had a backup. When in doubt on ancient food customs, there is one text to turn to. The Gastronomy of Archestratus, written in Sicily,  preserved in fragments via quotes, is a holy grail for ancient food culture. Thankfully, some of the surviving remnants had the information I so craved.

σασαμίδας χόνδρον τε καὶ ἐγκρίδας ἄλλα τε πέμματα καὶ μέλι χλωρόν.

Packed with both granules and little loaves, or dried fruit and yellow honey

Buried below a reference to a treaty on Egyptian Human Sacrifice customs (I do not know the context, nor is my Ancient Greek good enough to translate most of the context), I found references aplenty to round dough balls, fried in oil. Served with honey and sesame seed, dried fruit or occasionally meat in a holy ritual, I cannot confirm these are the loukoumades we were looking for but the resemblance is striking.

We have established for certain that the loukoumades, or at least ancestors of the modern treats, were eaten by the Greeks. Half of the brief now fulfilled, we can turn to the Olympic side of things. It was common practice in the Classical period for winners of Olympic victory to receive little in the way of prizes beyond a wreath and glory. Some cities, like in the modern events, provided monetary rewards for victors. The mystery does not seem as simple as a platter of steaming hot loukoumades being served at the podium. But we can piece together what evidence there may be.

Starting off, honey in the Greek diet was viewed as sacred, often used as a flavouring for bread in rituals. The Olympics were a religious practice, held in honour of Zeus. A ritualistic honey-doughball doesn’t sound unrealistic. Next, we know for a fact that feasts were often held for victors. Sometimes the champions were even showered in fruits when crowned. Finally, though prizes were scarce at the Classical Olympics, we can infer from records of archaic contests and references in the likes of Homer that the act of giving lavish prizes may once have been a significant part of a contest like these games. So, were loukoumades served at the ancient Olympics? We can give a definitive, strong maybe as an answer.

It is often disappointing when we cannot reach definitive conclusions when researching the ancient world. More often than not, we simply lack anything in the way of evidence. With that in mind, a strong possibility of something like our hypothesis being true is as close as we may ever get to an answer. It may sting, but we can still dream. Loukoumades being important is a lovely thought, though at the end of the day it doesn’t change how nice they taste. The shops may keep peddling the message of their ancient roots, and I will keep looking forward to the day I get to taste them again. And now, with hours of research into their past, I think I am craving them even more. Plus, there is a lesson in all this. Perhaps it doesn’t matter how much we mythologise the things we enjoy. Perhaps they were little more than a snack for a drinks party. But isn’t it a fun thought, picturing an ancient athlete or drunken philosopher revelling in their victory enjoying the same delicacy that we can still enjoy today?

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Thanks for reading this absurd research tangent, and I apologise that the results were not more definitive. I am a little disappointed that I couldn’t find a definite result. However, I want to thank

Vi

for the inspiration to write a piece about ancient food, and for those interested here is a recipe for loukoumades that looks authentic. If you try making them, or have them in Athens, let me know your thoughts!

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Sources and Wider Reading:

• Pannychis, Callimachus

• Rhetoric, Aristotle

• Faulkner, N., A Visitor’s guide to the Ancient Olympics

• Gastronomy, Archestratus

1. This is not to say there is no reference at all in the poem, or in the other works of Callimachus. I was fruitless in my searches, but am prone to human error. If anyone can find a work of Callimachus discussing Olympic victors and honey rewards, I would love to hear from you! The same applies for any other authors mentioned too.