Ton limon ostrakido: Hunger, Food and Social Identity in Athenian literature (s.V-IV B.C.)

Fernández Prieto, Aida ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5894-0869 (2020) Ton limon ostrakido: Hunger, Food and Social Identity in Athenian literature (s.V-IV B.C.). In: Maigreur et minceur dans les sociétés anciennes: Grèce, Orient, Rome. Scripta Antiqua (132). Ausonius Éditions, Bordeaux, pp. 71-80. ISBN 9782356133434

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Abstract

This chapter addresses the topic of food in its relationship with poverty in the Athenian literature of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. from the view of social identities. On the one hand, it addresses how food –or the lack of it- and the way of cooking it operate as “social markers”. A non-diversified diet and unsophisticated dishes, the recourse to products unfit for human consumption, the obsession with food or with certain kinds of foodstuffs, the lack of access to luxury items, the fear of famine, an emaciated body, etc.; are some of the features that contribute to outline the image of the “poor” and “poverty” in classical Athens. On the other hand, It discusses how the existence of a “positive” conception of poverty in the ancient Greek world, linked to the self-restraint inherent to the Athenian civic ideals (e.g. Esq. III, 258), will be also reflected in the food area. Thus, moderation in culinary pleasures will be an indisputable trait when presenting to an individual as a model of a “good citizen” (Xen. Mem. I, 2.1). Finally, the chapter focuses on the use of food –and more specifically, deprivation- as an instrument by which to exercise violence on individuals of lower socio-economic status.