Eating Like an Ancient Spartan: Black Broth, Hunting and the Helots
About this episode
This episode explores the ancient Spartan society, its culture, and the infamous black broth soup.
Hello! The ancient Spartan society still has a grip in our culture. We use the words laconic, and Spartan to describe austere, frugal things, and people who don't use many words, just the right ones and the exact ones. The ancient Sparta was a very weird place and certainly a lot more cruel rather than heroic. It is time to see what their society truly was, how it functioned and what the warrior class do to survive. Of course we can't forget their infamous black broth soup, the dish that only -supposedly- Spartans loved! How was it made? What it consisted of, and was it really tasty? Join me to find the origin myths of Sparta, and dispel any myths that are still pervasive to this day. Read Plutarch's Live of Lycurgus here: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Lycurgus*.html You can buy the books discussed on the podcast here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/thedeliciouslegacypodcast My recommendations for this week include: Eat Like an Ancient Greek Philosopher Before attending third-century dinner parties, readers consulted this “marvelous feast of words.” https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/eat-like-a-greek-philosopher-oldest-fish-recipe Yucatán…
People in this episode
Host: The Delicious Legacy
Topics covered
- ancient Sparta
- Spartan society
- black broth
- myth dispelling
- cultural influence
Keywords
- Sparta
- black broth
- ancient Greece
- Spartan culture
- Plutarch
- myths
- food history
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Atlas Obscura, Fondazione Slow Food, north by sud- ouest
Books & works: Lives of Lycurgus
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- Food Traditions of Medieval Germany
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- Food and Foodways of Classical Greece with Mariana Kavroulaki
- The forgotten ingredient of our modern kitchens
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