Galen isn’t writing for…

Egyptians and people who eat snakes.

“If we didn’t mention them in our discussion of terrestrial animals, we wouldn’t end up saying anything about the nutriment derived from snails at all. But surely it would not be reasonable to leave them out, like we did woodworms or vipers and the other snakes they eat in Egypt and in some other provinces. For none of them will read these things, and we’re never going to eat any of their foods.”

εἰ δὲ μηδ' ἐν τοῖς πεζοῖς αὐτοῦ μνημονεύσαιμεν, οὐδ' ὅλως ἐροῦμέν τι περὶ τῆς ἐκ κοχλίου τροφῆς. οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ παραλιπεῖν εὔλογον, ὥσπερ τοὺς ἐκ τῶν ξύλων σκώληκας ἐχίδνας τε καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ὄφεις ὅσα τε κατ' Αἴγυπτον καὶ ἄλλα τινὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐσθίουσιν· οὔτε | γὰρ ἐκείνων τις ἀναγνώσεται ταῦτα, καὶ ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἄν ποτε φάγοιμέν τι τῶν ἐκείνοις ἐδωδίμων.

Galen, On the properties of foods 3.2, 6.668 K = 337,13–18 Helmreich

Germans and other barbarians.

“Among the Germans, children are not raised well, but we’re not really writing this for Germans or any other wildlings or barbarians, any more than we are for bears or lions or boars or whatever other savage beasts; rather, we are writing this for Greeks and all those who were born barbarian by race but strive to emulate the Greek way of life.”

παρὰ μέν γε τοῖς Γερμανοῖς οὐ καλῶς τρέφεται τὰ παιδία. ἀλλ' ἡμεῖς γε νῦν οὔτε Γερμανοῖς οὔτε ἄλλοις τισὶν ἀγρίοις ἢ βαρβάροις ἀνθρώποις ταῦτα γράφομεν, οὐ μᾶλλον ἢ ἄρκτοις ἢ λέουσιν ἢ κάπροις ἤ τισι τῶν ἄλλων θηρίων, ἀλλ' Ἕλλησι καὶ ὅσοι τῷ γένει μὲν ἔφυσαν βάρβαροι, ζηλοῦσι δὲ τὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐπιτηδεύματα.

Galen, On Matters of Health 1.10.17, 6.52 K = 24,21–25 Koch

Randoms.

“I recommend to the educated—since it’s not going to be randoms who read this—to pay attention to those things by which they are benefitted and harmed, for in this way they will have little need of doctors as long as they stay healthy.”

ὧν τοῖς πεπαιδευμένοις (οὐ γὰρ δὴ οἱ τυχόντες γε ταῦτα ἀναγνώσονται) συμβουλεύω παραφυλάττειν, ὑπὸ τίνων ὠφελοῦνταί τε καὶ βλάπτονται· συμβήσεται γὰρ οὕτως αὐτοῖς εἰς ὀλίγα δεῖσθαι τῶν ἰατρῶν, μέχρις ἂν ὑγιαίνωσιν.

Galen, On Matters of Health 6.14.28, 6.450 K. = 197,14–17 Koch

Easter foods to have avoided

“Lambs have flesh that is extremely moist and phlegmy, while the flesh of adult sheep is more productive of residues and bad humours. The flesh of she-goats produces bad humours accompanied by acridity; but the worst is the flesh of he-goats, both with respect to good humours and digestion, followed by that of rams, then that of bulls. In all these cases animals that have been castrated are better. Old animals are the worst relative to digestion and good humours and nourishment, so that even in the case of pigs, although they have a moist temperament, the old ones are sinewy and dry, and for this reason their flesh is difficult to digest. The flesh of hares meanwhile is productive of thicker blood and better for good humours than the flesh of cattle or sheep.”

ὑγροτάτην δ' ἔχουσι καὶ φλεγματώδη σάρκα καὶ οἱ ἄρνες. ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν προβάτων ἡ σὰρξ περιττωματικωτέρα τέ ἐστι καὶ κακοχυμοτέρα. κακόχυμος δὲ καὶ ἡ τῶν αἰγῶν μετὰ δριμύτητος. ἡ δὲ τῶν τράγων χειρίστη καὶ πρὸς εὐχυμίαν καὶ πρὸς πέψιν, ἐφεξῆς δ' ἡ τῶν κριῶν, εἶθ' ἡ τῶν ταύρων. ἐν ἅπασι δὲ τούτοις τὰ τῶν εὐνουχισθέντων ἀμείνω. τὰ δὲ πρεσβυτικὰ χείριστα πρός τε πέψιν καὶ πρὸς εὐχυμίαν καὶ θρέψιν, ὥστε καὶ τῶν ὑῶν αὐτῶν, καίτοι γε ὑγρῶν ὄντων τὴν κρᾶσιν, οἱ γηράσαντες ἰνώδη καὶ ξηρὰν καὶ διὰ τοῦτο δύσπεπτον ἔχουσι τὴν σάρκα. καὶ τοῦ λαγωοῦ δ' ἡ σὰρξ αἵματος μέν ἐστι παχυτέρου γεννητική, βελτίων δ' εἰς εὐχυμίαν ἢ κατὰ βοῦς καὶ πρόβατα.

Galen, On the properties of foods 3.1, 6.663–664 K.

Eggs and Invisible Ink

How did Giambattista della Porta end up being associated with an ancient way of hiding secret messages inside of boiled eggs?

I recently stumbled across a trick for hiding secret messages inside of eggs. It’s in the 10th-century compendium known as the Geoponica or Farm Work:

“To make inscriptions on eggs. From Africanus. Grind up oak gall and alum with vinegar until it reaches the thickness of black ink. Use it to write whatever you want on the egg. Once the writing has dried in the sun, place the egg into a sharp brine. Once it has dried, boil it, and when you have peeled it, you will find the inscription.”

Ὠὰ κατάγραπτα ποιῆσαι. Ἀφρικανοῦ. Κικίδος καὶ στυπτηρίας μετὰ ὄξους τρίψας, ἕως γένηται πάχος μέλανος, ἐπίγραψον ἐξ αὐτοῦ ὃ θέλεις τῷ ὠῷ, καὶ ψυγείσης τῆς γραφῆς ἐν ἡλίῳ κατάθες τὸ ὠὸν εἰς ἅλμην δριμεῖαν, καὶ ψύξας ἕψησον, καὶ λεπίσας εὑρήσεις τὴν ἐπιγραφήν.

Geoponica 14.10 (roughly 10th century, originally 3rd century CE)

The compiler of the Geoponica attributes the recipe to someone named Africanus. Scholars typically identify him with Julius Africanus, a Libyan philosopher of the second and third century CE. Africanus was a Christian (before it was popular), spent time in and around Judaea and Rome, exchanged letters with Origen, and wrote a book called Kestoi—an encyclopedic mix of rhetoric, natural philosophy and what he called ‘forbidden investigations’ (ἱστορίαι ἀπόρρητοι).

From the Kestoi (if that’s where it originally was) the recipe would have found its way into a country-knowledge Compendium of Farming Practices (Συναγωγὴ γεωργικῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων) by Vindonius Anatolius sometime in the 4th century CE; and from there into a 6th-century work called Selections on Farming (περὶ γεωργίας ἐκλογαί) compiled by Cassianus Bassus, now lost, but which was a major source for the Geoponica. That’s the standard story anyway.

But if you try to find anything about Africanus’ recipe on the internet, you’ll notice three things: first, no one can get it to work; second; it’s nearly always missing one of its ingredients, namely oak gall; and third, it’s never attributed to Africanus, but to Giambattista della Porta, the 16th century Italian polymath and author of the Magia Naturalis or Natural Magic.

The story associating della Porta with the recipe usually goes something like this: Giambattista della Porta (or Giovanni Porta in some versions) and his friends were having trouble with the Church and they needed a way to get messages to those of them imprisoned by the Inquisition. To do this, della Porta invented a technique for writing messages where no one would ever expect: on the inside of hardboiled eggs. Here are a few re-tellings: 1, 2, 3, 4.

The story is popular enough that it even made it into della Porta’s Wikipedia page.

From the English Wikipedia entry for Giambattista della Porta, 27 March 2021.

Now, the story isn’t completely wrong. In chapter four of book sixteen of the Magia Naturalis, della Porta does write about secret messages in eggs. And at the beginning of the chapter, he writes:

“…eggs are not stopped by the Papal Inquisition and no fraud is suspected to be in them…”

…pontificalium suffragiorium comittiis ova non incipiuntur nec aliquid fraudis in eis suspicatur…

della Porta, Magia Naturalis 16.4 (Latin 1590, English 1658).

So, the inquisition thing is pretty much right, although whether he’s being serious is an open question.

A quick check of the chapter, however, reveals one big difference: della Porta does not take credit for the recipe. He attributes it to Africanus. Even more importantly he says he couldn’t get it to work:

“Africanus teaches thus: ‘grind oak galls and alum with vinegar, until they have the viscosity of ink. With it, inscribe whatever your want on the egg and once the writing has been dried by the sun, place the egg in sharp brine, and having dried it, cook it, peel, and you will find the inscription.’ I put it in vinegar and nothing happened, unless by ‘brine’, he meant sharp lye, what’s normally called capitellum*.”

Africanus ita docet. Gallas et alumen cum aceto terito, donec atramenti spissitudinem habeant, ex hoc quicquid libuerit ouo inscribito, et postquam scriptum Sole desiccatum fuerit, ouum in muriam acrem demittito, et resiccatum coquito, et decorticato, et reperies inscriptionem. Ego in acetum imposui, et nihil evenit, si per muriam non intelligat acre lixiviu, vulgo capitello dictum.**

della Porta, Magia Naturalis 16.4 (Latin 1590, English 1658)

*capitellum: a mixture of quicklime and oak ashes. See Magia Naturalis 9.3 where it is used in a black hair dye (English).

**Della Porta’s text is nearly a word for word translation of the Greek from the Geoponica, and it is also similar, but not identical, to Cornarius’ 1538 Latin translation.

Despite his failure in replicating it, della Porta found Africanus’ recipe tempting enough that he devised another method to try to get it to work. This one is almost never found online, so I’ll append it at the end. To summarize, he says one should first boil the egg, coat it in wax, and then inscribe the message in the wax through to the shell (like when doing etching); next, he says to put the egg in a solution of alum and gall (for how long is unclear), followed by a solution of sharp vinegar (again unclear), after which the egg is dried and the shell removed to find the message in saffron-coloured writing (and even this technique resembles another attributed to Africanus in the Geoponica).

I began to wonder how the mistaken attribution first came about, so I clicked on the footnote at the end of the story on Wikipedia, assuming I’d find something. And I did find something, just not what I expected.

Oak galls. Easter 2021.

The footnote pointed to page 227 of a 2015 book called Philalethe Reveal'd Vol. 2 B/W, the text of which was almost identical to the Wikipedia story and didn’t include any references. I checked other languages to see if I could find better sources. I checked French, Italian, Spanish and German versions of the article, but the story didn’t show up in any other languages at all.

This made me even more confused. Surely this story didn’t just appear in a 2015 book. And why was it only in English?

Wikipedia is great because it preserves the entire edit history for every article on the site. I wanted to find out when the story about the egg was added to see if it might give me some clues to other possible sources.

The story turns out to have been added on 23 December 2012—three years before the book in the footnote was published. But whoever it was who added the story (looks to have been someone interested in British art and museum collections in London) didn’t give a reference.

It was orphaned until 2015, when someone made a note that it needed a citation; the request remained unfulfilled until February 2017, when the reference to the 2015 book was added.

That meant the story was on Wikipedia for five years before the reference was added—long enough for this beautiful example of circular referencing to appear: the book, Philalethe Reveal’d (ironic) copied the story from the Wiki, was published, and was then cited as an authority for the Wikipedia story it nicked. It also meant this trail had come to an end.

I had to start from somewhere else; and since many of the websites I looked into besides Wikipedia mentioned a 2014 book on invisible inks by Kristie Macrakis, a professor at Georgia Tech, I started from there.

Macrakis’ version of the story resembles the Wikipedia version, but with a bit more flair. The book also came out two years after the story appeared in the Wiki, so Macrakis’ version could have been a descendent. I think, however, there’s reason to think that her version and the Wiki one are more distantly related. While both versions of the recipe leave ingredients out, they leave out different ingredients. The Wiki leaves out vinegar. Macrakis leaves out oak gall.

As some people on the internet have pointed out, it’s hard to understand how this recipe could work without a pigment (here’s a comment from a thread on reddit; and here’s a post by Craig Matsuoka in a magician’s forum, which was also published in the October 2002 volume of Genii magazine—Matsuoka and his interlocutor Stephen Minch correctly point out that della Porta is debunking Africanus, although they don’t follow it up). I think this insight is more likely to have been inspired by reading the Wiki (or its ancestor) than by reading della Porta, but it seems right. Alum on its own wouldn’t stain anything.

At any rate, it’s not much of a surprise that Macrakis and colour chemist Jason Lye report they couldn’t get the recipe to work. In an appendix (page 311), she appeals to anyone who’s gotten it to work to get in touch with them. On her website she also offers a $200 prize to anyone who can replicate it (Jason Lye also posted a video of one attempt).

I did find someone who mentioned a video on the internet purporting to do the trick with just alum and vinegar. I managed to find a creepy video from 2007—a pretty early date—which I think is the one. If it’s authentic, well, cool. But it’s likely a clever fake.

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Old ways to play with your food. New York Times, 29 May 1965, page 14.

Macrakis however gives an even earlier source for the vinegar and alum recipe, well before Wikipedia: a New York Times article from 1965, in which it’s reported that the United States Department of Agriculture recommends parents encourage their kids to eat more eggs by teaching them to write secret messages on the inside using a ‘magic ink’ made of vinegar and alum. 

No doubt building on the popularity of ‘60s spy toys, they told kids to mix one ounce of alum with one cup of vinegar, then use the colorless magic ink to write a message on the shell of an uncooked egg. Once it was dry, one only had to boil the egg for 15 minutes, and—so the USDA promised—whatever secret was written on the shell would show up inside on the white of the boiled egg.

I have found a few leads that may be the USDA’s ultimate source, some dating back to the turn of the 20th century, and I’m sure there are others as well. All of these sources are missing the oak gall and none of them mention della Porta. How the one dropped out and the other dropped in is still a mystery…

For now, here are Africanus’ and della Porta’s recipes for writing messages in eggs. I also tried to reproduce Africanus’ version, with and without oak gall (well, a tannin anyway). It didn’t work.

Julius Africanus’ recipe for leaving a secret message in an egg

“To make inscriptions on eggs. From Africanus.

“Grind up oak gall and alum with vinegar until it reaches the thickness of black ink. Use it to write whatever you want on the egg. Once the writing has dried in the sun, place the egg into a sharp brine. Once it has dried, boil it, and when you have peeled it, you will find the inscription.

“If you coat the egg all over with wax and inscribe it until the shell appears through the letters, then leave it to soak in vinegar overnight, on the next day, after removing the wax, you will find that the vinegar has made the outline of the letters transparent.”

Ὠὰ κατάγραπτα ποιῆσαι. Ἀφρικανοῦ.

Κικίδος καὶ στυπτηρίας μετὰ ὄξους τρίψας, ἕως γένηται πάχος μέλανος, ἐπίγραψον ἐξ αὐτοῦ ὃ θέλεις τῷ ὠῷ, καὶ ψυγείσης τῆς γραφῆς ἐν ἡλίῳ κατάθες τὸ ὠὸν εἰς ἅλμην δριμεῖαν, καὶ ψύξας ἕψησον, καὶ λεπίσας εὑρήσεις τὴν ἐπιγραφήν. Εἰ δὲ κηρῷ περιπλάσας τὸ ὠὸν ἐπιγράψεις ἄχρις ἂν φανῇ τὸ ἔλυτρον τοῖς γράμμασιν, εἶτα ἐάσεις ὄξει βρέχεσθαι τὴν νύκτα, τῇ ἑξῆς περιελὼν τὸν κηρόν, εὑρήσεις τῶν γραμμάτων τὸν τύπον ὑπὸ τοῦ ὄξους γενόμενον διαφανῆ.

Geoponica 14.10 (roughly 10th century, recipe originally 3rd century CE, probably)

Giambattista della Porta’s recipe for leaving a secret message in an egg

“If you want to make yellow letters appear on an egg white (it will work better when the egg is cooked): Boil an egg hard, roll it in wax, and engrave the letters on the wax with an iron point so that the marks go through. Place it into a solution of powdered alum and oak galls. Then put it into sharp vinegar and they will penetrate. And taking off the shell, you will see them on the white of the egg. Africanus instructs as follows: ‘grind oak galls and alum with vinegar, until they have the viscosity of ink. With it, inscribe whatever your want on the egg and once the writing has been dried by the sun, place the egg in sharp brine, and having dried it, cook it, peel, and you will find the inscription.’ I put it in vinegar and nothing happened, unless by ‘brine’, he meant sharp lye, what’s normally called capitellum.”

 Si vis autem ut litera supra albumen videantur croceae et rectius, ubi ovum excoctum fuerit: Coque ovum donec durescat et cera obline et insculpe literas stylo, ut liturae dehiscent, imponatur in humore, id est, ex gallis cum alumine tritis. Inde acri aceto impones et eae fient pentrabiles, quas cortice, detecto videbis in albumine ovi. Africanus ita docet. Gallas et alumen cum aceto terito, donec atramenti spissitudinem habeant, ex hoc quicquid libuerit ouo inscribito, et postquam scriptum Sole desiccatum fuerit, ouum in muriam acrem demittito, et resiccatum coquito, et decorticato, et reperies inscriptionem. Ego in acetum imposui, et nihil evenit, si per muriam non intelligat acre lixiviu, vulgo capitello dictum.

Giambattista della Porta, Magia Naturalis 16.4, 1590 (English, 1658)

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The Ingredients

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Mixing the Ink and Inscribing

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Control: Painting with Alum + Vinegar

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Drying in the Sunshine

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Placing the Eggs in Sharp Brine

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Re-Drying

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Boiling the Eggs

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The First Disappointment

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Inside of the Shell

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Half Shell

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Results Summary

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Taking Control

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Letting it Dry

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Ink on Albumin

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To be continued

Aromatherapy for Headaches and Heartache

Some late antique aromatherapies for after a New Year’s celebration.

The text below on perfume ingredients comes from a treatise found in an 18th century manuscript at Athens: ms. no. 1494 , fol. 46–52. The treatise is called “On the Capacities of Foods” (Περὶ τροφῶν δυνάμεως), a title it shares with a work by Galen, Symeon Seth, and with sections from the compilers Oribasius, Aetius of Amida and Paul of Aegina. The contents, however, as Delatte points out (Anecdota atheniensia, 466–467), have little in common with the work of Galen or anyone else from the Greek or Latin tradition. It must be fairly late, since many of the ingredients listed below—musk, ambergris, camphor and clove—do not show up in Greek medical texts until very late in antiquity or the early middle ages (Donkin 1999, 2).

On Perfumes

Musk is hot and dry in nature. It is suitable for those who have a moist and cold mixture. It disperses every headache produced from phlegm. It is also beneficial for weakness of the heart, heartache and frailty. It is not suitable for those who have a hot mixture.

Amber [i.e., ambergris*] is hot by nature and strengthens the head. It pleases the heart and the stomach.

Camphor is moist and cold. It is beneficial for hot ailments of the head and the rest of the body. If someone drinks of it more than one should it produces sleeplessness. And it cools the kidneys, diminishes semen and generates incurable ailments in the parts of the body.

Sandalwood is cold and dry. It is beneficial for hot ailments of the liver and strengthens it, and it cools its hot bad-mixture.

Aloewood is hot and dry. It is also beneficial for weakness of the head and the stomach, especially when it is quite cool, and for the blockage of the stomach, also when it is quite cool, and for blockage of the liver and the rest of the parts of the body when they occur because of coolness and moisture.

Saffron is cold and dry. It is not good for the stomach and causes pain and heaviness in the head and causes sleep; but, it pleases the heart.

Clove leaf is hot and dry. They strengthen the stomach and the heart.

Walnuts** are hot and dry. The have the capacity and activity of clove leaf.

Rose perfume is also moist. It stops headache from heat or from drinking too much wine, and both strengthens the heart and is good for frailty.

*ἄμπαρ (amber) is the name for the waxy substance found washed up on beaches, which we recognize to be a secretion from the bile duct of sperm whales. ἤλεκτρον (electron) is the name of the fossilized resin we call amber (also often found on beaches).

**The name “κάρυα βασιλικά” normally refers to walnuts, but this is probably not the correct identification in this case given: (1) the description of them as ‘hot and dry’ (neither walnuts, κάρυα βασιλικά, nor hazelnuts, κάρυα ποντικὰ ἢ λεπτοκάρυα, are normally listed as hot); and (2) the previous entry is καρυόφυλλον, which everyone I’ve consulted believes is “clove leaf.” My guess is it’s a confusion for κάρυα ἀρωματικά or κάρυα μυριστικά, which are likely some other aromatic nut or nut-like spice (e.g. nutmeg or clove).

Περὶ μύρων.

Μόσχος θερμὸς καὶ ξηρός ἐστι τὴν φύσιν· ἁρμόζει δὲ τοῖς ἔχουσι κρᾶσιν ὑγρὰν καὶ ψυχράν. διαλύει δὲ πᾶσαν ὀδύνην κεφαλῆς γινομένην ἀπὸ φλέγματος. ὠφελεῖ δὲ καὶ εἰς τὴν ἀδυναμίαν τῆς καρδίας καὶ τὸν καρδιωγμὸν καὶ ὀλιγωρίαν. οὐχ ἁρμόζει δὲ τοῖς ἔχουσι τὴν κρᾶσιν θερμήν.

ἄμπαρ ἐστὶ θερμὸν φύσει καὶ ἐνδυναμοῖ τὸν ἐγκέφαλον· τὴν καρδίαν καὶ τὸν στόμαχον εὐφραίνει.

καμφορὰ ὑγρὰ καὶ ψυχρά ἐστιν· ὠφελεῖ εἰς τὰ θερμὰ νοσήματα τῆς κεφαλῆς καὶ τοῦ λοιποῦ σώματος· εἰ δέ τις πίῃ ἐξ αὐτῆς πλέον τοῦ δέοντος ποιεῖ ἀγρυπνίαν. καὶ ψύχει τοὺς νεφροὺς ἐλαττοῖ τε τὴν γονὴν καὶ τίκτει εἰς τὰ μόρια νοσήματα ἀθεράπευτα.

σάνταλόν ἐστι ψυχρὸν καὶ ξηρόν· ὠφελεῖ εἰς τὰ θερμὰ νοσήματα τοῦ ἥπατος καὶ ἐνδυναμοῖ αὐτὸ καὶ ψύχει τὴν θερμὴν δυσκρασίαν αὐτοῦ.

ξυλαλόη ὑπάρχει θερμὴ καὶ ξηρά· καὶ ὠφελεῖ εἰς τὴν ἀδυναμίαν τῆς κεφαλῆς καὶ τοῦ στομάχου καὶ τὴν πολλὴν αὐτοῦ ψῦξιν εἴς τε τὴν ἔμφραξιν στομάχου καὶ τὴν πολλὴν αὐτοῦ ψῦξιν εἴς τε τὴν ἔμφραξιν τοῦ ἥπατος καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν μορίων τὴν ἐκ ψυχρότητος καὶ ὑγρότητος γινομένην.

κρόκος ὑπάρχει ψυχρὸς καὶ ξηρός· ἀδικεῖ τὸν στόμαχον καὶ ποιεῖ ὀδύνην καὶ βάρος εἰς τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ ὕπνον· εὐφραίνει δὲ τὴν καρδίαν.

καρυόφυλλον ὑπάρχει θερμὸν καὶ ξηρόν· ἐνδυναμοῖ τὸν στόμαχον καὶ τὴν καρδίαν.

κάρυα βασιλικά εἰσι θερμὰ καὶ ξηρά· ἔχουσι δὲ δύναμιν καὶ ἐνέργειαν τὴν τοῦ καρυοφύλλου.

ῥοδόσταγμα ψυχρὸν ὑπάρχει καὶ ὑγρόν· παύει τὸν ἐκ θέρμης πόνον κεφαλῆς ἢ ἀπὸ πολυποσίας οἴνου ἐνδυναμοῖ τε τὴν καρδίαν καὶ ὠφελεῖ εἰς τὴν ὀλιγωρίαν.

Anonymous, On the Capacities of Foods printed in Delatte, Anecdota atheniensia, p. 475–476

Dinner Advice for New Year’s Eve

Cabbage with Vinegar

“If you are at a dinner party and want to drink a lot and enjoy your meal, before dinner eat as much raw cabbage with vinegar as you like, and likewise, after dining eat around five [cabbage] leaves. It will restore you as if you had eaten nothing, and you can drink as much as you like.”

Si voles in convivio multum bibere cenareque libenter, ante cenam esto crudam quantum voles ex aceto, et item, ubi cenaveris, comesto aliqua V folia; reddet te quasi nihil ederis, bibesque quantum voles.

Cato the Elder, De re rustica 156.1

Appetizer suggestion: Rotkohl.

Baked Pork Lung

“To make those who drink a lot also not get drunk: eat baked pork lung.”

Πολλὰ πίνοντα καὶ μὴ μεθύειν· χοιραῖον πνεύμονα ὀπτήσας φάγε.

Attributed to Democritus, from the collection of Magical Greek Papyri (source here)

First course suggestion: Bopis.

Athenaeus of Attalia on meats by season

I once read somewhere that there are antecedents to Aristotle's system of animal classification in Greek classifications of kinds of foods. And it isn't hard to find references in the Historia Animalium to kinds of animals that are edible, kinds which are more or less nutritious, and the times of year when they are particularly good to eat. For example, HA v. 30 notes male cicadas are better to eat before mating, while female cicadas are better to eat after mating. And HA viii. 13 notes that fish that live close to the shore are more nutritious than those that live in the deep sea. I find it difficult to understand how these categories would have been useful for the biologist; and Aristotle himself doesn't mention them much at all when he gets into the causal treatises on animals.

But even if Aristotle is not ultimately interested in them, it is possible the culinary categories in the Historia Animalum are coming from Aristotle's sources. And in Greek medicine we find such categories playing an important role in works on nutrition. In these contexts, they help to answer a fundamental question: what foods are healthy, when are the healthiest, and how can I know?

Today, it seems we tend to associate the "when" question with fruits and vegetables. But, animals, too, are seasonal foods. There's even a Huffington Post article on this from a few years ago. Animals are better or worse for eating at different times, just like apples and cucumbers. And even though food production does not rely as much on natural cycles as it did, there are still traces of this knowledge in foods we associate with seasonal holidays: e.g., goose at Christmas, or lamb at Pesach or Easter.

Here is an example of a medical text concerning seasonal meats. It is from Oribasius' Medical Collections, but it seems to come originally from Athenaeus of Attalia, which would put it sometime around the end of the first century BCE and the beginning of the first century CE.

"Pigs <after> spring-time are very bad until the setting of the Pleiades in autumn, but from then until spring are excellent. Goats are very bad throughout the winter, but during the spring they start to get better until the setting of Arcturus. And sheep, these are worst throughout the winter, but after the [spring] equinox fatten-up until the summer solstice; cattle, on the other hand, [fatten-up] when the grass goes to seed, while the spring is ending, and all summer long. Of birds, some are excellent throughout the winter, namely whichever appear during the winter: the blackbird, thrush and ringdove. Throughout the autumn, francolins, also blackcaps, fig-pecker and greenfinch, and quails are then fattest. Chickens throughout the winter are not in quite their best shape, especially at the time of the south winds. The turtle dove is best at autumn."

Σύες μὲν <μετὰ > τὴν ἐαρινὴν ὥραν εἰσὶ κάκιστοι μέχρι Πλειάδος δύσεως φθινοπωρινῆς, τὸ δ’ ἐντεῦθεν μέχρι ἦρος κάλλιστοι. αἶγες δὲ τὸν μὲν χειμῶνα κάκισται, τοῦ δ’ ἦρος ἄρχονται κρείσσους γίνεσθαι μέχρι Ἀρκτούρου δύσεως. πρόβατα δὲ καὶ ταῦτα τὸν μὲν χειμῶνα κάκιστα, μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἰσημερίαν πιαίνεται μέχρι τροπῶν θερινῶν· αἱ δὲ βόες, ὅταν ἡ πόα ἐκκαρπῇ ἦρός τε παυομένου καὶ τῷ θέρει παντί. τῶν δ’ ὀρνίθων οἱ μὲν κατὰ χειμῶνα κάλλιστα ἔχουσιν, ὅσοι γε ἐπιφαίνονται χειμῶνος, ὁ κόσσυφός τε καὶ ἡ κίχλα καὶ φάσσα· οἱ δ’ ἀτταγῆνες κατὰ τὸ φθινόπωρον καὶ μελαγκόρυφοι συκαλίς τε καὶ χλωρὶς καὶ ὄρτυγες τηνικαῦτα πιότατοι. ἀλεκτορίδες τὸν μὲν χειμῶνα οὐ πάνυ εὐσωματοῦσι καὶ μάλιστα ἐν νοτίοις· ἡ δὲ τρυγὼν ἐν φθινοπώρῳ καλλίστη. τῶν δ’ ἰχθύων οἱ μὲν ἐν τῇ κυήσει κάλλιστοι, κάρις, κάραβος καὶ τὰ μαλάκια, τευθίς, σηπία, τὰ δ’ ὅταν ἄρχηται ἐπωάζεσθαι, ὥσπερ οἱ κέφαλοι, ὑπερπλησθέντες δ’ οὗτοι τῶν κυημάτων λεπτοὶ καὶ ἄτροφοι καὶ ἔτι μᾶλλον τεκόντες. ὁ δὲ θύννος πιότατος μετ’ Ἀρκτοῦρον, θέρους δὲ χείρων.

Oribasius, Collectiones Medicae I 3, CMG VI 1,1 8,27-9,7 Raeder