THE BREAD OF THE CLASSIC LANDS.
As an introduction to the bread of the Romans and Greeks, let us
begin with the pretty myth of Demeter (or Ceres, as the Romans called
her), and her daughter Persephone. Zeus, or Jupiter, had promised
his daughter Persephone to Pluto, without informing Demeter of his
plan, and whilst the girl was plucking flowers which Zeus had caused
to grow, in order to fix her attention, Pluto seized her, and, the
earth opening, they disappeared, and went to his kingdom of Hades.
Many places have been assigned as the spot where this took place; but
the ancient Eleusis, not far from Salamis or Athens, now the little
village of Lefsina, has, if such a thing were possible, perhaps
the prior claim, for here stood the famous temple of Demeter, now
lately (1882-89) excavated and surveyed, and here were performed the
Eleusinian mysteries in her honour.
The shrieks of Persephone were heard only by Hecate and Helios; and
her mother, hearing only the echo of her voice, at once darted down
to earth in search of her beloved child. Hopelessly and aimlessly she
wandered about, caring nothing for herself; and for nine whole days and
nights neither ate nor drank, tasted neither nectar nor ambrosia, nor
did she even bathe herself. On the tenth day she met Hecate, who told
her all she knew of her daughter’s disappearance, which was not much,
as she had heard but her piercing cries. But, thinking that Helios,
the all-seeing sun, might have viewed the scene, they hastened to him,
and he told them how it all happened: how Pluto had carried off her
daughter, with the approval and consent of Zeus.
Heart-broken at this conduct of the father of her child, she would have
no more of the society of the gods, and forswore Olympus, preferring to
live rather among men on earth. And so she dwelt among them, rewarding
those who were kind to her and severely punishing those who did not
treat her well; and in this way, still wandering and mourning for her
lost child, she came to Eleusis, where Celeus was king.
But her wrath was still as fierce as ever, and, by withholding her
gifts, the fields produced no crops, and there was famine upon earth,
and so sore indeed did it become that Zeus, perceiving it, feared that
the race of man might become extinct for lack of food, and sent Iris
as ambassador to try and persuade Demeter to return to Olympus. But
she was firm, although all the gods were sent to her to induce her to
relent, and nothing would she do to mitigate the evil she had wrought,
save on the condition that her daughter should be restored to her.
[Illustration: THE LEGEND OF DEMETER AND TRIPTOLEMUS.]
Hermes was sent to Pluto, and his mission met with partial success.
Persephone had eaten of the pomegranate seed, which sacredly pledged
her to her dread lord; and for three months in the year she must
leave her mother and the fair earth and go to live in Pluto’s dreary
kingdom. Hermes fulfilled his mission by restoring her to her loving
mother, who rejoiced over her with an exceeding joy. Zeus, choosing
this happy moment, sent Rhea to Demeter to conciliate her and prevail
upon her to return to Olympus—a task which she happily effected. The
earth smiled once more and became fertile, and Demeter, with her
daughter, to whom she was lent for nine months in the year, went to
dwell once more in the companionship of the gods; but, before she left
the earth, she rewarded Celeus, the King of Eleusis, who had been kind
to her, by giving his son, Triptolemus, a chariot with winged dragons
and seeds of wheat. His chariot was useful, for by means of it he was
able to ride all over the earth, and instruct men in growing corn.
He established the worship of Demeter at Eleusis, and instituted the
mysteries in honour of the goddess.
And in this pretty myth of Demeter and Persephone we may trace the
story of the seasons; how for nine months the earth is smiling and
fertile, and for the remaining three is dead.
Dr. Schliemann claimed to have found the site of ancient Troy when he
uncovered the hill of Hissarlik. It was undoubtedly the remains of a
pre-historic city, and one which had advanced to a considerable amount
of civilisation. And this is shown particularly in one instance, in the
huge earthenware jars, or _pithoi_, that were used for storing corn and
wine. The following illustration gives a graphic description of them
as they appeared _in situ_: ‘One of the compartments of the uppermost
houses below the Temple of Athené, and belonging to the third, the
burnt city, appears to have been used as a magazine for storing corn
or wine, for there are in it nine enormous earthenware jars of various
forms, about 5 ft. high and 4-3/4 ft. across, their mouths being from
29-1/2 in. to 35-1/4 in. broad. Each of them has four handles 3-3/4
in. broad, and the clay of which they are made is as much as 2-1/4 in.
thick.’[7]
Dr. Schliemann says [p. 279]: ‘The number of large jars which I brought
to light in the burnt stratum of the third city certainly exceeds
600. By far the larger number of them were empty, the mouth being
covered by a large flag of schist or limestone. This leads me to the
conclusion that the jars were filled with wine or water at the time
of the catastrophe, for there appears to have been hardly any reason
for covering them if they had been empty. Had they been used to contain
anything else but liquids, I should have found traces of the fact, but
only in a very few cases did I _find some carbonised grain_ in the
jars, and only twice a small quantity of a white mass, the nature of
which I could not determine.’
[Illustration: PITHOI FOUND AT HISSARLIK.]
So that we see that this pre-historic nation not only grew corn, but
stored it for future use.
The means this pre-historic people had of crushing or mealing the grain
was the same as usual: the saddle querns, or two stones with flat
surfaces, between which the grain was crushed and roughly triturated—so
frequently found on the Continent, and the pestle and mortar of the
lake dwellings, as also round stones for fitting into hollows such as
are found in the lakes, the cave dwellings of the Dordogne and in the
dolmens of France. Dr. Schliemann, in describing ‘the Trojan saddle
querns,’ says they ‘are either of trachyte or of basaltic lava, but
by far the larger number are of the former material. They are of oval
form, flat on one side and convex on the other, and resemble an egg
cut longitudinally through the middle. Their length is from 7 in. to
14 in., and even as much as 25 in.; the very long ones are generally
crooked longitudinally, their breadth is from 5 in. to 14 in. The grain
was bruised between the flat sides of two of these querns; but only
a kind of groats can have been produced in this way, not flour. The
bruised grain could not have been used for making bread. In _Homer_
we find it used for porridge (_Il._ xviii., 558-560), and also for
strewing on the roasted meat (_Od._ xiv., 76-77).’
In Homeric times the corn was evidently ground by millstones (which
were, probably, precisely similar to those found by Dr. Schliemann),
as we see in _Il._ vii. 270, xii., 161, and _Od._ vii., 104, xx.,
105. Pliny N.H., xxxvi., 30, speaking of millstones says: ‘In no
country are the molar stones superior to those of Italy; stones, be
it remembered, not fragments of rock; there are some provinces, too,
where they are not to be found at all. Some stones of this class are
softer than others, and admit of being smoothed with the whetstone, so
as to present all the appearance, at a distance, of serpentine. There
is no more durable stone than this; for, in general, stone, like wood,
suffers from the action, more or less, of rain, heat, and cold....
Some persons give this molar stone the name of _pyrites_, from the
circumstance that it has a great affinity to fire.’
[Illustration: POUNDING GRAIN.]
In book xviii., 23, Pliny gives us _the mode of grinding corn_. ‘All
the grains are not easily broken. In Etruria they first parch the
spelt in the ear, and then pound it with a pestle shod with iron at
the end. In this instrument the iron is notched at the bottom, sharp
ridges running out like the edge of a knife, and concentrating in
the form of a star, so that, if care is not taken to hold the pestle
perpendicularly while pounding, the grains will only be splintered and
the iron teeth broken. Throughout the greater part of Italy, however,
they employ a pestle that is only rough at the end, and wheels turned
by water, by means of which the corn is gradually ground. I shall here
set forth the opinions given by Mago as to the best method of pounding
corn. He says that the wheat should be steeped first of all in water,
and then cleaned from the husk, after which it should be dried in the
sun and then pounded with the pestle; the same plan, he says, should be
adopted in the preparation of barley.’
This was how corn was prepared in some parts of Italy at the time of
the Christian era, by the same method as that described by Livingstone:
‘The corn is pounded in a large wooden mortar, like the ancient
Egyptian one, with a pestle six feet long and about four inches thick.
The pounding is performed by two or even three women at one mortar.
Each, before delivering a blow with her pestle, gives an upward jerk
of the body, so as to put strength into the stroke, and they keep
exact time, so that two pestles are never in the mortar at the same
moment.... By the operation of pounding, with the aid of a little
water, the hard outside scale or husk of the grain is removed, and the
corn is made fit for the millstone. The meal irritates the stomach
unless cleared from the husk; without considerable energy in the
operation the husk sticks fast to the corn. Solomon thought that still
more vigour than is required to separate the hard husk or bran from
the wheat would fail to separate “a fool from his folly.” “Though thou
shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will
not his foolishness depart from him.”’
[Illustration: A BAKEHOUSE AT POMPEII.]
We have noticed the primitive Homeric millstones and the Etruscan
pestles and mortars, but at the time of the Christian era things
molinary were somewhat more advanced. Doubtless in parts of the
country the hand mill or quern, called _Mola manuaria_, _versatilis_ or
_trusatilis_, was in use, and it was worked by slaves, who were sent to
the _pistorineum_ as a punishment. But the usual corn mill was worked
by animals, and was called _Mola iumentaria_ or _Mola asinaria_.
Both Greeks and Romans originally ground their flour and baked their
bread at home, and mills and bakeries have been found in several
private houses in Pompeii. One of these bakeries was attached to the
house of Sallust, on the south side, being divided from it only by
a narrow street. Its front is the main street, or Via Consularis,
leading from the gate of Herculaneum to the Forum. Entering by a small
vestibule, the visitor finds himself in a portico of ample dimensions,
considering the character of the house, being about 36 feet by 30
feet. At the end of the portico is an opening through which the
bake-house is entered, which is at the back of the house, and opens
into a smaller street, which, diverging from the main street at the
fountain by Pansa’s house, runs straight up to the city walls. The
work room of the mill and bakery is about 33 feet long by 26 feet. The
centre is occupied by four stone mills, and when it was uncovered, the
ironwork, though entirely rust eaten, was yet perfect enough to explain
satisfactorily the method of construction.
Not only were the flour mills, kneading troughs and other utensils
for baking found in Pompeii, but there were also loaves of bread,
of round form, and sub-divided, some of which were stamped with the
baker’s name. That this was the usual form of loaf is also shown by a
painting on the walls of the Temple of Augustus, where we see the bread
partially broken, and by the representation of a baker’s shop, where
all the loaves are similarly shaped.
[Illustration: ROMAN METHODS OF BREAD-MAKING.]
[Illustration: A BAKER’S SHOP AT POMPEII.]
This, at all events, seems to have been the shape in vogue about the
time of the Christian era; but in the _bas reliefs_ on the tomb of
Eurysaces, who was a baker in a large way of business at Rome, they
seem to be globular. These _bas reliefs_ are most interesting, as they
show the whole history of baking. First there is the purchase of the
corn, and payment being made for it; then we see it ground, and sifted
to separate the bran. Next a man is buying some flour. Then we see the
dough being kneaded by horse-power, the bakers making it into loaves,
the baker with his peel baking the loaves, which are afterwards carried
in paniers to be weighed. Then there are the customers, and the bread
being sent out for delivery.
Pliny tells us that there were no bakers at Rome until the war with
King Perseus of Macedon, more than 580 years after the building of the
city. The ancient Romans used to make their own bread, it being an
occupation which belonged to the women, as we see is the case in many
nations even at the present day. In those times they had no cooks in
the number of their slaves, but used to hire them for the occasion from
the market. The Gauls were the first to employ the bolter that is made
of horse-hair; while the people of Spain made their sieves and meal
dressers of flax, and the Egyptians of papyrus and rushes.
Many freedmen were engaged as bakers, and under the Republic it was
one of the duties of the œdiles to see that the bread was properly
prepared and correct in weight. Grain was delivered into public
granaries by enrolled _Saccarii_, and it was distributed to the bakers
by a corporation called the _Catabolenses_. A bakers’ guild (_corpus_
or _collegium pistorum_), which long existed, was organised by Trajan,
and this body, through its connection with the _cura amonæ_, became of
much importance, and enjoyed various privileges. There were guilds of
_pistores_ and _clibanarii_ at Pompeii. A great increase in the number
of bakeries (_pistrinæ_, _officinæ pistoriæ_) afterwards took place at
Rome, owing, probably, to the action of Aurelian in introducing a daily
distribution of bread, instead of the old monthly distribution of grain
that had been usual since the time of Gracchi.