The syssitia (Ancient Greek: συσσίτια syssítia, plural of συσσίτιον syssítion)[1] were, in ancient Greece, common meals for men and youths in social or religious groups, especially in Crete and Sparta, but also in Megara in the time of Theognis of Megara (sixth century BCE) and Corinth in the time of Periander (seventh century BCE).
Spartans were admitted from the age of twenty after a ritual described by Plutarch in his Life of Lycurgus (ch 12): Each man in the company took a little ball of soft bread, which they were to throw into a deep basin, which a waiter carried round upon his head; those that liked the person to be chosen dropped their ball into the basin without altering its figure, and those who disliked him pressed it between their fingers, and made it flat; and this signified as much as a negative voice.
Following a main meal of black soup (μέλας ζωμός melas zōmos), an ἐπάϊκλον (epaiklon, or after-meal) was served, which consisted of game, fruit, poultry and other delicacies.
Each member was required to contribute a monthly share to the common pot, the φιδίτης phidítes, of which the composition has been noted by Dicaearchus (through Athenaeus and Plutarch ibid., 12): 77 litres of barley, 39 litres of wine, three kilograms of cheese, 1.5 kilograms of figs, and ten Aegina obols, which served to purchase meat.
That served to prepare the main dish, the black soup, of which Athenaeus noted the ingredients: pork, salt, vinegar and blood.
The ancient Cretan name for the syssitia was also andreia, the singular of which (ἀνδρεῖον (andreion) was used to denote the building or public hall in which they were given.
Based on at least one source, however, (Pindar, Pythian Odes, IX, 18), it is possible that in some of the Dorian states, there were also syssitia of young unmarried women.
The citizens were divided into messes that originally appear to have been along kinship lines, but vacancies were later filled at the discretion of the members.
According to Dosiadas, cited in Athenaeus,[6] each town in Crete had two public buildings; one for lodging strangers (koimeterion), as well as the andreion, where the syssitia took place.
Each of the adult citizens received an equal portion of fare, with the exception of the Archon, or "Master of the Tables", who was perhaps in ancient times one of the Kosmoi, the highest officials in Cretan poleis before the 3rd century BCE, and more recently a member of the Gerousia.
It was followed by conversation, which was first directed to the public affairs of the state and afterwards turned on valiant deeds in war and the exploits of illustrious men, whose praises might animate the younger hearers to an honourable emulation.
In Lyctus, for instance, a colony from Sparta, the custom was different: the citizens of that town contributed to their respective tables a tenth of the produce of their estates, which may be supposed to have obtained in other cities, where the public domains were not sufficient to defray the charges of the syssitia.
Herodotus (I, 65) remarked that the Spartan syssition led to troops "who fought with more bravery and a keener sense of shame than would have been the case with chance comrades" (Smith 1870).
While the syssitia, as opposed to symposia, were originally based on simplicity and sobriety, in Sparta, they gradually became more indulgent and luxurious.