“Tryphon of Alexandria, in the book on the nature of plants sets out a typology of loaves (if I remember them): the leavened loaf, the unleavened, the loaf made of the finest wheat flour, the one made of groats, the loaf made of leftover flour (this, he says, is better for digestion than the one from spotless flour of wheat), the loaf from rye (or spelt), from single-grain wheat, and from millet. The loaf made of groats, he says, are from wheat, because there are no barley groats.”
Τρύφων ὁ Ἀλεχανδρεὺς ἐν τοῖς φυτικοῖς ἐπιγραφομένοις ἄρτων ἐκτίθεται γένη, εἴ τι κάγὠ μέμνημαι, ζυμίτην, ἄζυμον, σεμιδαλίτην, χονδρίτην, συγκομιστόν τοῦτον δ᾽ εἶναἰ φησι καὶ διαχωρητικώτερον τοῦ καθαροῦ τὸν ἐξ ὀλυρῶν, τὸν ἐκ τιφῶν, τὸν ἐκ μελινῶν. γίνεται μέν, φησίν, ὀ χονδρίτης ἐκ τῶν ζειῶν, ἐκ γὰρ κριθῆς χόνδρον μὴ γίνεσθαι.
“And according to its roasting there is a loaf called ipnites.”
παρὰ δὲ τὰς ὀπτήσεις ὀνομάζεσθαι ἰπνίτην… oven baked bread.
ἐσχαρίτης…escharites, baked over a fire, reputedly served warm with a sweet sauce.
ἀταβυρίτην… tabyrites, loaf of some sort (distinction unclear).
ἀχαίνας… achainas, large loaves baked by women for religious festivals.
“And in the festival called the Megalartia, it is the name give by those who carry loaves: ‘Munch on achainas plump with fat!'”
καὶ ἑορτὴ καλεῖται Μεγαλάρτια ἐπιλεγόντων τῶν φερόντων: ἀχαίνην στέατος ἔμπλεων τράγον.
κριβανίτην… cribanites, pan loaves likely baked in covered earthen vessels mentioned by Aristophanes with reference to their whiteness.
ἐγκρυφίαν… encryphias, secret loaves baked in ashes?
δίπυνον… dipyrus, twice baked loaves.
λάγανον… laganon, light cake, not particularly nutritious (wholesome), perhaps being made with suet (see below).
ἀπανθρακίς…apanthracis, cake baked over coals that is even less nutritious than laganon.
ἡμιάρτιον…hemiartion, half loaf.
πλακίτης…placite or flat loaf.
τυρῶντος ἄρτος…cheese loaf given to children.
δάρατον…daratos, unleavened bread called Cilician by a comic poet.
ἀγελαῖος…agelai, common loaves, without other specification.
αὐτόπυρος…autopyrus, loaves made from wheat meal.
ὀρίνδης…orindes, bread made from rice.
κὀλλαβος…collabos, a sort of individual roll made with milk and new wheat.
μηκονίδων (or μακωνίδων)…maconidos, topped with poppy seeds.
κρυσόκολλος…chrysocollos, bread made of honey and flax, with a name implying a golden color.
κολλύρα…collyra, and likely old-timey bread of uncertain makeup.
ὀβελίας…obelias (pennyloaf), named either after its cost (an obol) or because it is baked on spits, perhaps in ashes.
ἐτνίτης or λεκιθίτης…etnites or lekithites, two names for a kind of roll.
ναστός…nastos, a large, white, leavened loaf.
Ἡρακλεών…heracleon, a kind of flat (possibly cheese?) cake.
θρόνος…thronos, a type of loaf served to old men with mean, so perhaps a high status.
ἀποπυρίας…apopurias, a loaf baked or toasted on ashes, sometimes leavened.
ἀρτοπτίκινος…a bread baked in a different type best made with hard leaven.
Καππαδόκιος…”Cappadocian” bread, a tender loaf made with milk, oil and salt.
βωλητίνος…boletinos, a bread shaped like a mushroom where the kneading trough is covered in poppies and baked on top of groats.
στρεπτίκιος…strepticias, a bread made with a little milk, pepper, and sometimes oil. when suet is used in place of oil, it makes a bread called artolaganon.
This list is taken from Athenaeus’s Deipnosophistae, 3.75-9, and is the first of what will likely be multiple posts about Greek bread.
Noodlings 