Twenty-first-century westerners frequently like to imagine that the ancient Greeks and Romans were “just like us.” The truth, however, is that, if a person from twenty-first-century Europe, the U.S., or Canada were transported back in time to classical Athens in the fifth century BCE, they would find themself in a culture drastically different from their own in more ways than most people today appreciate.
Notably, although ancient Greek cuisine bore some similarities to modern Greek cuisine and southern European cuisine more generally, it also bore some striking differences. For instance, many twenty-first-century westerners will be surprised to learn that the ancient Greeks frequently ate insects—specifically cicadas and grasshoppers, which they apparently regarded as a delicious snack.
Aristophanes’s reference to a character longing for a cicada and grasshopper
The ancient Athenian comic playwright Aristophanes (lived c. 446 – c. 386 BCE) portrays an unknown character declaring his desperate longing to eat a cicada and a grasshopper in Fragment 53 of his now-lost comedy Anagyros. The fragment, which has been preserved through quotation by the later Greek writer Athenaios of Naukratis, who flourished in around the late second or early third century CE, in his Deipnosophistai or Wise Men at Dinner 4.133b, reads as follows in the original Greek:
“πρὸς θεῶν· ἔραμαι τέττιγα φαγεῖν
καὶ κερκώπην θηρευσαμένη
καλάμῳ λεπτῷ.”
This means, in my own translation:
“By the deities! I long to eat a cicada
and a grasshopper that has been caught
with a thin reed!”
In the same passage in which he preserves this fragment, Athenaios also references the comic playwright Epilykos, who was a contemporary of Aristophanes, as having apparently also mentioned grasshoppers as a popular snack item, but he provides no quotation.
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons showing a Roman marble bust of the Athenian comic playwright Aristophanes, dating to the first century CE, based on an earlier Greek original
Aristotle’s advice on eating cicadas
As most longtime readers of my blog are already aware, over the millennia, the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle of Stageira (lived 384 – 322 BCE) has been portrayed as many things that he most certainly was not, including as an overconfident buffoon who made assertions based on no evidence whatsoever and who was wrong about nearly everything (the most popular false portrayal, which I debunk in this post I made in October 2020), as a bad anger management counselor (a claim I debunk in this post I made in March 2020), and even as an Objectivist (the most patently absurd portrayal of all, which I debunk in this post I made in October 2019).
Some readers may therefore be surprised to learn that one thing Aristotle really was was something of a cicada connoisseur. In his History of Animals 5.30.556b, Aristotle opines that cicadas are the most delicious to eat when they are in the pupa stage of development. He writes, in Greek:
“ὁ δὲ σκώληξ αὐξηθεὶς ἐν τῇ γῇ γίγνεται τεττιγομήτρα· καὶ εἰσὶ τότε ἥδιστοι, πρὶν περιρραγῆναι τὸ κέλυφος.”
This means, in my own translation:
“And the larva, when it has increased in size in the earth, becomes a pupa; and at this time, they are the most delicious to eat, before the shell bursts open.”
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a Roman marble bust of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, based on an earlier Greek bronze original by the sculptor Lysippos
Later in the same passage, Aristotle goes on to provide his readers with his learned assessment of the relative tastiness of male and female cicadas before and after mating. He writes:
“εἰσὶ δ᾿ ἄρρενες μὲν οἱ ᾄδοντες ἐν ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς γένεσι, θήλεις δ᾿ οἱ ἕτεροι. καὶ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἡδίους οἱ ἄρρενες, μετὰ δὲ τὴν ὀχείαν αἱ θήλειαι· ἔχουσι γὰρ ᾠὰ λευκά.”
This means, in my own translation:
“And the ones that sing are male in both kinds, and the other ones are female. And, at first, the males are more delicious to eat, but, after impregnation, the females are; for they have white eggs [inside them].”
Remember that you heard it from Aristotle first, folks: the most delicious cicadas are the female ones when they are all full of yummy eggs!
ABOVE: Undated handout photo from the University of Illinois depicting a female cicada laying her eggs inside a tree branch
This is awesome! Really enjoyed the post, especially as I am about to eat breakfast. Where are my cicadas?
Thank you for the positive feedback! I’m really glad to hear that you enjoyed the post. I’m sorry if I ruined your breakfast.
Two posts in a short timespan? It’s not even Christmas yet.
Granted they’re short, but I’m sure you’re busy so I understand. Plus I don’t care about the length, such how interesting subject matters that relate to ancient Greco-Roman civilization.
Yes, this week, instead of writing one long post like I typically would, I ended up making two short posts. I’m hoping to get at least one more post in before Thanksgiving.
I already have at least two special holiday-related posts planned for this December, by the way. I’m hoping to finish and post that review I was working on last year about The Green Knight and also a post I started writing back in January about the (very racist) Dutch folkloric figure Zwarte Piet.
Oh yeah, I’ve heard about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . I guess a classic in Middle English literature but not as well known as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Actually, the article I was referencing is going to be a review of the movie The Green Knight, which is a film adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that came out last year.
I actually quite enjoyed that movie and will be interested to hear your take on it.
Two holiday posts?! You are too good to us!
Yes, I enjoyed the movie as well, but I still have a lot of thoughts about it and its use of medieval history and literature that I’d like to share.
Yummm eat those noisy custards AKA shrimp of the ground and trees 😂 🦐👩🍳
Insects are still considered a nice snack in many countries. Colombians, for example, eat a kind of ants (hormigas culonas, literally translated as ‘big-assed ants’) as if they were peanuts. I gave them a try, and they’re not bad. Very crunchy.
I meant, the ants were crunchy, not the Colombians.
Very fascinating!
I was aware that insects are sometimes eaten in South America, but it’s something that is very rare and generally viewed as disgusting here in the U.S. where I live, as well as Canada and most countries in Europe.
They are also widely eaten today in Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
This article doesn’t surprise me, even in recent times some people eat chocolate covered ants (Full disclosure, I’ve never eaten them).
Edible insects Future prospects for food and feed security
We in Europe and North America seem the odd people out. I do know of a couple large cricket farms here in Ontario but I think at least one is dedicated dog food.
Hi Spencer,
Thank you for another informative article! I’d love to read your analysis on race in the Ancient Greek world and how they regarded themselves in comparison to other cultures. We know they clearly traded/had contact with Egypt and Persia, among others, but how did they regard themselves in the context of other European/Mediterranean societies? Did the concept of “white” even exist during the classical period?
I’m glad to have found your blog!
Tess, I should let Spencer reply, but I suggest you read her entry “Were the Ancient Greeks and Romans White?” from 9/30/2020.
Thanks for your response Cheryl, as someone new to her blog, I wasn’t aware of that article.
Spencer is from Indiana, and I’m from Wisconsin, but I learned that eating cicadas is a thing when I moved to Washington, DC. People collect the insects as they emerge from the ground, before their bodies harden and they can fly.
Periodical cicadas appear every 13 or 17 years, so they’re not eaten often in the USA. Nonetheless, other insects can be raised commercially, possibly holding a source of protein for the future.