krithári

Barley. Domesticated shortly after ancient wheat, or zeia, barley became a key ingredient in the Greek diet, arriving from the Middle East sometime around the 4th millennium BC. The Minoans and Mycenaeans fed their palace workers with it, and because it is easier to grow than wheat. Modern scholars reckon that up to 90% of the grain grown in ancient Greece was barley.

The grain was also a key feature in ancient Greek religion, when the humblest offering one could make to a god was a barley cake. Homer mentioned Greek barley water, kykeon, sometimes flavoured with mint or thyme, or according to Homer himself, with 'ground goat cheese'. Ancients later added honey and wine to the mix.

The agricultural goddess Demeter was closely associated with barley, and the kykeon that was ritually drunk at her Mysteries in Eleusis was very likely purposely laced with hallucinogens from ergotamine, which can have the same effects as LSD. Ergotamine was derived from the ergot fungus on the crops (the fact that only locally-grown barley was ever used in Eleusis, supplied by only two families, lends weight to the theory).

After partaking of the kykeon, the initiates would descend into the underground Telesterion, to witness the mysteries in a receptive frame of mind–a life changing experience that offered the promise of life after death.

Today barley is still the most popular grain grown in Greece after wheat, and used in breads (especially paximadi), and beer.