Alcman Gourmand: The Politics of Eating in Archaic Sparta

In fragment 17 PMGF Alcman describes himself dedicating a tripod full of soup and through it claiming solidarity with the Spartan people. I argue that there is a tension in this fragment between the high-value tripod Alcman donates and the low-value soup it contains. Alcman strikingly emphasizes the soup rather than the expensive tripod. I argue for a non-sympotic original performance context. This appeal to the damos through a humble food shows that in archaic Sparta the damos had increasing influence in its social life.