cakes

cakes
(flour-based sweetmeats or fancy breads) were given many names in Greek and Latin, of which the most general were pemmata, popana in Greek, liba (sacrificial cakes) and placentae (from the Greek plakountes) in Latin. The Greeks especially had a vast number of different kinds, and several monographs were written on the subject (on these see Athenaeus 3. 109b–116a, 14. 643e–648c; Pollux 6. 72 ff.). Most were regarded as a luxurious delicacy, to be eaten with fruit after the main course at a special meal. Cakes were also very commonly used in sacrifice, either as a peripheral accompaniment to the animal victim or as a bloodless sacrifice. Sacrificial cakes very often had a special form characteristic of the relevant divinity or rite; among the more spectacular examples are the Attic amphiphōn, stuck with lights and offered to Artemis on the full-moon day, or...

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