Greek for meals of the day?

Greek Learning Greek
1

Hello, everyone!

Can someone help me with these words in Greek: breakfast, lunch, dinner?

In my notes from the last time I started learning Greek I wrote down the following:

breakfast, ientaculum — ὁ ἀκρατισμόσ
lunch, prandium — τὸ δεῖπνον
dinner, cena — τὸ ἄριστον

However, now I see that ἀρισταώ means “I breakfast” (“iento”), and wiktionary says that τὸ ἄριστον means:

ᾱ̓́ρῑστον • (ā́rīston) n (genitive ᾱ̓ρῑ́στου); second declension

morning meal, breakfast (early usage, i.e. Homeric)
lunch (later usage, replaced with ἀκράτισμα (akrátisma) as word for breakfast)

n.b. not dinner!

http://lexica.linguax.com/nlm.php?searchedLG=cena — no entry for dinner here.

It’s a bit confusing and I would appreciate if someone could clarify a bit.

Thanks in advance!

2

The reader that goes with First Greek Course, Greek Boy at Home, has the following in chapter IV:

ἐσθίομεν δὲ τρὶς τῆς ἡμέρας. ἑῷοι μὲν ὀλίγον πάνυ ἐσθίομέν τε καὶ πίνομεν· ἔπειτα πρὸ τῆς μεσημβρίας ἀ̄ριστῶμεν· εἶτα τῆς ἑσπέρας δειπνοῦμεν. τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ὀλίγον ἐστί, καὶ οὐκ ὀνομάζομεν αὐτὸ οὐδέν· τὸ δὲ δεύτερον λέγομεν τὸ ἄ̄ριστον, τὸ δὲ τρίτον ἐστὶ τὸ δεῖπνον. μετὰ ταῦτα λαλοῦμεν μετ’ ἀλλήλων, καὶ καθεύδομεν.

So:

τὸ πρῶτον - [οὐδέν]
τὸ δεύτερον - τὸ ἄ̄ριστον
τὸ τρίτον - τὸ δεῖπνον

3

I still didn’t get to that part in the reader, but if I read this correctly: there is no special word for breakfast since it’s small. τὸ ἄριστον would be lunch and τὸ δεῖπνον dinner.

Therefore,

in the morning we ἀριστῶμεν,
at lunchtime we ἐσθίομέν τὸ ἄριστον,
at dinnertime we ἐσθίομέν τὸ δεῖπνον. (or δειπνῶσι?)

Thanks a lot!

EDIT: I got confused mainly because in the Italian version of Athenaze (capitolo III, p. 39), they eat τὸ δεῖπνον in the morning, I think, or at least during the day, definitely not in the evening.

4

οὐ δ’ ἑῷοι ἀριστῶσιν (ἠρίστων), ἀλλ’ πρὸ τῆς μεσηβρίας.

ἑῷοι μὲν ὀλίγον πάνυ ἐσθίομέν τε καὶ πίνομεν

at lunchtime

ἔπειτα πρὸ τῆς μεσημβρίας ἀριστῶμεν

at dinnertime

εἶτα τῆς ἑσπέρας δειπνοῦμεν

5

Sorry, this time I got confused because in my mother tongue “πρὸ τῆς μεσημβρίας” is used to express “ἕωθεν” as well. (before noon = morning)

Now I understand, thank you!

6

It’s the same in Greek, but the ἔπειτα signals that he’s talking about sequential events.

Rouse’s scheme, as I understand it, describes the Attic situation. Thucydides talks about working part of the day until ἄριστον. Xenophon describes two main meals of the day, ἄριστον and δεῖπνον (which is the main meal). Despite Rouse’s statement, Aristotle calls the unnamed early meal by ἀκράτισμα. The name is from ἄκρατος, referring (reportedly) to the practice of dipping bread into undiluted wine for that meal. The Deipnosophistae discuss this and various names for the meals, including the Homeric division “ἄριστα, δεῖπνα, δόρπα” in 1.19.