The purest representation of life itself, one of the most carnal and profound acts of love in human nature: breastfeeding has always instinctively held a focal role in human evolution.

By Giorgio Pintzas Monzani

The essence of milk is even more profoundly materialized within the first breast milk, that is, the first drops that every mammal produces a few hours after giving birth, and lasting little longer.

The ancient Greeks called it πυαρ (pìar), while Roman culture called it colostrum.

We could approach the topic even just from a scientific point of view and the food properties of breast milk.

We, however, need more...

We need to feed on tales, myths, fairy tales: nourishment for the mind, made not of mere data, but of stories that transport us to distant times and realities, dreamlike to many.

And so it is that we are going to tell the profound importance of breast milk but especially of its first drops after birth (colostrum/πυαρ), from a mythological, symbolic and political point of view, going to create a new horizon of tales, on a subject taken for granted, or little explored in terms of antiquity.

The act represented through Greek and Roman mythology

According to Eratosthenes, the birth of the Milky Way would derive from the colostrum(πυαρ) of the goddess Hera, Juno. 

Zeus in an attempt to make Hercules, his own demigod son, immortal, instructed Hermes to deceive the queen of the gods in her sleep, giving Hercules precisely the opportunity to feed on his mother's first milk, necessary to become worthy of Olympus.

The mythical strength of the baby, awakened Hera in a daze, causing her to startle and thus detach the baby Hercules from her own breast: this movement unleashed a most powerful jet, hurled out of the earth's crust, thus forming the galaxy known as the "milky way," from the Greek γαλα (milk)

As always we see that ancient Greek culture gave importance to a fact, object or event by placing it within its own mythology.

Humans recognized the sacredness of colostrum/πυαρ, immediately likening it to deities and myths, which preserved its divine nature.

Is there therefore a Greek deity protector of Πυαρ? of the colostrum?

Not exactly...

Although several female deities in Greek polytheism were believed to be protectors of life, lactation and fertility, none had the "task" of protecting mother's milk and the first milk in its uniqueness.

Unlike the Greek world, however, Roman polytheism dedicated a deity to the colostrum: this was the goddess Rumina, a name derived from the word "ruma," meaning the animal udder.

Paying special attention to the term "ruma," we notice a strong resemblance to the eternal city: Rome.

And it is much more than a resemblance, for it is precisely the udder that as a symbol of life, birth, fertility, gave its name to the capital of the most flourishing ancient empire.

Ancient societies soon realized the scarcity of colostrum, since the biological system of all mammals produces a small amount immediately after birth.

Thus the problem soon arose of being able to continue to provide the infant with the proper amount of nutrients even after the colostrum/πυαρ was consumed.

The connection between breast milk and politics

Infant feeding moved entire political movements, whether on the streets of Athens and Sparta or in the Roman parliament.

Politics, mainly in ancient times, took over where economic and social interest made its entrance.

And it was the symbolic and nurturing importance of mother's milk that created a new profession, complete with contracts and vigilant laws: the "τροφος" (trophos) or "τιτθη" (titthi), now commonly called wet nurse.

Soran doctor's rules

Initially born out of the need of mothers with milk shortages, the presence of a wet nurse then later became an aristocratic fad, giving rise to its own guidelines on the recruitment and selection of this figure.

According to Soranus, a Greek physicist and physician of the first century CE, the feeding of infants was to be entrusted to τροφος only if the latter met the following standards:

• an age between 20 and 40 years old

• they had to be healthy and vigorous

• had a maximum of 2 children

• be of Greek descent

Going even further back in time we see how in Athens, around the 5th century B.C., nannies originating from Sparta and Thrace began to spread.

According to the physicians of the time, Spartan women carried within them sound moral principles and a strong tradition of a warrior people, which it was thought could be passed on to the newborn through milk.

The preference for Thracian women, on the other hand, was influenced by the fact that they were the slaves who best spoke Greek, thus symbolizing greater racial unity with Athens.

In Rome, on the other hand, the practice of hiring a wet nurse became so common, that emperors of the charge of Marcus Aurelius and Antony Pius, had to introduce real subsidies and economic rewards for mothers who decided to nurse their children, in order to incentivize a return to a practice ethically fundamental to the racial identity of the empire, since most wet nurses were slaves of Greek descent.

Furthermore, Marcus Aurelius, used the following phrase as a propaganda slogan:

"A woman was created half-mother, to give birth, and half-mother to nurture the offspring; she becomes a complete mother only after practicing both tasks."

Marcus Aurelius

The first animal milk and its use by humans

As mentioned earlier the first milk was considered an incredible source of nourishment, this in fact led man to use the animal one in his diet, in more ancient times it was common among the ways of the poleis, while later it became a more niche food, where kings ordered the first milk to be brought to the palace after each calving of cattle.

The importance then in Greek culture was so deep-rooted that today we have a transformation of it into a traditional recipe of Greek rural territories: the "Κουρκουβικι" (kurkuvìκi).

An ancient recipe forgotten by many, even among the Greek population.

The use of the first milk, colostrum, cow's or sheep's milk, allows for an energy-rich food, necessary to face the dry Mediterranean winters.

It consists in milk cooked in the oven with light salting, which, thanks to the strong presence of fats, coagulates until a "pudding" is obtained, to be eaten with powdered or caster sugar: a strong and very natural flavor, a product full of energy and properties, but also of history and culture.

To this day, recipes can be found in different parts of central Greece, where the same dish is named differently.

In Karditsa and Evritania we find it under the name κορκοφιγκι (korkofìghee).

While in Phthiotis, they call it κοκοφρυγκι (kokofrìghee).

Giorgio Pintzas Monzani is a Greek-Italian chef, writer and consultant who lives in Milan. His Instagram page can be found here