The Greek Pill

Greek soldiers of the pre-Christian era had their own type of concentrated K-rations, even as the G.I.s of World War II.

Philo of Byzantium, one of the leading Greek war correspondents, was particularly interested in the problem of food. In one of his reports, discussed by Dr. Pan S. Codellas of the University of California Medical School in the Bulletin of the History, of Medicine, Philo describes the preparation of the Greek Ks: "Take squill [a bulb root, shaped like an onion], which, after having been boiled down, is ... cut into the thinnest possible pieces. Afterwards it is mixed with one-fifth of sesame and one-fifteenth of opium poppy. When all of these have been pounded together in a mortar to a fine mass, knead it with honey and divide it into pieces as big as the largest olives. If one of these morsels is consumed around the second hour [about 8 a.m.] and another around the tenth hour [4 p.m.], no serious suffering will result from want of food."

Even today, Dr. Codellas points out, the pellets would "merit respect" on a "nutritional and utilitarian" basis. The honey gives carbohydrates, and, with the sesame oil, takes care of caloric values. Protein from the sesame supplies the nitrogen need of the body, the squill serves as a mild heart stimulant, and the opium deadens the stomach's hunger pains.

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