Ancient Greek Meals

"And to those who are accustomed to take two meals in the day it is to be given twice, and to those accustomed to live upon a single meal it is to be given once at first, and then, if the case permit, it is to be increased and given twice to them, if they appear to stand in need of it."
Hippocrates, De diaeta in morbis acutis 4

• Sources on Roman Foods

Here are the names of the principle ancient Greek meals and their approximate times.

The Main Ancient Greek Meals

1. The First Ancient Greek Meal

   The first meal of the day is called ariston. Because it's the first meal of the day, it is translated breakfast, because it's the fast-breaking meal. The ariston was eaten later in the day than the modern western breakfast -- around noon.

2. The Ancient Greek Main Meal

   The main ancient Greek meal of the day is called deipnon. This was the evening meal that might be followed by the symposium.

Additional Ancient Greek Meals

Philemon says that the ancients had four meals, akratisma, ariston, hesperisma ('evening meal') and deipnon ('dinner'). Now the akratisma they called breaking the fast, the ariston ('luncheon') they called deipnon, the evening meal dorpestos, the dinner epidorpis. In Aeschylus may be found the proper order of these terms, in the verses wherein Palamedes is made to say: 'I appointed captains of divisions and of hundreds over the host, and meals I taught them to distinguish, breakfasts, dinners, and suppers, third.' The fourth meal is mentioned by Homer in these words: 'Go thou when thou hast supped,' referring to what some call deilinon, which comes between our ariston ('luncheon') and deipnon ('dinner'). So ariston, in Homer, is the meal eaten in the early morning, whereas deipnon is the noon meal which we to‑day call ariston, and dorpon is the evening meal. Perhaps, also, deipnon in Homer is sometimes synonymous with ariston; for of the morning meal he somewhere said: 'They then took their deipnon, and after that began to arm for battle;' that is, immediately after sunrise and the deipnon, they go forth to fight.
~Athenaeus Deipnosophists

• Akratisma - breakfast
  ἀκράτισμα or μρωϊνὸν ἄριστον is the very early breakfast taken immediately after first rising. [Source: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (ed. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin)]
• Embroma - breakfast
• Hesperisma - an evening meal
• Dorpestos - an evening meal
• Epidorpis - an evening meal
• Deilinon - a 4th meal of the day

Additional Sources:

• _{Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, by Andrew Dalby}

• meals
• daily life