Gr. Antiq. [a. Gr. συσσἰτια, pl. of συσσἰτιον common meal, or συσσιτία, n. of action f. σύσσιτος eating in common or συσσιτεῖν to mess in common, f. σύν SYN- + σῖτος food.] a. Meals eaten together in public. b. The custom of eating the chief meal of the day at a public mess, as practised in Sparta and Crete. Also Syssition, a common meal, mess.
1835. Twirlwall, Greece, I. vii. 287. The most important feature in the Cretan mode of life, is the usage of the Syssitia, or public meals, of which all the citizens partook.
1846. Grote, Greece, II. vi. II. 504. [Lycurgus] constituted … the Syssitia or public mess.
1874. Symonds, Sk. Italy & Greece (1898), T. xiii. 287. Necessity and the waiter drive them all to a sepulchral syssition.
transf. 1885. Pall Mall G., 27 May, 6/1. As regards the midday meal, I am aware that dinner is provided for the few who elect to do the preparation work at school,… but this is a very different thing from the syssitia that I desiderate.
