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In the classical Greek literature that pre-dates the philosophers Plato and Aristotle, descriptions of dietary practice are particularly numerous in comedy, because it is a re ection of daily life.It is perfectly appropriate that a paper in this colloquium be dedicated to it.The historians Herodotus and Thucydides, and later Xenophon, also give passing descriptions of the regimen of men or peoples.However, medical texts are the most important witness we have for the regimen of the classical Greeks, whether in health or sickness.Indeed, it is in the corpus of the sixty or so medical treatises attributed to Hippocrates, an important core of which dates from the second half of the fth century or the rst half of the fourth, that the Greek term diaita appears most frequently.In fact, this noun, attested for the rst time in the sixth century in the lyric poetry of Alcaeus (once), then in the fth-century lyric poetry of Pindar (twice) and the tragic poetry of Aeschylus (once), appears only seven times in the plays of Aristophanes, despite numerous references to diet.The word is used more frequently by the historians Herodotus and Thucydides: ten times in Thucydides, nineteen times in Herodotus.However, even if we add the twenty or so uses in Xenophon, this is no comparison to the Hippocratic Corpus, where the word is found just over two hundred times.Thus, the noun diaita, which appeared relatively late in the Greek language, underwent an unprecedented expansion thanks to the rst medical texts to have been preserved.It is a sign that dietetics is at the centre of these doctors' thought, or at least some of them.J. Wilkins, "L' alimentation des élites sous le regard de la comédie grecque," Jean Leclant, André Vauchez & Maurice Sartre (ed.), Pratiques et discours alimentaires en Méditerranée de l' Antiquité à la Renaissance.Actes du 18e colloque de la Villa Kérylos à Beaulieu-sur-Mer les 4, 5 & 6 octobre 2007.Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 2008 pp.157-170.See J.H. Kühn, Ulrich Fleischer, Index hippocraticus, fasc.I (1986), s.v.δίαιτα; see also other related words (διαιτάω, διαίτηµα, διαίτησις, διαιτητικός).Further details on the history of the family of diaita to its rst appearance can be found in J. Jouanna, "Ré exions sur le régime des peuples dans la Grèce classique (Hérodote, I, 133; Hippocrate, Ancienne médecine, ch.5; Thucydide, I, 6) et sur le sens des mots de la
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