Basic Information
First recorded in The Illiad Itrion is an ancient Greek snack food, consisting of cakes made from roasted sesame seed and honey. Apparently, this was favoured as travel food - arguably a form of iron rations and even for hoplites to consume on the battlefield.
Immediate comparisons would include modern cereal bars and the modern Greek sweet Pasteli - both of which are essentially roasted grains with a sweet, sticky binder, although often containing other ingredients such as nuts or dried fruit … which could equally well have been found in itrion as well without historians feeling the need to record it. Cereal bars, in particular, remain a popular snack food for those out and about in climates that a candy or chocolate bar would not tolerate.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Finding what appear to be cereal bars - rectangles of itrion wrapped up in something (papyrus, pieces of cloth? Probably vine leaves knowing the Greeks) might raise some eyebrows amongst your players but would be entirely legitimate.
- Could perhaps be a vegetarian equivalent of pemmican - maybe even with an equivalent of the Metis pemmican makers specialising in bulk production for sale to travellers.