Sparta
In Sparta, where the system was most evolved, they were also called pheiditia (φειδίτια /, from ἔδω / edō, to eat). The term is probably a corruption of φιλίτια / philitia ("love-feast"), a word corresponding to the Cretan Hetairia. This was a daily obligatory banquet comparable to a military mess. Before the 5th century BC this ritual was also referred to as the ὰνδρεῖα / andreia, literally, "belonging to men". Obligation was total; no person, not even the kings, could be absent without good excuse, such as performance of a sacrifice. Lesser excuses, such as being away on a hunt, implied a requirement to provide a present to the table (Smith 1870) .
The participation at syssitia was, as for other aspects of agoge, obligatory for membership in the Homoioi, the peers. Spartans were admitted starting at the age of twenty after a ritual described by Plutarch in his Life of Lycurgus(ch 12):
"each man in the company took a little ball of soft bread, which they were to throw into a deep basin, which a waiter carried round upon his head; those that liked the person to be chosen dropped their ball into the basin without altering its figure, and those who disliked him pressed it between their fingers, and made it flat; and this signified as much as a negative voice. And if there were but one of these pieces in the basin, the suitor was rejected, so desirous were they that all the members of the company should be agreeable to each other. The basin was called caddichus, and the rejected candidate had a name thence derived. ".
It was also possible for the young man to be presented by his erastes, the elder in a pederastic relationship.
Each person was supplied with a cup of mixed wine, which was filled again when required, although drunkenness was not tolerated. Following a main meal of black broth (μέλας ζωμός / melas zōmos), an επαικλον (epaiklon, or after-meal) was served, which consisted of game, fruit, poultry and other delicacies. Alcman (Frag. 31) tells us that at the banquets and drinking entertainments of the men it was fit for the guests to sing the paean. The arrangements were under the supervision of the Polemarch.
Each member was required to contribute a monthly share to the common pot, the φιδίτης / phidites, of which the composition has been passed to us by Dicaearchus (through Athenaeus and Plutarch ibid., 12): 77 litres of barley, 39 litres of wine, 3 kilograms of cheese, 1.5 kilograms of figs, and 10 Aegina obolus, which served to purchase meat. This served to prepare the main dish, the black broth (μέλας ζωμός / melas zōmos), of which Athenaeus has given us the ingredients: pork, salt, vinegar and blood.
The kleros, the allotment given to each Spartan and cultivated by Helots, was supposed to allow each citizen to pay their share. If this proved impossible, they were excluded from the syssitia. (Aristotle, Politics, II, 9).
The number of members in each syssitia remains vague. According to Plutarch in Life of Lycurgus, there were approximately 15 men in each syssitia; but in his Life of Agis, the king divides his 4,500 citizens into 15 phidites of 400 or 200 members, that is 7 phidites of 400, 7 of 200, and 300 Hippeis (elite Spartan guards).
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