https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/okxx12/hesiod_tells_us_of_atalanta_a_fast_female_runner/h5bqev0?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3 > As for the meaning of 'bread-eating' men in Hesiod’s telling of the Atlanta myth , literally it's 'barley-eating'. The usual way of interpreting it is as a way of referring to people who have agriculture -- as distinct from animals (and perhaps hunter-gatherers). > > Older commentators opt firmly for the meaning 'non-hunter-gatherers'. But they also habitually treat 'hunter-gatherers' as synonymous with 'savage' and 'raw-meat-eating', so all that tells me is that we urgently need new commentaries. > > Barley was the main crop of Iron Age Greece. We don't have exact figures, but Sallares, Ecology of the ancient Greek world p. 79, assumes cereal production in the proportions 75% barley and 25% wheat, neglecting fodder, and points out that (a) barley tended to give significantly higher yields than wheat in antiquity, for multiple reasons, and (b) older Greek sources consistently give the impression that barley was the oldest cultivated cereal, and that it was way more important than wheat. > > In fact 75%-25% is probably an underestimate. Later in the book (p. 314) he cites an inscription dating to 329 BCE, Inscr. Gr. II² 1672, which suggests a ratio of 90%-10%. > > I'd better also repeat, the adjective isn't restrictive. It doesn't mean 'only men who eat barley'. It means 'men, and by the way it's a characteristic of men that they eat barley'. I asked: - [?] Do you mind elaborating on the reasons why barley was more productive than wheat in antiquity?