Why this word is great
SYSSITIA — [Noun] The compulsory, daily communal meal for male citizens and youths in ancient Dorian cities, a cornerstone of civic and military life designed to forge political loyalty and social cohesion. From Ancient Greek συσσίτια (sussítia), neuter plural of συσσίτιον (sussítion), meaning "common mess" or "co-feeding," from σύν (sún, "together with") and σῖτος (sîtos, "grain, food"). Unlike the symposium, a voluntary, wine-steeped evening of aristocratic leisure and philosophy, or the Christian agape, a meal of open charity and spiritual fellowship, the syssitia was a secular sacrament of the state: regimented, exclusive, and mandatory. It was the taste of the infamous black broth in a common bowl, the sound of laconic talk over benches scrubbed clean, the weight of a bronze shield propped against the wood—a ritual that turned the simple act of eating into the mortar of a fortress, where the only hunger left was for the glory of the polis.