They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, however, according to Emily Wilson's translation of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’, aiming for the stomach will not only bring you love, but also divine blessings from the Gods. It is a story filled with banquets, from feasts of oxen to placate an angry Poseidon, to pork ‘laced with fat’ in return for a poet’s songs, food is the route to success. Nothing will bring you luck from Zeus like providing a meal for a lonely stranger.
Fortunately for me, this was my own experience of eating in Greece, where I got to know and be hosted by the wonderful cookery writer, Aglaia Kremezi, on the island of Kea. This blog serves as a celebration of her inspiring life. The images I have used are taken from Aglaia’s cookery book, ‘The Foods of the Greek Islands’, which is available in the shop. Her documentation of traditional Greek cooking methods gives us an insight into the types of food that are described in the Odyssey.
(‘He writhed around, as when a man rotates a sausage full of fat and blood’ – Image of sausages being prepared in Cyprus)
Following my own experience as a seafaring stranger at Aglaia’s table, I truly agree with Odysseus’s viewpoint that:
‘I think there can be no greater pleasure
than when a community enjoys
a banquet, as we sit inside the house,
and listen to the singer, and the tables
are heaped with bread and meat’
Indeed, the ethics of providing a decent meal for a guest run so deep in Grecian culture that when the angry Cyclops decides to snack on a large number of Odysseus’s men, it is not his actual blood thirsty craving that Odysseus berates, but rather the fact that this moment inverts ‘The Odyssey’s’ usual structure. The monster here has eaten a guest rather than feeding them. ‘You had no shame at eating your own guests’, Odysseus accuses him.
(‘A slave girl brought bread and many canapes’ – Image of bread being prepared in Olympos)
At other points in the story, Odysseus shows little to no interest in his men being the dinner of some ravening monster. A case in point being when he happily donates six of his men to the jaws of the Scylla in order to pass safely through a narrow strait of water, or even when he leaves behind three of his men to be eaten by a Giantess, who spears them like fish (‘A gruesome meal!’, comments Odysseus, as he happily sails away).
(‘The daughters of the great King Zeus, the nymphs, drove out the mountain goats so that my crew could eat’ – Image of mountain coats in Astypalaia)
In contrast to ‘The Odyssey’s’ well-fed monsters, the lead characters of the story have a harder time. Penelope, Odysseus’s long-suffering wife, is frequently described as lying in her room, ‘refusing food and drink, consuming nothing’ whilst she waits twenty years for Odysseus’s return. Meanwhile, Odysseus and his men travel on with no certainty as to where their next meal might come from. Odysseus himself laments that ‘we must endure this life of desperate hunger, we must endure as migrants with no home’.
(‘My crew begged, let us grab some cheese’ – Image of goats milk cheeses)
Considering their lack of food, it is no surprise that hunger drives Odysseus’s men into dangerous situations. Notably, his scouts foolishly eat the fruit offered to them by the famous Lotus Eaters. This meal causes them to forget their homes, and Odysseus has to drag them back to their ship in tears. In fact, the moment when Odysseus finally loses control of his men is when they cook a contraband and delicious barbecue of the sun God’s cattle. The sun God is so angry about this theft that he makes the meat on the men’s skewers begin to moo. However, not satisfied with merely scaring the men during their dinner, he also requests that the other Gods wreck Odysseus’s ship. Every single man dies and Odysseus travels on, hungry and alone.
(‘My men were off round the island, fishing with hooks, as usual – hunger pinched their bellies’ – Image of Aegean fisherman)
It is in this half-starved state that Odysseus ultimately arrives home at Ithaca, dressed as a beggar. When he gets there, he finds his house occupied by suitors who are trying to persuade Penelope into marriage. They spend their days ‘devouring’ Odysseus’s wine and pigs. Their propensity towards evil and dissolution is marked by a single attribute, their refusal to give food to Odysseus when he appears to them as a beggar:
‘You handsome idiot! You would not give
a grain of salt from your own house. You sit
enjoying someone else’s food, and yet
you will not give a crumb from this great banquet
to me.’
The suitors, however, receive their just deserts (pun intended), for they are soon attacked by Odysseus and their plates of meat begin to drip with blood. Some of them even end up fed to Odysseus’s dogs.
The ending of the ‘Odyssey’ is a pertinent reminder that the Gods will curse those who are ungenerous and greedy in spirit. You should remember this, when you sit down in the cinema to watch Christopher Nolan’s version, and make sure you share your popcorn, or face the dire consequences! For after all, we are what (and how) we eat.
(‘Pour libations for the dead: first honey-mix, then sweet wine’ – Image of beehive on Astypalaia)