The Meaning of Meat and the Structure of the Odyssey

A literary study of the Odyssey based on the central economic and symbolic importance of the eating of meat.

Egbert J. Bakker (Author)

9781316506974, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 June 2016

206 pages, 1 b/w illus. 2 tables
23 x 15.3 x 1.1 cm, 0.31 kg

'… a highly engaging study on the symbolic value and religious importance of meat in The Odyssey … an enjoyable, useful and important addition to the vast field of Homeric studies.' D. Felton, The Classical Review

This comprehensive study of the Odyssey sees in meat and meat consumption a centre of gravitation for the interpretation of the poem. It aims to place the cultural practices represented in the poem against the background of the (agricultural) lived reality of the poem's audiences in the archaic age, and to align the themes of the adventures in Odysseus' wanderings with the events that transpire at Ithaca in the hero's absence. The criminal meat consumption of the suitors of Penelope in the civilised space of Ithaca is shown to resonate with the adventures of Odysseus and his companions in the pre-cultural worlds they are forced to visit. The book draws on folklore studies, the anthropology of hunting cultures, the comparative study of oral traditions, and the agricultural history of archaic and classical Greece. It will also be of interest to narratologists and students of folklore and Homeric poetics.

Prologue: food for song
1. Epos and aoidê
2. Nostos as quest
3. Meat in myth and life
4. Unlimited goats and counted sheep
5. Feasting in the land of the dawn
6. The revenge of the sun
7. The justice of Poseidon
8. Remembering the gastêr
Epilogue: on 'interformularity'.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Folklore, myths & legends [JFHF], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Poetry by individual poets [DCF]