Cannibalism In Popular Culture

Within today’s culture, the idea of cannibalism exists as a way to evoke horror and induce disgust. In recent decades, popular culture has given individuals movies such as “The Cannibal Holocaust”, “The Silence of the Lambs”, and “The Hills have Eyes” where cannibalism plays a significant role. Today’s television shows, films and video games exploit society’s newfound fascination with cannibalism by introducing alternative versions of the cannibal such as zombies and vampires. Though culture’s fascination with cannibalism has peaked in recent years, its practices and rituals have existed for centuries and been memorialized in various mediums, reaching as far back as ancient cultures. The success of these horror stories resides in the ruthlessness that attaches itself to the act of cannibalism. In Margaret Visser’s essay “The Rituals of Dinner” she states that “cannibalism is a …show more content…
Unlike other crimes that seem to follow a semblance of cognition, the idea of cannibalism defies all laws of human nature and has consistently held a negative connotation throughout history. Cannibalism, even in ancient societies, is met with varying degrees of intolerance, with its only mediatized occurrences of acceptance deriving from Bible.
In “Metamorphoses”, Ovid gives readers multiple examples of the barbarity ascribed to cannibalism. Beginning in Book One, Ovid presents readers with the character of Lycaon, the king of Arcadia. In order to determine the divinity of his guest, Jupiter, Lycaon attempts to serve him the roasted and poached flesh of an innocent hostage. Jupiter, seeing through his duplicities, transforms Lycaon into a wolf as punishment. Stories of mortals transforming into gods due to honorable or heroic acts scatter Greek Mythology, however the story of Lycaon exists as an extreme