A prominent feature in Greek literature, food often serves as a cultural function through feasts and symbolizes hospitality and luxury. While food usually connotes festive times, Homer stretches the traditional perception of food in The Odyssey to something that is more ominous. From the beginning of the poem, Homer states that Odysseus and his crew were “destroyed by their own wild recklessness,” that they were “fools, who devoured the oxen of Helios, the Sun God, and he took away the day of their homecoming.” (Odyssey, 1.7 (27)). These words are depicted throughout the rest of the poem where Odysseus and his men show how the submission to their desires delayed their journey home. In many ways, food symbolizes the mortal weakness of human
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Unlike his encounter with the Locus Eaters, this instance does not occur without consequences. After entering the cave of the Cyclops, Odysseus and his men lust at the sight of cheese and goat meet. Without any permission, they succumb to their temptation and help themselves to the food that isn’t theirs. The moment they give in, Polyphemos appears and says, “strangers, who are you? From where do you come sailing over the watery/ ways? Is it on some business, or are you recklessly roving/ as pirates do, when they sail on the salt sea and venture/ their lives as they wander, bringing evil to alien people?” (9.252-255 (143)). Unfortunately, this time, Odysseus and his crew receive punishment for their gluttony and two men are caught together, slapped like “killing puppies against the ground, and the brains ran all over the floor, soaking/ the ground. Then [the Cyclops] cut them limb by limb and got supper ready,/ and like a lion reared in the hills, without leaving anything,/ ate them, entrails, flesh and the marrowy bones alike” (9.289-293 (144)). All the cheese and meat in the Cyclops’ cave symbolizes the temptations within Odysseus and his crew. By giving in to their desires, they show a lack of politeness and consideration for other people’s property and appear to be monstrous when then eat, thus, showing an absence of humanity as well. Not only is their desire for food representative of temptation, but the gluttonous beast (the Cyclops himself) acts as a mirror image of the ravenous temptations the men
Unlike his encounter with the Locus Eaters, this instance does not occur without consequences. After entering the cave of the Cyclops, Odysseus and his men lust at the sight of cheese and goat meet. Without any permission, they succumb to their temptation and help themselves to the food that isn’t theirs. The moment they give in, Polyphemos appears and says, “strangers, who are you? From where do you come sailing over the watery/ ways? Is it on some business, or are you recklessly roving/ as pirates do, when they sail on the salt sea and venture/ their lives as they wander, bringing evil to alien people?” (9.252-255 (143)). Unfortunately, this time, Odysseus and his crew receive punishment for their gluttony and two men are caught together, slapped like “killing puppies against the ground, and the brains ran all over the floor, soaking/ the ground. Then [the Cyclops] cut them limb by limb and got supper ready,/ and like a lion reared in the hills, without leaving anything,/ ate them, entrails, flesh and the marrowy bones alike” (9.289-293 (144)). All the cheese and meat in the Cyclops’ cave symbolizes the temptations within Odysseus and his crew. By giving in to their desires, they show a lack of politeness and consideration for other people’s property and appear to be monstrous when then eat, thus, showing an absence of humanity as well. Not only is their desire for food representative of temptation, but the gluttonous beast (the Cyclops himself) acts as a mirror image of the ravenous temptations the men