Homer’s epic The Odyssey superimposed onto a background of typical ancient Greek culture. While Odysseus’s companions and he travel to Ithaka on their way home, they are welcomed by various people in an ancient Greek tradition of hospitality. Such hospitality often involves cooking feasts for guests and offering them plenty of food. Guests who take advantage show their lack discipline and manners. Homer uses food as a metaphor for the negative aspects of Greek hospitality.
Odysseus and his men are hypnotized by the delicious taste of the lotus fruits. They neglect their duty to Odysseus as they indulge in a gluttonous meal of the fruit. The men are so hypnotized that they forget their way home and refuse to leave the island of the Lotus-eaters. Odysseus the leader, who is now the only person in the group with full faculties, finally returns them “weeping to the ships…in a hurry, out of fear that others might taste lotus as well and forget how to get home” (IX :98-102). Odysseus is the only man who can lead the group back to the ship.
Circe’s men once again demonstrate their inability to control themselves by slaying Helios’ cows for dinner. Their actions have brought them disaster this time. Odysseus warns Eurylochos that if he harms the herds he will be held responsible for the destruction of his ship and the deaths of all of the companions (XII, 137-141). Eurylochos ignores Odysseus warnings and tells his companions.
If he is angry over the high-horned calves, then he may wreck the ship. I would prefer to gulp them and die in them than be pinched by the island’s inhabitants (XII, 341-351).
Zeus does not forget their grave mistake. He sends a great storm to the ship, which causes Odysseus and his men to be “thrown into the water like sea crows” (XII.403-419). They then leave the island on their next journey. Zeus doesn’t forget the men’s grave misjudgment. He sends a huge storm to the ship. Odysseus, his crew, and the rest of the passengers are “tossed into the water, bobbing around like sea-crows. They were washed off on the waves” (XII.403-419). Odysseus, forced to accept their fate, mourns for his companions.
Odysseus meets a Cyclops who is utterly uncivil, eating people without hesitation. Odysseus, when he encounters Polyphemus – a Cyclops who is unable to answer questions -:
Then he [cuts] the bodies up piece by piece and prepares the meal, eating the flesh, the bones, the entrails (IX, 287-294) and the marrowy entrails.
Odysseus tries to make the monster drunk by bringing him wine. He “recklessly drains it” three times. Polyphemus is drunk when he falls to sleep. This is Polyphemus’ drunken vomit” (IX.371-374). The Cyclops are depicted as man-eating monsters in this graphic image.
Odysseus’ men encounter the Laistrygones, a race that appears to be friendly until it devours some of their men. Odysseus is led to the Laistrygonian queen’s home by the king of Laistrygonian. She was as huge as a peak of a hill. Odysseus is then confronted with the Laistrygonian giants, who “swarm up from every direction” (X:118-124). He calls the rest of Laistrygonian Giants, who “come swarming from all directions, not like men but like giants…pelting men with boulders the size of men…and [carrying] away to their joyless meal” (X:118-124). Odysseus survives barely after being smothered by the monsters. Odysseus’ crew sees their friends eaten by wild monsters.
Often described as being in different stages while eating, the potential suitors of Odysseus’s Penelope have been called the most insolently disrespectful, gluttonous and insolent characters of the epic. Athene complained about them as early as I:88-92, when she said that they “constantly slaughtered [Odysseus] flocks of sheep and horned cattle”. Eumaios, a swineherd who was resentful of the gluttonous eating, complained that the suitors “distributed the fattened pork at Penelope’s tables, without any pity, they devoured his property with no mercy, and they wasted the wine violently” (XIV:80-95) Odysseus, who is also angry when he finds the suitors at a feast and decides to kill them so they don’t indulge in it again, shoots an arrow against Antinoos. Antinoos is about to “lift up a two-handled gold goblet…moving it in order to drink wine” when he shoots his arrow at him. It spears him through the throat. Antinoos shoots him and then “kicks back” the table, scattering the food, including bread, baked meats and wine, on the floor. The scene represents the extreme gluttony and greed of the suitors.
The Odyssey uses food to represent gluttony. In fact, in the epic those who indulge in excess are always met with death or destruction. Odysseus and his men are not immune to this temptation, as the incidents that occur in the land where the Lotus-eaters live as well as the land Helios’ cattle show. Odysseus saves his men by abstaining excessively from indulgence. He can drag them back to his ship after a lotus banquet, and he escapes Helios’ island alive, unlike his doomed men. Odysseus’s success in returning home to Ithaka by defeating his suitors indicates that his avoidance of excessive gluttony contributed to his success. Odysseus avoids gluttony and his wise leadership leads him safely to home.
