Feasting in Homeric epic

ABSTRACT

Feasting plays a central role in the Homeric epics. The elements of Homeric feasting--values, practices, vocabulary, and equipment--offer interesting comparisons to the archaeological record. These comparisons allow us to detect the possible contribution of different chronological periods to what appears to be a cumulative, composite picture of around 700 b.c. Homeric drinking practices are of particular interest in relation to the history of drinking in the Aegean. By analyzing social and ideological attitudes to drinking in the epics in light of the archaeological record, we gain insight into both the prehistory of the epics and the prehistory of drinking itself.

THE HOMERIC FEAST

There is an impressive amount of what may generally be understood as feasting in the Homeric epics. (1) Feasting appears as arguably the single most frequent activity in the Odyssey and, apart from fighting, also in the Iliad. It is clearly not only an activity of Homeric heroes, but also one that helps demonstrate that they are indeed heroes. Thus, it seems, they are shown doing it at every opportunity, to the extent that much sense of realism is sometimes lost--just as a small child will invariably picture a king wearing a crown, no matter how unsuitable the circumstances. In Iliad 9, for instance, Odysseus participates in two full-scale feasts in quick succession in the course of a single night: first in Agamemnon's shelter (Il. 9.89-92), and almost immediately afterward in the shelter of Achilles (9.199-222). Later in the same night, on their return from their spying mission, he and Diomedes sit down to dine, drink, and pour a libation again (10.576-579). A similar sequence occurs in Odyssey 15-16. First, Telemachos and his companions, upon arriving at Ithaca early in the morning, prepare their meal and eat and drink their fill together (15.500-502). As soon as Telemachos has finished making the customary after-dinner speech, he sets off for the swineherd Eumaios's yard. No sooner has he arrived there than he sits down to another repast of roasted meat, bread, and wine (16.46-55). Later, in Odyssey 20, two full-scale feasts appear to run into one another, with a disconcertingly abrupt change of scene: one held by the suitors in Odysseus's palace, complete with the slaughter and cooking of animals (20.248-256), and the other, apparently including the same people, held in the grove of Apollo, seemingly before the first has even got into its stride (20.276-280).

To a modern-minded reader of the epics, all this stopping to eat and drink can seem tedious. It interrupts the flow of the story (especially in the Odyssey) and distracts us from the plot, particularly since it often takes up a large number of lines and tends to be couched in repetitive, predictable language. Indeed, feasting scenes are among the most regularly formulaic in layout and vocabulary in the epics, ranking alongside other genre scenes such as arming. (2) Even when they are condensed into only a few lines they often preserve this character, frequently appearing as reduced versions of the more fully described scenes, using a selection of the stock lines, phrases, and vocabulary that regularly occur in the lengthier accounts as a pars pro toto shorthand to suggest the whole. In this way, at least some of the distinctive features of the fully described Homeric feast (meat-eating, wine-drinking, and inclusion of the gods by a ritual "sacrifice" and libation) are usually explicitly present or implied. Even breakfast (eriston) can be seen to be a feast (see, e.g., Il. 24.123-125, where the element of feasting is suggested by the hallowing ["sacrificing" in the literal sense of the word] and consumption of a sheep). Thus, as described, Homeric feasting takes place as a matter of course every day, whenever named heroes and their companions prepare and eat a meal together, whenever they arrive somewhere and hospitality is offered and before they depart, before and at the conclusion of every heroic enterprise, and whenever they want to win the gods to their side. Feasting is ubiquitous and constant--it is what Homeric heroes do in company at every opportunity.

Within this framework, however, there are a number of variations, particularly of emphasis, designed to suit particular contexts. At one end of the spectrum are feasts whose primary stated purpose is to propitiate gods (such as the feast associated with Nestor's sacrifice of a cow to Athena in Odyssey 3), for which the bulk of the description is devoted to the elaborate ritual surrounding the slaughter, dismembering, and cooking of the animal. At the other end are primarily secular feasts where this ritual aspect is either omitted from the description or reduced to the odd word or line--just enough to suggest that the animal is still hallowed ("sacrificed") before slaughter, and that the gods received their share of the meat and the wine by burning and libation, even if this is no less perfunctory than a grace said automatically before meals. In terms of practice, however, no very clear dividing line exists between these two types of feast, and the differences lie principally in the amount of detail in which the elements of the feast, from slaughter to consumption, are described. When they are not described (or not in detail), we are given no reason to believe that there is any substantial difference in the basic methods and procedures involved. Thus, Eumaios's feasts for Odysseus in Odyssey 14.72-114 and 14.414-456 are, to all intents and purposes, secular feasts, yet most of the elements contained are also standard elements of more overtly god-centered sacrificial feasts, such as that to Athena in Odyssey 3 or that to Apollo in Iliad 1. In this respect,