Gluttonous Odyssey

How would you describe it when you eat too much? Is this action triggered by excessive hunger? Or is it a case of gluttony? Probably not hunger, because an individual would stop eating when he or she is satiated. So, why would one want more? This may be because one feel greedy about the food, which sounds more like the expression of gluttony. In The Odyssey, by Homer, similar gluttonous instances are present which consequently produce negative outcomes. The characters are involved in all sorts of gluttonous activities such as munching on lotus plants, devouring and feasting on cattle, and gulping down wines, which impairs their senses to forth coming troubles.

While gluttony is a repetitive event in The Odyssey, practically everyone who indulges in the gluttony is ultimately punished for their misdeeds. Henry Fairlie, in his book The Seven Deadly Sins Today, supports that “gluttony is a grievous sin if it induces us to find all our contentment in gratifying of our appetites” (Fairlie, 171). When Odysseus and his comrades reach land of lotus-eaters, they feast on lotus plants and forget about their homeland (IX: 94-97). It looks like the sweet and pungent smell of lotus might have caused comrades’ wisdom to fade out, and greedily involve in gluttonous activity. This giving in of the temptation to feast by Odysseus’ comrades causes their morale to degrade and make them incompetent to succeed through the challenges of their journey back to Ithaca. But what makes this instance gluttonous is the idea that the shipmates want to feast on lotus plants even if they have abundant supply of food in their ship. This event foreshadows the troubles that the Odysseus and his companions will face in days to come.

In a similar way, gluttony as a sin can be depicted again in the scene where Odysseus and his men gluttonously sacrifice Cyclopes’ cattle and eat his cheese (IX: 231-232). When Cyclopes finds out about this, he punishes the comrades by “cutting them limb by limb and without leaving anything ate them, entrails, flesh and the marrowy bones” (IX: 291-293). Cyclopes, on the other hand, is a glutton himself as he eats Odysseus’ men and drinks intoxicating wine incessantly. He so much gets into temptation of wine that he drinks too much, which causes him to fall into deep sleep. Now, gluttonous Cyclopes himself is punished as Odysseus and his men strikes him blind. This shows, as explained by Solomon Schimmel that “one sacrifices the psychological serenity that comes with moderation and simplicity on excess desire of food” (Schimmel, 151). Thus, Odysseus, his comrades, and Cyclopes go through high levels of anxiety and stress as a result of giving into the temptation of food.

In another setting, it shows how gluttony can make one blind to dangers and traps set before them. This idea can be observed in Circe’s Palace, where Odysseus’ men give into the temptation of the food and wine and falls in Circe’s trap. First, Circe’s beautiful voice attracts them, and upon calling, they follow her naively to drink the drugged potion mixed with barley, cheese and pale honey (X: 221-234). This event shows how the “man who is slave of his belly is less capable intellectually” (Leslie, 192). In other words, the man who over-indulges in eating and drinking loses his sense of morality. This is evident in the scene where goddess Circe, after tricking them with drugged potion, turns Odysseus’ men into pigs, and “drives them into her pig pens” (X: 238). Ironically, indulging of the shipmates to temptation of food causes their transformation into a food themselves.

Other instance involving gluttony is also seen when Odysseus’ men devour Helios’ cattle to stretch out their bellies. Trapped under the pressure of hunger, Eurylochus, tells other comrades to “rather die later gulping the waves eating Helios’ cattle than to slowly pinch off to death on the desolate island” (XII: 350-351). Ignoring Odysseus’ order and Circe’s warning to abstain from eating the cattle, the comrades feast on fine cattle, slaughtering their throat and ripping off their skin. Soon after this incident, the comrades are penalized by Zeus with thunder and lightning on their ship killing them all but Odysseus. Odysseus may have been spared because he was not involved in the outrageous sin of killing and devouring Helios’ cattle. He was, to some extent, righteous and remains abstained from those kind of gluttonous activities.

Unlike his comrades, Odysseus does not fall into the gluttony per se. Rather, he falls into gluttony only when combined with seduction. In the epic, whenever he falls into love, he falls into gluttony. While living with Circe, he forgets about his journey back home, and goes on to stay with her for a year feasting on meat and sweet red wine. The text states, “there for all our days until a year war completed we sat feasting on unlimited meat and sweet wine” (X: 467-468). Eventually, his comrades remind him about the journey they were set out for and insist to sail back to Ithaca.

Also, on the native land back home in Ithaca, the suitors of Penelope are depicted in gluttonous activities as Homer presents “eating, drinking, and singing of the suitors, an opprobrious behavior” (Allen, 108). They devour her properties and warn her against leaving the house until she chooses one of them as her husband. As a consequence, Odysseus himself kills them all. “It is clear that Homer has made arrangements that Odysseus’ slaying of suitors be legal” (Allen, 112). For that, it can be noted that the suitors, while harassing Penelope, invite their death. The suitors want to marry Penelope to become the emperor of Ithaca, as they are hungry of the power that the emperor beholds; that’s what invites their own death.

The epic clearly contains many instances of feasting and gluttony. The characters enslave themselves on the excess food and wine, and get themselves into trouble in every instance. Although not expressed explicitly, it can be inferred from negative consequences that gluttony is seen as sin in the epic, as after most of the gluttonous events characters are depicted being penalized. Negative consequence includes making the shipmates forget about their homeland, turning them into pigs, and even killing them. That is why, ultimately, all of his shipmates who constantly involve in gluttony die, whereas Odysseus, who opposes gluttony most of the time, becomes the only one to make it back to Ithaca. As one of the human weaknesses, gluttony has a way of satiating our desire for hunger. But if we keep on feeding the gluttony in us, we will, in no time, become the slave to feed the gluttony itself. The transformation is subtle, and often time, unnoticed, until it’s too late.

Extra Credit Assignment

Babettes Feast: Movie Reflection

Babettes Feast movie portraits the life of two pious sisters Martine and Philippa. The story takes place in the small town located in the western coast of Jutland, Denmark. Two sisters are the daughters of a long dead Christian priest who once formed his own Christian sect. Now, in their old age two sisters are still trying to live by the religious direction set out by their father. Babettes feast also presents the story of the maid, a refugee from France, who is a master in cooking skills.

Movie opens up with the two pious sisters, then very beautiful, living their life with their father. They have a small congregation in their village. They are presented as a strict Christians who live by the path of god. Both sisters are approached respectively by the two different male figures. One being, a charming young Lieutenant, Lorens, who courts with Martine, and the other, Achilles Papin, a distinguished singer from Paris, who approaches Philippa. Both of these male figures are shown getting rejected by two sisters.

Movie, then, graduates onto the scene where Babette Hersant shows up at the house of two sisters. All sick and weak, she brings with her a letter from Paris, written by the Suitor of Philippa, Achile Papin. He explains of her victimized situation because of the bloodshed revolution back in France. Looking at her situation, the two sisters, accepts her as her servants. The sisters teach her the way to cook ale-bread. Slowly she learns their lifestyle and also helps sisters save more money than before because she bargains while buying groceries for home. After fourteen years of serving as a cook, Babettes, who constantly play lottery helped by her friend back in France, wins a lottery of 10,000 francs. This event makes the two sisters feel like she would leave the house and go back to France, but instead she stays there and decides to spend all of her money on a feast for the people of the congregation on the occasion of 100^th birthday anniversary of sister’s father. In the mean time, it is shown that the devotees of the congregation have grown intolerance and disagreements among themselves. In the table, they babble about their jealousy, anger and betrayal.

On the other scene, Babette goes on to take some day off to give her nephew the list of goods that she wants from France for the dinner. The sister feels that the giving into the gluttony of such dinner was a sin, and goes on to tell the people of congregation that no matter what happens, no one will pass any comment about the food in the dinner. Then comes the letter from Mrs. Lowenhielm writing about the unexpected visit from her Nephew, now General Loren, and for the permission to bring him at the dinner. After this scene, Babette starts preparing food and table for the evening with the help of her Nephew. Everyone gather for the dinner and enchant the pray to god. General Loren becomes one of the first to start praising Babette’s delicious food, starting from amontillado to cailles en sarcophage. On the table, the people of congregation talks about the great deeds of the founding Pastor, and the grandeur of god. At the mean time, General Loren puts a speech about the choices taken in life being of no importance and only the mercy is the one that is infinite. When they are done with the dinner, they are directed to the sitting room where the people of congregation one more time grow love for each other; forgetting all the bitterness of the past.

At the end of the movie, the two sisters comes to know that Babettes was not going back to France as there was nobody waiting for her, and also because she had spend all of her lottery money in the dinner. She also tells the sisters that the dinner was a chance for her to show her artistry that she once had when she used to work as a head chef in café Anglais. At last, movie wraps up with the scene where sisters appreciate Babette’s work, and praise her for doing all that she did.

Extra credit Assignment

OLD DAYS

Sometimes I wish if I was deaf,

No sound then I hear of those false promises,

I gather myself to let myself believe,

Good days are near than we expect it to be.

Fighting among brothers lead to better place, they say,

Well I question you friend, is that what you all believe?

Walk in people’s shoes and you just might see,

That the hearts are all the same, and that’s all we need.

Tomorrow will come the bright light shining through your face,

Will bring happiness to you, of all the better days,

I’ve heard this so many times, now it sound so cliché,

I tried so hard to live my life in all the possible ways.

Stuck in a stone is my Excalibur, been that way for a long time,

Even if removed, now I can’t put a stop to the tyranny,

Give me one thing that I ask for, not your love, not your money,

Not your kindness, neither your sympathy,

Just set me free, just set me free!

Researched!

It has been an overwhelming experience looking for the sources for my research paper. I remembered when Prof. Lizzie said in class that it is a wise decision to research articles first, and then decide what to write on. But I did it the opposite, and got myself into a mess. But, I think after that "cocktail party" in class, I actually learned some ways to look for articles online. One of the trick that I learned to find resources is that to look at the footnotes and search it in the online database websites. I also learned how we can refine our search in order to get the best result whole searching for articles in Academic Premier, JSTOR, and others. I think, I still need to work on how to integrate all this sources and focus on the point that I am making in my research paper. Apart from all the difficulties, this research is actually helping me out build my skills , and I feel quite comfortable doing my research in other class that I am taking this semester. Thanks to 102!

Feast On Friday

The texts Babette’s feast and Short Friday, written by phonetically similar sounding authors, Isak Dinesen and Isaac Bashevis respectively, explores many ideas that are similar. Apart from being completely different texts on completely different settings and topics, these two texts surely have one thing in common; they both have a Feast for some occasion.

The Babette’s feast presents two christened girls, Martine and Philippa, who had given up any luxury, lavishness, or love in their life. They are religious and are deeply devoted to their father legacy of taking care of the congregation that once their father, Dean, had formed. “They lived in the ideal of heavenly love and did not let themselves be touched by the flames of this world” (Dinesen 147). They are, as most of the seriously religious person would be, very kind and humble to others. In the story, they also come across the situation where they are approached by two different male figures. Lt. Loewenhielm falls in love with Martine, but couldn’t confess his love easily but lets her know before leaving country that he loved her very much. In Philippa’s case, a great singer, Achille Papin, of Paris hears her singing in the church and from there knows that he was meant to be with her forever. In the daily practice session, during the Don Giovanni’s seduction duet, Papin draws Philippa towards him and kisses her. She being a pious girl didn’t like the idea of singing lesson and asks her father to write a note to Papin telling him about not having further singing lesson.

Living with the two sisters, is also a French catholic maid who flee from France because of the civil war rivalry and got into Dean’s Little Yellow house. She was, at her first appearance, a big, dark and pale woman who grew skepticism on two sisters about her abilities, but soon acquired the status of a respectable and trusted servant. “She had appeared to be a beggar but turned out to be a conqueror” (Dinesen 153). She is such a masterpiece in her zone that she author describes her having magnetic qualities and that she could arrange things very swiftly and properly. She is also a very good cook, as she used to be a cook in a French restaurant. Her food makes all the brothers, sisters, and general takes a ride of ecstasy. The long hate grown brothers and sisters starts confessing their mistakes and one more time shake hands forgetting the bitter memories. The two sisters also admire her cooking and serving by saying that she will be a great artist in Paradise and will enchant the angels.

In the Short Friday, Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe are the two Jews characters that are presented as a husband and a wife. They, like Dean’s daughters, have very simple way of living. Shoshe loves her husband a lot despite of the fact that he cannot bear her a child. Shmul-Leibele also loves his wife for being a graceful lady, and for being there for her always. They are, as Martine and Philippa’s, are religious too. Apart from being from different religion, Judaism and Christianity, they fear and respect every aspect of God. Shmul and Shoshe follow the Shabbat rules, go to synagogue for prayers, and read all the Hebrew religious books. Shmul even walks slowly back home, as according to the Jews law one shouldn’t walk home fast while coming from Holy Place. Just like two sisters, Soshe and Shmul are also portrayed to be a humble character. Soshe is shown to be a graceful woman, and Shmul lets other mock him and still don’t feel bad. In the story, they go through the love making which Soshe thinks that is not the way according to the law to make love. This personality of Soshe can be compared to Philippa when she doesn’t feel right about Papin Kissing her. But unlike Philippa, Shoshe lets her husband fulfill his wish of a different lovemaking. Soshe is also a great cook. Just like Babette, she is a master in her own zone of cooking. Author presents this idea by writing, “Shoshe braided the load so swiftly that it seemed to dance before Shmul’s eyes” (Bashevis 140). Just like the two sisters praises Babette’s artistry of cooking, Shmul also praises her food to be “nothing less than a taste of paradise” (Bashevis 138).

In this way, two completely different texts, Short Friday and Babette’s Feast, present the characters and situations that are similar, but a little different at the same time.

Food and magic

It is amazing to see how a tiny seed of life sprouts out of the soil and grows into a tree as tall as a skyscraper. It is truly a magical moment. The texts “The Odyssey”, “The Book of J”, and “Like Water for Chocolate” also explore the magical aspects of the food in many different ways. The Odyssey play with all the bizarre and hallucinogenic effects of food, the Book of J tells us how magically food can bring knowledge in human, and Like Water for Chocolate talks about cooking food as an art to transform one’s emotion to another.

Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey” is full of many occurrences in which special relation between food and magic can be noticed. The poem starts with the protagonist “Odysseus” having a feast in the palace of Phaeacians. Odysseus and his comrades come across many life and death situations, and in between all those situations they are depicted as feasting, feeding or killing another form of life, which signals the food as being an important factor behind the consequences presented in the Odyssey. In the poem, the Odysseus reaches a land of lotus-eaters where his comrades eat the strange plant and fails to report back. It can be quoted as “but whoever ate that sweet fruit lost the will to report back, preferring instead to stay there, munching lotus, oblivious of home” (Homer 9.94-96). This gives us an idea of the Lotus plant as having some strange effect that, if eaten, makes a person forget about their being. In another setting, when the Odysseus is in Circes’ island, Odysseus’ men are fed with the potion that works its magical power and makes them forget about their homeland. In the same setting, Hermes gives Odysseus a magical herb that cuts the effects of the potion later to be given by Circe. In yet another backdrop, Odysseus is depicted as pouring libation, sprinkling white barley and sacrificing ram, ewe, and heifer to the dead. This can be quoted as “I poured libation to all dead, first with milk and honey, then with sweet win, and a third time with water. Then I sprinkled barley, vowing sacrifice on Ithaca” (Homer 11.24-29). This shows yet another magical power of food that even causes souls of the dead to come out of their underground caverns. Food in the form of wine is also shown to have a magical effect in the poem. While being inside Cyclopes’ cave, Odysseus feeds him with wine causing him to sleep. Thus, foods in The Odyssey are described to have magical, bizarre and hallucinogenic effects. It is shown as if it is the food that turns the impossible into possible in this epic journey.

Also, in The Book of J, we find many situations that describe the relation between food and magic. One of the situations is when the man and Hava eat the fruit from the tree of knowing good and bad; they immediately cover their body with the leaves. In the text, it can be quoted as “and the eyes of both fall open, grasp knowledge of their naked skin”(The Book Of J 63). Before eating the fruit from the tree of knowing good and bad, Hava and the man were oblivious of their naked body. But, after eating the fruit they notice the secret parts of their body and feel shame, and so cover up with leaves. Also in the text, it is explained that if the fruit is eaten from the tree of life, the man and Hava will become immortal as the gods themselves. Yahweh doesn’t want the man and women to eat form the tree of knowing good and bad, because if they eat they would become knowledgeable and would know that eating fruit from the tree of life would make them immortal. This can be quoted as “the earthling sees like one of us, knowing good and bad. And now he may grasp the tree of life as well, eat, and live forever” (The Book Of J 64). Thus, eating a fruit to become knowledgeable and immortal marks the relationship between food and magic in The Book of J.

The tale of food and magic continues in Laura Esquivel’s “Like Water for Chocolate.” The story presents a Mexican girl, Tita De LaGarza, who possesses an ability to transport her emotions to others through the food she prepares. Just like a painter expresses emotions through his or her painting, a singer expresses emotions through his or her songs, Tita, an artist of her own kind, expresses her emotions through her art of cooking. She believes that food has the power to relate one’s emotion to another. Thus, if prepared with love will spark feeling of love, and if prepared with hate will produce feeling of hate among people. In the story, while making a wedding cake for her sister’s wedding with watery eyes, Tita pours her sorrow in the cake in the form of tears. As a result, everyone in the wedding gets a bad stomach and starts throwing out. On the different setting, food is also shown as an element that can evoke sexuality in the living body. As in the story, after eating the “Quail in Rose Petal Sauce,” everyone starts acting like an aphrodisiac. “Gertrudis begins to feel an intense heat pulsing through her limbs” (Esquivel 51). The rose petal that is used in the dish is of the same rose given by Pedro. That is why, it seems like the reason behind everyone acting crazy is because Tita makes the dish with her own sexual desires that she wants to gratify with Pedro but can’t as being watched by Mama Elena. She blends her own sexual desire in the food and transforms the desire to everyone in the dinner table. Also, in the setting where Pedro smells Tita’s frying of almonds and sesame seed, he feels sexual arousal growing inside him; he feels like something delightful is going to come. In the novel it can be quoted as “the smell of the almonds browning kindled his sexual feeling” (Esquivel 51). Apart from sexual arousals, we can also notice some other effects of food in the novel. To make her relation healthy with Pedro, Tita prepares food for him, as she knows that the food she prepares is always packed with a magical message for the eater. In this way, Tita conveys her emotions through the food in Like Water for Chocolate.

So, it can be noticed that food, in different ways, affects the characters in the texts. Odysseus does much bizarre magic with food, Hava and the man gains their knowledge eating fruit, and Tita exchanges her strong emotions through the dishes she prepares. Above mentioned explanation on food and magic may seem too magically exaggerated to fit real life situations, but it is true that food affects us in varieties of different ways. If it weren’t about the magic in food, how would a small living body grow into a giant mass feeding upon a bit of grain or a crumb of bread?

Work Cited

The Book Of J. Trans. David Rosenberg. Editor. Harold Bloom. New York : Grove, 1990.

Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. New York: Double Day, 1989.

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indiana: HacketPublishing, 2000.