The Liturgy of the Table - Themes in "The Odyssey" Bks. IX - XII - By Homer

Stephen Alexander Beach

A similarly fundamental question that The Odyssey brings up, like that of home, is that of the mean. What is the meaning of human beings eating together? What is a meal exactly? In Catholicism we talk about the "theology of the meal" or the "liturgy of the table", but I think that The Odyssey presents a similar philosophy of the meal.  

The Philosophy of the Meal 

In fact, Book IX begins with Odysseus saying, “The crown of life, I’d say. There’s nothing better than when deep joy holds sway throughout the realm and banqueters up and down the palace sit in ranks, enthralled to hear the bard, and before them all, the tables heaped with bread and meats, and drawing wine from a mixing-bowl the steward makes his rounds and keeps the winecups flowing. This, to my mind, is the best that life can offer.” This quote can be a guide for the reader to begin to see a deeply important theme in The Odyssey, meal and food. 

Not only does it represent survival, but it also represents a bond of trust between host and guest, between one's family, and between friends. When Odysseus and his crew reach new lands, he often asks himself if this is going to be a people who eat bread like them (similar to how he asks if they honor the gods and Zeus' insistence on the sacredness of guests); in other words meaning, are they going to be friendly and trustworthy? Are they civilized enough to cultivate grain and transform it into bread, something the animals cannot do?

"I sent a detail ahead ... to scout out who might live there - men like us perhaps, who live on bread?" (bk 9 100) 

"A grim loner, dead set in his own lawless ways. Here was a piece of work, by god, a monster built like no mortal who ever supped on bread, no ..." (Bk 9 210 - 212) 

"I scaled its rock face to a lookout on its crest but glimpsed no trace of the work of man or beast from there; all I spied was a plume of smoke, drifting off the land. So I sent some crew ahead to learn who lived there - men like us perhaps, who live on bread?" (Bk 10 108-110) 

Several times in these books the people who they encounter are certainly not trustworthy, from giants, to cannibals, to witches and drug addicts. 

These four books present many juxtaposing meals to my mind, there’s: 

- Authentic feasting that brings healing and nourishment back to them, such as with the Phaeacians. 

- The drugged feasting of the Lotus Eaters and Circe’s first enchanted meal that she offers them. 

- The “meals” that go on in Polyphemus’ cave, as well as the feasting of the Laestrygonian cannibals.

- The endless perversion of festivity of the Aeolians. 

- The feasting in Circe’s palace which makes them stay for a whole year. Is this good or bad??

- Eating the cattle of Helios, illicit feasting wherein the food begins to cry out against them. 

What might these different types of meals be symbols for? 

In comparing the symbolism of these meals, it might be helpful to begin with the ideal that Odysseus refers to and which they experience with the Phaeacians. The meal represents an offering/gift of life giving sustenance. It is the authentic "guest-gift" that is given. It might be hard for us to imagine what it might be like to have food scarcity where there are no grocery stores and we must rely on the hospitality of others for our survival many times. But for any traveler at that time, their survival may depend on the generosity and hospitality of others and their offering of a meal. 

That being said, a meal can also represent the highest form of being and acting. A meal brings together family, friends, and the community in unity and into sharing the most fundamental common good, common survival. And so a meal represents a communion of people together as one. Enemies do not share meals together. 

This communion is likewise punctuated by a ritual remembrance of the people's identity, as Alcinous often has the bard come and sing tales and songs of the past. If not this, than entertainment to soothe people's minds and emotions. It is here that talking and conversation can take place. Where people can tell their stories and where people can listen to others. It is also the place where libations can be offered and spilled to the gods, again codifying their shared religious identity. Not only that, but the meal represents all of the sacrifices that are made by the people to produce the food for the survival of themselves and others. Then in cooking it, those raw materials are transformed into a meal, something delicious, uniting, and life-giving. 

And so in this light we can begin to analyze the bad meals that Odysseus suffers in these books. First, we can talk about the Lotus Eaters and Circe's first meal with them as a meal which is not predicated on trust. These meals alter the mind and make them forget their home. "Any crewmen who are the lotus, the honey-sweet fruit, lost all desire to send a message back, much less return, their only wish to linger there with the Lotus-eaters, grazing on lotus, all memory of the journey home dissolved forever." (Bk 9 105 - 110) Those lose their identity, not retain it. In the case of Circe, this is even represented in their turning into pigs! "She ushered them in to sit on high-backed chairs, then she mixed them a potion -cheese, barley and pale honey mulled in Pramnian wine - but into the brew she stirred her wicked drugs to wipe from their memories any thought of home. Once they'd drained the bowls she filled, suddenly she struck with her wand, drove them into her pigsties, all of them bristling into swine - with grunts, snouts - even their bodies, yes, and only the men's minds stayed as before." (bk 10 255 -265) 

The meals in Polyphemus' cave (stolen food, cannibalism, and trickery into drunkenness) and with the Laestrygonian cannibals there is a perversion of the meal because instead of honoring and sustaining their guests with gifts and food to keep them alive, they want to eat them as the very meal. The guest is what is consumed as the meal. "Your filthy crimes came down on your own head, you shameless cannibal, daring to eat your guests in your own house - so Zeus and the other gods have paid you back!" (bk 9 333 - 335) 

With regard to the incestuous Aeolians who never stop feasting, we see another perversion of the meal. If the meal is meant to be a consummation of the sacrifice of the people's work, then to never work and to feast all the time is to strip the core meaning of the meal and leads to an over indulgence for its own sake, not for the sake of anything higher. This would be similar to the suitor's endless feasting at the home of Odysseus. When good things are out of balance they take on a perverse form. "Seated beside their dear father and doting mother, with delicacies aplenty spread before them, they feast on forever ... All day long the halls breathe the savor of roasted meats and echo round to the low moan of blowing pipes, and all night long, each one by his faithful mate, they sleep under soft-piled rugs on corded bedsteads." (Bk 10 8-15) 

Then there are the sumptuous meals that Circe offers them after Odysseus secures her oath to not harm them anymore. They stay and eat with her for an entire year, but the delicious meals and rest seem to be too good in some way, as though they begin to lose their striving for home. "So she enticed and won out battle-hardened spirits over. And there we sat at ease, day in, day out, till a year had run its course, feasting on sides of meat and drafts of heady wine ... But then, when the year was gone and the seasons wheeled by and the months waned and the long days came round again, my loyal comrades took me aside and prodded, 'Captain, this is madness! High time you thought of your own home at last, if it really is your fate to make it back alive and reach your well-built house and native land.'" (Bk 10 512 - 520) This, to me, represents something like the meal which is taken out of context of home. It is good for awhile, but there is a madness to continue on feasting without those that we love and in our own homes. 

Finally, the meals of delicious cattle that belonged to Helios, those that they were explicitly forbidden to eat. Out of hunger they transgress this command and continue to slaughter and feast in this illicit meal. This, though, will be their own doom and downfall through their punishment. They stole and ate what was not theirs. Even the very meat on the skewers called out to them in signs of punishment. "The cattle were dead already ... and the gods soon showed us all some fateful signs - the hides began to crawl, the meat, both raw and roasted, bellowed out on the spits, and we heard a noise like the moan of lowing oxen." (Bk 12 425 - 430) 

And so we have: a manipulative meal, a cannibalistic meal, a vicious meal, an meal without home, and a stolen meal ... all perversions of the authentic liturgy of the authentic meal. 

Do you think the family meal is in danger of being lost today? What do you think the ramifications will be? Is there a way to recover a theology of the table? 

Yes, almost all meals which have any deeper symbolism of communion are at risk of being lost because of technology. When people have the option to use their devices, and they are addicted to them, it becomes very hard to put them down and focus on the people in one's physical presence for any length of time. There are always interruptions or "more interesting" things calling one's name, and human conversation in person is something that may not be as immediately gratifying but certainly is more akin to sustenance for the soul than the junk food of instant dopamine hits. 

Likewise there is the pressure of many conscientious students to work so hard in the evenings in high school with sports, clubs, and endless amounts of homework that many forego the family meal in order to pursue these other things for their college resumes. More fundamental than any of this is more simply the break down of marriage and family. When there are not two committed parents in the home, then it is much easier to skip the family meal altogether and do something else. 

The ramifications are that children do not learn how to express themselves to other people. They don't learn how to have conversations. They don't know how to talk to adults. They don't know how to have an intellectual argument or debate. And most of all, they are not feeling "seen" by those who are important in their lives. 

In my opinion, the way to recover this is for families to begin to do less, that's right, do less. Do less busy activities that the world says are important so that there is more time to do what is actually important; to cook meals, to spend time talking and laughing, to simply not be in a rush to go somewhere else. Make the family meal of highest priority, not to be easily canceled for x, y, or z thing which will always be there vying for our attention. 

At the end of the day, is there anything more important than children? 

When Odysseus is in the House of the Dead and interacting with the spirits of the dead, I found it interesting that two of the greatest heroes of the Trojan war, Agamemnon and Achilles, now that they are dead, are both really only concerned with one thing, their sons. Achilles, so much so that once he hears that Neoptolemus fought with courage and made it home healthy and wealthy, that he just runs off and has nothing more to say to Odysseus. Here was the most skillful, powerful warrior with all the earthly rewards one could want, but at the end of it all he simply cares about his son. 

"I reassured the ghost, but he broke out, protesting, 'No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus! By god, I'd rather slave on earth for another man - some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive - than rule down here over all the breathless dead. But come, tell me the news about my gallant son. Did he make his way to the wars, did the boy become a champion - yes or no?" (bk XI 555 - 560) After Odysseus recounts how well Neoptolemus did in the war Achilles responds ... "So I said and off he went, the ghost of the great runner, Aeacus' grandson loping with long strides across the fields of asphodel, triumphant in all I had told him of his son, his gallant, glorious son." (Bk 11 612-616)

I would argue that we live in a very anti-child world today where children can be seen either as a burden or as simply an accessory to the fulfillment of adult life. Do you agree or disagree? What ways might this be true? 

In the political talk we almost always think only of adults, not children (COVID). Adult fulfillment demands that both spouses work, therefore children must be put into institutions for most of waking hours of the day. These institutions care more about not getting sued. They cannot care for your children in the same way parents do. Obedience, bells, be quiet, especially bad for boys. Pregnancy and childbirth are very expensive, so many people think that children are too expensive. Bad food, some large percentage of children in America are obese. Everything is loaded in food with bad ingredients. No free time, plop in front of screens, busy word, bad food, cell phone, video games, no outside time, and saftyism/fear. The internet is incredibly dangerous for children, yet no one cares. There are no guard rails from pornography or sadistic content.