A Study Of Diet In Homer’s Epic

Dietary activity is an important part of the early stage of human civilization.It is not only a survival need,but also a matter closely linked to social economy,politics,culture and religion.There is a lot of dietary writing in Homer’s epic,but few scholars have systematically studied them.As a matter of fact,the dietary writing in homer’s epic reflects the differences among different characters.These differences project their statuses,wealth levels and conceptual meanings.The poet’s dietary writing conveys the idea of collective ideology,emphasizing on the importance of the gods’ diet,in order to strengthen audiences’ worship of gods.By describing the eating conditions of slaves,the epic reflects the historical state of power class won over the lower class.The poet lightened women from the positive performance of the dinner party,reflecting the social symptoms of further weakening the status of women.Dietary writing in the epic also plays an irreplaceable role in the narration of epic.The paper consists of four chapters.The introduction part defines the research object,briefly explains the significance of the research,explains the research purpose and method,and summarizes previous research on the diet problem in Homer’s epic.Chapter one is to organize the writing of five types of characters: gods,heroes,women,slaves and Gentiles.Chapter two analyzes the social functions embodied in the diet of Homer’s epic from three aspects: political power,gender power and god worship.Chapter three and four explore the role of diet writing in shaping characters and narrating plots from the perspective of literature.The conclusion part summarizes all the studies.