{"title":"Traces of Survival Cannibalism in Homer’s Odyssey","authors":"R. Mann","doi":"10.1353/tcj.2023.0009","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The eating of the corpses of fellow crew members has been a survival strategy for shipwrecked sailors for centuries. In this paper I ask whether we can see any traces of this practice in the Odyssey. I find them in the structure of the episode of the cattle of the sun on Thrinacia, in the cannibalistic undertones and drawing of lots on Circe’s island, Aeaea, and in the trope of human sacrifice to obtain fair winds, suggested by Menelaus’s experiences on Pharos and the death of Elpenor. These traces reflect the anxieties of an early seafaring culture, illuminate the Odyssey’s most famous anthropophage, the Cyclops, and suggest an allusive relationship between the Odyssey text and ancestral narratives of survival cannibalism.","PeriodicalId":35668,"journal":{"name":"CLASSICAL JOURNAL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"CLASSICAL JOURNAL","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tcj.2023.0009","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"CLASSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:The eating of the corpses of fellow crew members has been a survival strategy for shipwrecked sailors for centuries. In this paper I ask whether we can see any traces of this practice in the Odyssey. I find them in the structure of the episode of the cattle of the sun on Thrinacia, in the cannibalistic undertones and drawing of lots on Circe’s island, Aeaea, and in the trope of human sacrifice to obtain fair winds, suggested by Menelaus’s experiences on Pharos and the death of Elpenor. These traces reflect the anxieties of an early seafaring culture, illuminate the Odyssey’s most famous anthropophage, the Cyclops, and suggest an allusive relationship between the Odyssey text and ancestral narratives of survival cannibalism.
期刊介绍：
The Classical Journal (ISSN 0009–8353) is published by the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS), the largest regional classics association in the United States and Canada, and is now over a century old. All members of CAMWS receive the journal as a benefit of membership; non-member and library subscriptions are also available. CJ appears four times a year (October–November, December–January, February–March, April–May); each issue consists of about 100 pages.
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