Food in Literature
By: Adrian Lorenzo
For food in literature I choose to look for examples in books that I had around the house. When looking through some old books I had from previous semesters I ran into a Gilgamesh book. Gilgamesh is said to be the oldest example of written literature and probably contains the first written description of foods and drinks as well as the earliest recorded idea that eating and drinking can mean more to humans than mere sustenance. Now the context of food is present in the sense of identity and convenience. I believe that identity is present because of the culture and religion aspects. Now convenience is present in the sense of time and lifestyle/location. One of the most striking symbolic meanings of food in the epic is as what divides humans from animals. For example, when Enkidu is living in the wilderness, he eats only grass and drinks only water just like (herbivorous) animals.
In Tablet 2, Shamhat brings Enkidu to the shepherds' picnic, and he gets his first taste of bread and beer which he drinks out of a jug, a totally new experience for him. Enkidu discovers that he really likes bread and beer especially beer. This here symbolizes the advantages of the civilized life over the wild-man life that Enkidu was used to before. The point Gilgamesh is trying to make in talking about all this food is about life itself rather than just civilized life. When Enkidu is recounting his macabre dream of the underworld in Tablet 7 perhaps the most horrible moment is when he tells how, for the dead people there, "dirt is their drink, their food is of clay". What could give a stronger picture of the sharp divide between the living and the dead than what they eat?
By: Adrian Lorenzo
For food in literature I choose to look for examples in books that I had around the house. When looking through some old books I had from previous semesters I ran into a Gilgamesh book. Gilgamesh is said to be the oldest example of written literature and probably contains the first written description of foods and drinks as well as the earliest recorded idea that eating and drinking can mean more to humans than mere sustenance. Now the context of food is present in the sense of identity and convenience. I believe that identity is present because of the culture and religion aspects. Now convenience is present in the sense of time and lifestyle/location. One of the most striking symbolic meanings of food in the epic is as what divides humans from animals. For example, when Enkidu is living in the wilderness, he eats only grass and drinks only water just like (herbivorous) animals.
In Tablet 2, Shamhat brings Enkidu to the shepherds' picnic, and he gets his first taste of bread and beer which he drinks out of a jug, a totally new experience for him. Enkidu discovers that he really likes bread and beer especially beer. This here symbolizes the advantages of the civilized life over the wild-man life that Enkidu was used to before. The point Gilgamesh is trying to make in talking about all this food is about life itself rather than just civilized life. When Enkidu is recounting his macabre dream of the underworld in Tablet 7 perhaps the most horrible moment is when he tells how, for the dead people there, "dirt is their drink, their food is of clay". What could give a stronger picture of the sharp divide between the living and the dead than what they eat?