Feasts and Festivals of the Ancient World

In this seminar we will examine Greek and Roman feasts and religious festivals through an exploration of mythology, ritual, and sacrifice. While ancient myths revealed tensions between the human world and the natural and divine orders, festivals commemorating the myths offered opportunities to enact and resolve these tensions ritually. As feasts figured prominently in festivals, we will also seek to understand how food and drink, and the contexts in which they were consumed, served as markers of ethnicity, social class, and gender. Lastly, we will investigate the meaning of prohibitions against certain foods, including beans, raw flesh, and human meat. 3 hrs. sem.