Theogony

Dinner scenes perform three important functions in the Theogony. First, they provide a model for other mythological episodes in which a bad-faith actor attempts to trick his dinner guests with food. Second, Prometheus’s ruse—wrapping the sacrificial thigh bones in delicious fat—offers an etiology, or mythological explanation, for the particular way Greeks practiced sacrifice. Finally, the last of the Theogony’s dinner scenes underlines the importance of an ancient Greek concept called xenia, or “guest-friendship.”

The most extended dinner scene in the Theogony can be found from Lines 509-72). Here, the Titan Prometheus tries to play a trick on Zeus. He disguises the choicest portions of the meal as the poorest and vice versa, but an incensed Zeus sees through the ruse. This image of a trickster feeding an unexpected meal to his guests becomes an important motif in Greco-Roman mythology and beyond. In the most well-known analogous episode in Greek myth, an arrogant mortal named Tantalus slaughters his own son, Pelops, and serves him as dinner to the gods. As punishment in the Underworld, Tantalus suffers from eternal hunger and thirst, with food and water kept just out of reach. (The English word “tantalize” comes from Tantalus’s name). This association between food trickery and the arrival of justice becomes an important motif in the Western canon. William Shakespeare, for example, uses it in his tragedy Titus Andronicus. As an ultimate act of revenge for the rape of his daughter, the title character secretly bakes her abusers into pies and feeds them to their mother.

Second, the Prometheus episode provides an etiology, or mythological explanation, for the way Greeks practiced animal sacrifice. Animal sacrifice was the most important ritual act in Greek religion. It was the main way the Greeks worshipped and communicated with their gods. In an agrarian society in which meat could sometimes be scarce, major sacrifices also supplied the community with a reliable source of protein (significantly, Greek citizenship guaranteed a person’s right to a share of the sacrificial portion). Thus, though sacrifices were nominally performed for the gods, the meat they provided was also an important staple of mortal diets. The gods were believed to prefer the “savor” produced by burning bones wrapped in fat—conveniently, the parts of the animal which are undesirable for eating. In his story of Prometheus, Hesiod explains “why the tribes of men on earth / Burn white bones to the immortals upon smoking altars” instead of offering them meat (Lines 542-43).

Finally, the last dinner scene in the Theogony underlines the importance of an ancient Greek concept called xenia, or “guest-friendship.” When Zeus releases his uncles, the Hundred-Handers, from their prison in Tartaros, he promptly feeds them:

Then Zeus gave those three all that they needed

Of ambrosia and nectar, food the gods themselves eat,

And the fighting spirit grew in their breasts

When they fed on the sweet ambrosia and nectar (Lines 644-47).

In this scene, Zeus is a paragon of hospitality. He is, in fact, the Greek pantheon’s protector of guests: One of Zeus’s primary functions is ensuring that guests and hosts are treated properly. This reflects the importance of xenia in Greek society. Ancient Greece was a dangerous place; security while travelling abroad was hard to come by. Xenia—that is, the existence of hospitality and the trust that the “laws” of hospitality would be observed—was critical to the success of Greek society. A host was expected to welcome and support other Greek travelers, regardless of social class or background. In turn, the guest entered a pact of mutual obligation with the host; a political alliance was formed, often sealed with a ritual exchange of gifts. Greek myth features many stories of theoxeny, or “god hospitality,” in which human beings demonstrate piety by welcoming a poor traveler into their homes, only to discover that he or she is a god in disguise.

Zeus models xenia in Hesiod’s brief dinner scene with the Hundred-Handers. He only asks for assistance after he has properly fed and rejuvenated his guests, and his guests understand their political obligations to Zeus as their host. “Our minds are bent therefore, and our wills fixed,” they say, “On preserving your power through the horror of war” (Lines 665-66).