Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2025

Document Type

Honors Project

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Classics, Philosophy, and Religion

Department Chair or Program Director

Laura Mentore

First Advisor

Angela Pitts

Major or Concentration

Classics

Abstract

The story of the Iliad is one of identity. As Achilles struggles with whom to identify with, his divine mother or mortal father, he is consumed by an overwhelming rage that threatens to overpower him, dragging him down from both divinity and mortality into the very depths of monstrous savagery. This article examines the role that diet, particularly the act of cannibalism, plays in differentiating humans from gods and beasts. By examining Achilles identity struggle through the lens of cannibalism, this article sheds light on the broader ways Greek and Roman authors used cannibalism to express notions of otherness, situating civilized humans on the greater cosmic scale between gods and animals. Organizationally, this article is broken into three key sections: in the first section, this article addresses the ways diet is used to differentiate gods from humans, and the ways humans like Tantalus or Lycaon use cannibalism to challenge the distinctions between them; the second section of this article addresses the ways cannibalism was used to denote otherness, examining the ways historians like Herodotus or Thucydides described foreigners as cannibalistic and uncivilized, focusing on how all these biases and cultural anxieties are manifested in the story of Polyphemus; the final section of the article takes these established facets of literary cannibalism and applies them to Achilles and the other characters of the Iliad, examining how Achilles performs his divinity and how he grows progressively bestial. The article eventually concludes that Achilles’ ultimate rejection of cannibalism signals his acceptance of humanity.

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