You are what you eat: Food in religion and mythology

Pomegranates hold their secrets inside a hard outer shell.

While my main focus is on traditional folk and fairy tales, it would be remiss of me not to mention the glaringly obvious examples of food's significance in religious and mythological tales. These stories convey both a cultural and historical account of virtues and values, and reveal a very different approach to food in comparison to the folk and fairy tales I've looked at in my previous posts.

The forbidden fruit is something desired, visually appealing and innocuous. Source

Where in The Little Red Hen and "All Fur", food is a reward or a way to express love and desire, it takes on a more ominous tone within religious literature. As a child, I was taught that the apple and the pomegranate both symbolised mankind's fall, a sign of weakness and hubris that led to humanity to be cast out of Paradise. But Milton's Paradise Lost does not depict the fruit as anything less than enchanting. The fruit was so delicious that Eve "ingorg'd without restraint" (791), even as the fruit is described as "eating Death" (792). Regardless of how much food takes on negative connotations, it is still an object of desire. None of the tales I've looked at, in fact, portray food as negative in and of itself, only the consequences of consuming it.

The theme of forbidden fruit is not something introduced by Abrahamic religions. Greek mythology reveals that food and consequences has long been a fascinating topic for humans. Food often depicts treachery and deceit, binding the consumer, like traditional English fae tales, or even transforming them. In The Odyssey, Circe laced the feast she gave to Odysseus's men with a potion that turned them into pigs (162). Elsewhere, the lotophagi fed Odysseus's men lotus fruits that sent them into a lethargic stupor and made them forget their homeland, trapping them on the island (139). 

Circe and her swine. Source

Odysseus extracting his soldiers from the Lotophagi. Source

Another great example of this is the story of Persephone, the daughter of the goddess of the harvest Demeter. During her captivity by Hades, Persephone unwittingly consumes food from his domain, binding herself to the lord of the underworld (Turnbull and Young, 25). The food being a pomegranate is also curious. Depictions of the biblical fruit that caused humanity's fall, while usually an apple, have also been associated with a pomegranate. The act of opening the tough exterior to reveal its seeds becomes emblematic of the acts of transgression the figures are committing. In Persephone's case, too, consuming the seeds means taking part of the underworld into herself, reminding me of my previous discussion about Bakhtin's idea of food being linked to identity. The pomegranate becomes a vessel for forbidden knowledge.

Food symbolises deception and  Source

Demeter's reaction to Persephone's abduction reinforces this polarising and profoundly negative approach to food in Greek mythology. As goddess of the grain, Demeter chooses to punish the living in her anger by withholding the harvest, killing the cattle and starving the people. There are no winners in this; in eating the food, Persephone binds herself to Hades, and in anger, Demeter deprives the land of food.

Food in religious stories and ancient mythology is enticing, exclusive, something coveted, but it can just as easily become a punishment.

Works Cited:

• Milton, John. Paradise lost. Sirius Publishing, a division of Arcturus Publishing Limited., 2017.

• Homer, et al. The Odyssey. Penguin Classics, 2009.

• Turnbull, Ann, and Young, Sarah. Greek Myths. Walker Books Ltd, 2010.