Book contents
- Reception in the Greco-Roman World
- Cambridge Classical Studies
- Reception in the Greco-Roman World
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Altered States: Cultural Pluralism and Psychosis in Ancient Literary Receptions
- Part I Archaic and Classical Poetics
- Part II Classical Philosophy and Rhetoric, and Their Reception
- Part III Hellenistic and Roman Poetics
- Chapter 9 Before the Canon: The Reception of Greek Tragedy in Hellenistic Poetry
- Chapter 10 Pun-fried Concoctions: Wor(l)d-Blending in the Roman Kitchen
- Chapter 11 Powerful Presences: Horace’s Carmen Saeculare and Hellenistic Choral Traditions
- Part IV Multimedia and Intercultural Receptions in the Second Sophistic and Beyond
- References
- Index
Chapter 10 - Pun-fried Concoctions: Wor(l)d-Blending in the Roman Kitchen
from Part III - Hellenistic and Roman Poetics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2021
- Reception in the Greco-Roman World
- Cambridge Classical Studies
- Reception in the Greco-Roman World
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Altered States: Cultural Pluralism and Psychosis in Ancient Literary Receptions
- Part I Archaic and Classical Poetics
- Part II Classical Philosophy and Rhetoric, and Their Reception
- Part III Hellenistic and Roman Poetics
- Chapter 9 Before the Canon: The Reception of Greek Tragedy in Hellenistic Poetry
- Chapter 10 Pun-fried Concoctions: Wor(l)d-Blending in the Roman Kitchen
- Chapter 11 Powerful Presences: Horace’s Carmen Saeculare and Hellenistic Choral Traditions
- Part IV Multimedia and Intercultural Receptions in the Second Sophistic and Beyond
- References
- Index
Summary
When the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus compared the cosmos to a posset of barley, cheese and wine (kukeōn) whose ingredients separated if they were not stirred, he spawned other alimentary images for states of many-in-oneness, from variegated poetry to modern multicultural societies. This chapter explores the reception of Heraclitus’ image in later Greek and Latin literature. Plautus’ cook-figures and culinary neologisms have been read as analogues for the poet’s versatile reassembly of Greek culture, while an epic pun in Virgil’s Aeneid frames as “child’s play” a special moment in etymological, culinary and territorial history. In the pseudo-Virgilian Moretum, a peasant’s miniature cosmos takes shape, culminating in the production of a garlic- and herb-flavoured cheese whose many-in-oneness gave a motto to the United States of America (e pluribus unum). At Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis, dishes based on verbal and visual puns reinforce the freedmen’s liminal identity. Culinary conglomerates have repeatedly transcended their ludic, extemporized contexts to serve the politics and aesthetics of diversity, from antiquity to modern times.
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- Reception in the Greco-Roman WorldLiterary Studies in Theory and Practice, pp. 241 - 265Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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