Eat, Drink, Think - What Ancient Greece Can Tell Us about Food and Wine

What role does food play in the shaping of humanity? Is sharing a good meal with friends and family an experience of life at its best? Or does food exemplify the worst of our world - being a burdensome necessity which should only be consumed so that we can focus on the serious business of living? David Roochnik explores these questions by discussing classical works of Greek literature and philosophy in which food and drink play an important role. Taking key Greek philosophers and writers, Roochnik takes us through a journey of how food can open up reflections on philosophies of life, and how this in turn can remind us that nothing is more important in life than sharing a good meal. With thoughts on Homer's Odyssey, Euripides' Bacchae, Plato's philosopher kings and Dionysus' godly state, Roochnik shows how foregrounding food in philosophy can open up ways of understanding these different thinkers and their approach to the purpose and meaning of life. With philosophical explanation interspersed with a series of personal reflections on cooking, eating, drinking and sharing meals, Roochnik offers detailed and concrete observations on the impact of food on his life, which anyone who takes food and drink seriously will find accessible and engaging, in particular students of food studies, philosophy and classics.

Product details

• Authors: David Roochnik
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2019
• EAN: 9781350120761
• ISBN: 978-1-350-12076-1
• No. of pages: 192
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Antiquity; HISTORY / Ancient / General, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Food & society, Ancient History, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500, Cultural studies: food and society