Egbert J. Bakker is Professor of Classics at Yale University, Connecticut. Within the wider area of the interaction between linguistic analysis and literary interpretation he works mainly on the language, poetics and interpretation of the Homeric poems. He has lectured and published widely on both linguistic and literary subjects. Among his publications are Linguistics and Formulas in Homer (1988), Poetry in Speech: Orality and Homeric Discourse (1997) and Pointing at the Past: From Formula to Performance in Homeric Poetics (2005). He has co-edited Brill's Companion to Herodotus (2002) and is the editor of A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language (2010).

• Prologue: food for song; 1. Epos and aoidê; 2. Nostos as quest; 3. Meat in myth and life; 4. Unlimited goats and counted sheep; 5. Feasting in the land of the dawn; 6. The revenge of the sun; 7. The justice of Poseidon; 8. Remembering the gastêr; Epilogue: on 'interformularity'.

'A powerful illustration of the importance of food and culinary practices to understanding past societies.' The Times Literary Supplement