Try not to enjoy eating fish too much… or else!

With the exception of salmon steaks, I’m really not much of a fish-fan. Thus, it’s easy for me to exhibit rational and reasonable self control when faced with an all-you-can eat seafood buffet. As such, I will never be accused of being an opsophagos. Thank goodness!

In ancient Greece it was a terrible thing to be an opsophagos. It meant that you had an uncontrollable desire to consume fish. That meant that you were, quite frankly, a horrible person.

You see, at the time when religion had a pretty tight grip on daily life, all food had to be sacrificed by priests except for fish. So to have this strong desire to eat fish was an insult to the gods. It showed a corrupted soul. There were even legendary tales of certain obsessive fish-eaters becoming so evil that they trained themselves to consume massive quantities of fish.

So the stories go, these hedonistic opsophagoi had developed tough padded fingers and heat-resistant throats so that they could leap on freshly cooked fish while it was too hot for others to touch or eat.

So for the sake of all that is good, be sure you chew your fish-sticks slowly. In fact, gorging on any favourite food could qualify you as an opsomaniac.

Source: Opsophagos – Wikipedia

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