"But there’s no way to hide the belly’s hungers –
what a curse, what mischief it brews in all our lives!
Just for hunger we rig and ride our long benched ships
on the barren salt sea, speeding death to enemies."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 17, lines 313-316. There are literal and figurative meanings in what Odysseus says here. Disguised as a beggar he speaks of the curse of hunger, which sends men to war to plunder in search of food. But the "belly’s hungers" and their "curse" can also be seen as a metaphor for human desires and the sufferings they bring. An example is the Greeks’ pursuit of glory in the Trojan War, where many of Odysseus’ comrades died in a conflict over one woman. That woman is Helen of Troy, a sexual icon whose "terrible beauty" is compared to that of a goddess in Homer’s The Iliad, Book 3. In the lines preceeding this passage from The Odyssey, Odysseus talks of the pain he has suffered at sea and in war: "My heart is steeled by now, I’ve had my share of pain in the waves and wars. Add this to the total. Bring the trial on."