Request for info on hot dogs in literature

[Wilson Gray]

On Nov 22, 2004, at 12:22 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Request for info on hot dogs in literature
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>>>> I read online that a hot dog like substance appeared in the Iliad
>>>> ("As when a man beside a great fire has filled a sausage with fat
>>>> and
>>>> blood and turns it this way and that and is very eager to get it
>>>> quickly roasted") -- would you say that's true?  And, if so - you
>>>> don't know what the exact translation of the sausage word would be,
>>>> do you?
>>
>> This line is actually from the Odyssey,  not the Iliad. The word
>> translated as "sausage" is gaster [gamma-alpha-sigma-tau-eta-rho],
>> whose literal meaning is "stomach." In some translations of the
>> Odyssey, the literal meaning is used. Presumably, the stomach of some
>> animal was used as the casing for the material(s) used to make the
>> sausage.
>
> Maybe like a haggis.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>

Good eye, Doug! That's a great call!

-Wilson Gray