The Myth of the God Incarnate

The House of the Stomach
Copyright (c) Simon Brooke 1992-1995
describing one of the more dionysian cults of the great place
One of the Houses of Pleasure, this is above all a dionysian cult, dedicated to sensual (but not sexual) pleasure. God is worshiped as the God of Feasts and the provider of good things. The house in fact carries out important functions in weights and measures and food standards and hygiene, but its priesthood is seen as pleasure-loving and gluttonous. Consequently, it is not a well respected house. It is however a popular house, operating a levy on the trade in foodstuffs (especially pitch fees from the Food Market) and providing sumptuous meals on a relatively arbitrary basis to people invited in off the street (usually, but not exclusively, the very poor). However this income is often collected in kind, and the House is not wealthy.

Taynuic feasts with the Stomach

Obesity is almost a badge of office of priests of the Stomach. They wear tentlike robes of red, green or (most commonly) yellow cloth, girdled with a belt from which hangs a flask of wine, and a satchel for food. These are ceremonial; while the priest will eat and drink from, and offer others food and drink from, both the satchel and the flask, neither must ever be allowed to be empty (except momentarily while being cleaned).

Death and Funerary Rites
The Stomach does not believe in an afterlife. It's view is that this life is the Good Life offered by God, and that it is up to each individual to make the best of it both for themselves and for others. It is believed that the bodies of devotees of the Stomach are eaten, although the rites involved are private.
Copyright (c) Simon Brooke 1992-1995

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