Cornucopia

It is the source of food and supplies to the tributes and, thereby, essential to their survival in the Games. Each year, the tributes are launched into the arena around the Cornucopia, which is also the site of the initial Bloodbath.

What is the Cornucopia?

The Cornucopia is a huge golden horn-like structure that can be found in every Hunger Games arena. It has the appearance of a gigantic cone with a curved tail. The Cornucopia is the location where the tributes are launched into the arena. Typically, tributes appear at the beginning of the Games in a semicircle around the Cornucopia equidistant from each other by about 20 m.

The Cornucopia is also the source of food and supplies in the arena. It is due to this that some of the major events of the Hunger Games (such as the Bloodbath and the feast) occur in the Cornucopia.

Where is the Cornucopia Located?

The Cornucopia is usually located in the middle of the arena each year. This is true regardless of the kind of terrain the arena sports every year. For example, the Cornucopia was placed in the middle of the water body during the 75th Hunger Games. The Cornucopia is also sometimes customized according to the arena. For instance, in the 75th Games, it was divided into 12 radial sections, with the tail always pointing to the 12 o’clock position. It would also spin around every hour.

The Cornucopia was likely built sometime after the 10th Hunger Games, which only had a pile of weapons stocked in the middle of the arena.

Weapons and Supplies inside the Cornucopia

One of the main functions of the Cornucopia is to provide weapons and supplies to the tributes. Some of the weapons that can be found in the Cornucopia include:

• Bow and arrow 
• Knives
• Maces
• Tridents
• Ax
• Guns
• Crossbow
• Sickle and so on

Some of the supplies that the Cornucopia provided include:

• Food (fresh or dried)
• Water bottles (empty or filled)
• Iodine (for purifying drinking water)
• Medicines (for cuts, burns, and infections)
• Backpacks (containing various items)
• Ropes
• Nets
• Snares
• Tent Packs
• Clothes
• Blankets
• Matches
• Tools (to start a fire etc.)
• Sleeping bags and so on

It is not guaranteed that the Cornucopia would contain all of the above in every single Games. It could either contain all, some or none of these weapons and supplies, depending upon the Gamemakers’ intentions. For instance, one of the Games provided the tributes with only spiked maces in the Cornucopia, which the tributes used to hack each other to death. The Cornucopia in the 75th Hunger Games contained only weapons.

Weapons and supplies are strategically placed in and around the Cornucopia. The closer one got to the middle of the Cornucopia, the greater the value of the weapons and supplies that could be found there. As such, tributes were forced to face off as they tried to approach the bounty in the middle, thus leading to a large number of deaths the Cornucopia is usually witnessed to. 

The manner of placing the weapons and supplies in the Cornucopia also differs each year. For instance, the 74th Hunger Games saw supplies being scattered at a distance from the Cornucopia as well as in the center, while the 75th Games forced tributes into the very heart of the Cornucopia to be able to access the weapons it provided.

Symbolism

The term ‘Cornucopia’ means ‘Horn of Plenty.’ The term is derived from Greek mythology, where Hercules broke off a horn from Achelous, the river God’s head, and used it as an endless source of food. The way the horn worked was that you simply had to think of food or ask the horn for food before it would appear from the horn.

The Cornucopia in the Hunger Games is similar. It provides the tributes with materials and objects that are essential for their survival and thus mimics the original ‘Horn of Plenty’ in several ways.

The Cornucopia Bloodbath

The Cornucopia is the scene of the infamous bloodbath of the Hunger Games each year. Since the Cornucopia contains food and supplies, it becomes the target of most tributes. As a result of this, a battle ensues at the Cornucopia right at the beginning of the Games. This battle has come to be called the “Cornucopia Bloodbath” due to the massacre that occurs each time. The Cornucopia Bloodbath is infamous for wiping out a large number of tributes each year, sometimes cutting down the number of tributes standing by almost half within the first hour of the Games. In the 74th Hunger Games, 11 tributes died in the initial Bloodbath.

Uses of the Cornucopia

Besides being used as a source of weapons and supplies, the Cornucopia was also used for various other purposes. In the 75th Hunger Games, it was used as the location for the feast, possibly because most tributes knew about the Cornucopia and also to draw them all to the same place. The Cornucopia was also used as shelter by the Career tributes who took over the structure and made it their home.

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