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50
Lord. Anyone who was found replicating the mixture for his own enjoyment was to be
“cut off from his people.”82
It is outside the scope of this project to consider the internal coherence of the
Christian arguments regarding the use of incense and the purposeful or inadvertent
empowerment of demons by means of it.83 Nevertheless, when considered in tandem
with other ancient sources that refer to the odor of sacrifice as sustaining the gods, we
may use the evidence of the Christian texts to conclude that the idea of scents as proper
sustenance for superhuman powers was still current by the time of the Roman empire,
and that the stated religious reason for the use of scents was to communicate with deities.
Can we interrogate this idea further to ascertain more specific reasons for the
employment of certain types of scents?
A consideration of the potential bases for and uses of scent in ancient sacrifice
presents a risk of oversimplification. One of the least subtle and most utilitarian of the
theories, though very common, is presented thus by Royden K. Yerkes: “Gums and
fragrant wood of various kinds were thrown upon the burning pieces and into the fire,
possibly for the original purpose of neutralizing the odor of burning flesh. The spiritual
rationalization of the practice was that the gods enjoyed the fragrance.”84
82 Exodus 30.34-8. Perhaps partly for this reason, Arnobius rejected the authority of the Old Testament as
having nothing to do with Christianity. See Adv. nat. 3.12.
83 See Harvey 2006, 38.
84 Yerkes 1952, 105. Yerkes goes on to outline a simplistic reason for growth in the import and use of
spices and aromatics: “With the process of civilization and the consequent importation of luxuries from
distant lands, arose the use of fragrant gums for this purpose [that is, masking the scents of sacrifice and
propitiating the gods].” More recent research on the role of scents in antiquity has complicated Yerkes’s
concept of “the process of civilization” and put ancient texts and other sources to work to answer more
Object Description
| Title | Making sense of sacrifice: Sensory experience in Greco-Roman cult |
| Author | Weddle, Candace Cherie |
| Author email | candaceweddle@gmail.com; weddle@usc.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Art History |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-03-04 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2011-04-27 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Pollini, John |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Yasin, Ann Marie Bitel, Lisa |
| Abstract | Performing a sacrifice was one of the most sensorially full actions undertaken in the Greco-Roman world. The production and control of the correct movements, scents and sounds were prerequisites for summoning, communicating with and propitiating deities. Sacrifice was also ubiquitous, occurring on an almost continual basis as a range of sacrificial activities were celebrated publicly and privately in a variety of locations in urban areas. Cultivating a multi-sensory understanding of the full range of sensory elements that accompanied ancient cult rites – visual and auditory cues, things smelled, tasted and touched - provides a platform for achieving a more thorough knowledge of the meanings of the rites.; This dissertation examines the archaeological, literary and epigraphical evidence for the role of the senses in Greek and Roman sacrifice in order to analyze the social and ritual importance of the senses, the impact of sacrificial rituals within ancient urban spaces, and the sensory experience of the ancient worshiper. Given the ephemeral nature of much of the evidence for sensory elements of worship, as well as the subjectivity inherent in representations of sensory experience in literature and art, this dissertation argues for the necessity of crossing disciplinary boundaries in order to appreciate the sensory impact of ancient sacrifice. Therefore, in addition to utilizing traditional historical and art historical approaches, methodological tools from the field of anthropology and evidence from studies in the animal behavioral sciences and consumer sciences are employed. For example, I suggest that greater understanding of the experience of ancient sacrifice may be acquired through an autoethnographic investigation of modern religious sacrifice. To that end, I analyze my experience of the slaughter of large numbers of bovines during the Islamic Kurban Bayram sacrifices in Istanbul to make suggestions concerning certain elements of the sensory experience of ancient blood sacrifice. I focus not only on the sensory experience of humans participating in (or within range of) sacrifices, but also on that of the animal victims. Given the immense ritual importance of the behavior of sacrificial animals in antiquity, I suggest that it is possible to identify some sensory aspects of the sacrificial process that may have been intentionally manipulated in order to control the reactions of the victims as far as possible.; Particular attention is paid to mundane aspects of the process of sacrifice not often addressed in ancient literary sources or represented in art that would have resulted in notable sensory impacts on areas surrounding urban temples, for example the removal of sacrificial refuse. I conclude not only that these elements of sacrifice formed an important part of the sensory experience of Greco-Roman cult, but also that their effects were more far-reaching – in terms both of how great an area they affected and how long they lasted – than has previously been recognized. Using fresh interdisciplinary approaches to well-known examples of texts and images, this dissertation employs a more visceral approach to the study of the sensory experience of ancient sacrifice than is possible when considering textual and archaeological evidence alone. |
| Keyword | archaeology; autoethnography; cult; Greece; religion; Rome; sacrifice; senses |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Rome |
| Geographic subject (country) | Italy; Greece |
| Coverage date | circa -0600/0600 |
| Coverage era | Greco Roman |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3788 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Weddle, Candace Cherie |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Weddle-4363 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume48/etd-Weddle-4363.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 68 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 50 Lord. Anyone who was found replicating the mixture for his own enjoyment was to be “cut off from his people.”82 It is outside the scope of this project to consider the internal coherence of the Christian arguments regarding the use of incense and the purposeful or inadvertent empowerment of demons by means of it.83 Nevertheless, when considered in tandem with other ancient sources that refer to the odor of sacrifice as sustaining the gods, we may use the evidence of the Christian texts to conclude that the idea of scents as proper sustenance for superhuman powers was still current by the time of the Roman empire, and that the stated religious reason for the use of scents was to communicate with deities. Can we interrogate this idea further to ascertain more specific reasons for the employment of certain types of scents? A consideration of the potential bases for and uses of scent in ancient sacrifice presents a risk of oversimplification. One of the least subtle and most utilitarian of the theories, though very common, is presented thus by Royden K. Yerkes: “Gums and fragrant wood of various kinds were thrown upon the burning pieces and into the fire, possibly for the original purpose of neutralizing the odor of burning flesh. The spiritual rationalization of the practice was that the gods enjoyed the fragrance.”84 82 Exodus 30.34-8. Perhaps partly for this reason, Arnobius rejected the authority of the Old Testament as having nothing to do with Christianity. See Adv. nat. 3.12. 83 See Harvey 2006, 38. 84 Yerkes 1952, 105. Yerkes goes on to outline a simplistic reason for growth in the import and use of spices and aromatics: “With the process of civilization and the consequent importation of luxuries from distant lands, arose the use of fragrant gums for this purpose [that is, masking the scents of sacrifice and propitiating the gods].” More recent research on the role of scents in antiquity has complicated Yerkes’s concept of “the process of civilization” and put ancient texts and other sources to work to answer more |
