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85
basic level, it alerted the ancient worshiper to the fact that a new moment in the progress
of worship had been reached and that a new type of response or behavior might be
expected. This would have been especially useful in the celebration of large-scale rites at
which the action around the altar could not have been visible to everyone in attendance.
Like a modern minister signaling the appropriate time for a church congregation to stand,
to kneel or to pray, music could provide cues for audience participation and behavior.
It is also possible that the musical “cues” in ancient rites were designed to affect
audience participation on a much deeper level, though. Ancient philosophers who
considered the impact of music on men’s ethics and behavior understood the capacity of
rhythm and melody to both mimic and induce human action and emotion.147 Plato (c.
429-347 B.C.E.) calls for the production and appreciation of musical intervals that
“would fittingly imitate the utterances and the accents of a brave man who is engaged in
warfare….And another for such a man engaged in works of peace...”148 Aristotle (384-
322 B.C.E.), in considering whether musical training is beneficial for young men, wishes
to determine if the influence of music “reaches also in a manner to the character and to
the soul.” He concludes that there is evidence that it does. He writes:
But it is clear that we are affected in a certain manner…for these [kinds of music]
admittedly make our souls enthusiastic, and enthusiasm is an affection of the
character of the soul…but rhythms and melodies contain representations of anger
147 For a brief discussion of the major schools of thought on music in antiquity set within a broader
framework of the history of musical philosophy, see K.M. Higgins 1991, 81 ff.
148 Resp. 3.399 (transl. Shorey 1994, LCL). ἣ ἔν τε πολεμικῇ πράξει ὄντος ἀνδρείου…καὶ ἄλλην αὖ ἐν
εἰρηνικῇ... Plato was opposed to wordless music in general, concluding that without words, music was
nothing more than imitation of the sounds of animals. See Leg. 669 E and, for a discussion of his thought,
Quasten 1983, 51 ff. Plato’s criticism of the inclusion of wordless music in cult should be considered in the
context of his generally negative views of popular modes of worship and, especially, of sacrifice.
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 103 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 85 basic level, it alerted the ancient worshiper to the fact that a new moment in the progress of worship had been reached and that a new type of response or behavior might be expected. This would have been especially useful in the celebration of large-scale rites at which the action around the altar could not have been visible to everyone in attendance. Like a modern minister signaling the appropriate time for a church congregation to stand, to kneel or to pray, music could provide cues for audience participation and behavior. It is also possible that the musical “cues” in ancient rites were designed to affect audience participation on a much deeper level, though. Ancient philosophers who considered the impact of music on men’s ethics and behavior understood the capacity of rhythm and melody to both mimic and induce human action and emotion.147 Plato (c. 429-347 B.C.E.) calls for the production and appreciation of musical intervals that “would fittingly imitate the utterances and the accents of a brave man who is engaged in warfare….And another for such a man engaged in works of peace...”148 Aristotle (384- 322 B.C.E.), in considering whether musical training is beneficial for young men, wishes to determine if the influence of music “reaches also in a manner to the character and to the soul.” He concludes that there is evidence that it does. He writes: But it is clear that we are affected in a certain manner…for these [kinds of music] admittedly make our souls enthusiastic, and enthusiasm is an affection of the character of the soul…but rhythms and melodies contain representations of anger 147 For a brief discussion of the major schools of thought on music in antiquity set within a broader framework of the history of musical philosophy, see K.M. Higgins 1991, 81 ff. 148 Resp. 3.399 (transl. Shorey 1994, LCL). ἣ ἔν τε πολεμικῇ πράξει ὄντος ἀνδρείου…καὶ ἄλλην αὖ ἐν εἰρηνικῇ... Plato was opposed to wordless music in general, concluding that without words, music was nothing more than imitation of the sounds of animals. See Leg. 669 E and, for a discussion of his thought, Quasten 1983, 51 ff. Plato’s criticism of the inclusion of wordless music in cult should be considered in the context of his generally negative views of popular modes of worship and, especially, of sacrifice. |
