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99
yellow hair which once tossed on his shoulders. Be kind, O Queen, and give rest
in his old age from his former wildness to him who went mad in his youth.170
No longer able to take active part in cult rites to Cybele, Alexis dedicated his cymbals,
tambourines and Phrygian aulos to her. The wording of this inscription confirms that
Alexis played an active role in the worship of Cybele (a fact further confirmed by the
appellation “womanish”, which must certainly refer to his ceremonial castration) that
involved playing those very percussion instruments and aulos, implements with which we
are familiar from the iconography of that goddess’ worship. It is interesting to note that
the instruments are referred to as “stimulants of his madness.” One recalls here again the
belief in antiquity that music could sway the mind and both influence and imitate
emotions. Alexis’s instruments were at once the cause and the symbol of his holy
madness, and the music he produced on them both stoked and mimicked his ecstatic
fervor. It would be pure (and no doubt erroneous) speculation to assume that all
instruments deposited as votive offerings within cult sanctuaries were dedicated by cult
adherents who played the role of musicians in the rites (or indeed were able to play the
instruments at all!), but epigraphical evidence does confirm that some of the votive
offerings were uniquely suited to their final resting place.
Even in cases in which instruments of the type known to be of use in a particular
cult are recovered in a sector of a cult site in which they might reasonably be expected to
have been used in the practice of rites (rather than in an area that likely indicates their
170 GA 6.51 (transl. Paton 1993, LCL). Μῆτερ ἐμὴ Ῥείη, Φρθγίων θρέπταιρα λεόντων, ΔΔίνδυμον ἧς
μύσταις οὐκ ἀπάτητον ὄρος, σοὶ τάδε θῆλυς Ἄλεξις ἑῆς οἰστρήματα λύσσης ἄνθητο, χαλκοτύπου
παυσάμενος μανίης, κύμβαλά τ᾽ ὀξύφθογγα, βαρυφθόγγων τ᾽ ἀλαλητὸν αὐλῶν, οὕς μόσχου λοξὸν
ἔκαμψε κέρας, τυμπανά τ᾽ ἠχήεντα, καὶ αἵματι φοινιχθέντα φάσγανα, καὶ ξανθάς, τὰς πρὶν ἔσεισε,
κόμας. ἵλαος, ὦ δέσποινα, τὸν ἐν νεότητι μανέντα γηραλέον προτέρης παῦσον ἀγριοσύνης.
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 117 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 99 yellow hair which once tossed on his shoulders. Be kind, O Queen, and give rest in his old age from his former wildness to him who went mad in his youth.170 No longer able to take active part in cult rites to Cybele, Alexis dedicated his cymbals, tambourines and Phrygian aulos to her. The wording of this inscription confirms that Alexis played an active role in the worship of Cybele (a fact further confirmed by the appellation “womanish”, which must certainly refer to his ceremonial castration) that involved playing those very percussion instruments and aulos, implements with which we are familiar from the iconography of that goddess’ worship. It is interesting to note that the instruments are referred to as “stimulants of his madness.” One recalls here again the belief in antiquity that music could sway the mind and both influence and imitate emotions. Alexis’s instruments were at once the cause and the symbol of his holy madness, and the music he produced on them both stoked and mimicked his ecstatic fervor. It would be pure (and no doubt erroneous) speculation to assume that all instruments deposited as votive offerings within cult sanctuaries were dedicated by cult adherents who played the role of musicians in the rites (or indeed were able to play the instruments at all!), but epigraphical evidence does confirm that some of the votive offerings were uniquely suited to their final resting place. Even in cases in which instruments of the type known to be of use in a particular cult are recovered in a sector of a cult site in which they might reasonably be expected to have been used in the practice of rites (rather than in an area that likely indicates their 170 GA 6.51 (transl. Paton 1993, LCL). Μῆτερ ἐμὴ Ῥείη, Φρθγίων θρέπταιρα λεόντων, ΔΔίνδυμον ἧς μύσταις οὐκ ἀπάτητον ὄρος, σοὶ τάδε θῆλυς Ἄλεξις ἑῆς οἰστρήματα λύσσης ἄνθητο, χαλκοτύπου παυσάμενος μανίης, κύμβαλά τ᾽ ὀξύφθογγα, βαρυφθόγγων τ᾽ ἀλαλητὸν αὐλῶν, οὕς μόσχου λοξὸν ἔκαμψε κέρας, τυμπανά τ᾽ ἠχήεντα, καὶ αἵματι φοινιχθέντα φάσγανα, καὶ ξανθάς, τὰς πρὶν ἔσεισε, κόμας. ἵλαος, ὦ δέσποινα, τὸν ἐν νεότητι μανέντα γηραλέον προτέρης παῦσον ἀγριοσύνης. |
