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183
the famous Boscoreale cups, dated to c. 7 B.C.E. and now in the Louvre, which depicts
sacrifices preceding a military campaign of the Emperor Tiberius (Fig. 20).302 A third
composition, a detail from the center of the biographical sarcophagus of a military man of
the Antonine period, which therefore likely commemorates an event similar to that
represented in the Boscoreale image, is the latest of the three examples, and the most
complete and detailed (it is now in the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua (Fig. 21)).303 In that
image, the men carrying out the slaughter have been reduced to two, likely a function of
the space limitations of the sarcophagus.
In each of the images, victimarii (servants responsible for handling sacrificial
animals) are portrayed in the moment before a stunning blow is struck to a sacrificial bull
or ox. One or more of them force the head of the animal down while another man
prepares to make a powerful swing with a weapon, either a hammer (malleus) or a long
axe (securis). The blow, aimed at the back of the neck, will almost certainly not be a
killing blow. The man wielding the weapon is the popa, a Roman ritual actor whose
function was to stun large animals prior to their slaughter. Physiologically speaking, a
significant blow to the Atlas vertebra at the base of the skull (or to the next vertebra
below it, the Axis, between the two of which the end of the brainstem is located) would
have stunned an animal, bringing it down and facilitating the slaughter, which was
accomplished by slitting the animal’s throat with a sharp knife (a culter or, in the case of
302 See Ryberg (1955 141-43, pl. 50) and more recently A.L. Kuttner (1995, 124-42), with earlier
bibliography.
303 See J. Rüpke 2007a, 148.
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 201 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 183 the famous Boscoreale cups, dated to c. 7 B.C.E. and now in the Louvre, which depicts sacrifices preceding a military campaign of the Emperor Tiberius (Fig. 20).302 A third composition, a detail from the center of the biographical sarcophagus of a military man of the Antonine period, which therefore likely commemorates an event similar to that represented in the Boscoreale image, is the latest of the three examples, and the most complete and detailed (it is now in the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua (Fig. 21)).303 In that image, the men carrying out the slaughter have been reduced to two, likely a function of the space limitations of the sarcophagus. In each of the images, victimarii (servants responsible for handling sacrificial animals) are portrayed in the moment before a stunning blow is struck to a sacrificial bull or ox. One or more of them force the head of the animal down while another man prepares to make a powerful swing with a weapon, either a hammer (malleus) or a long axe (securis). The blow, aimed at the back of the neck, will almost certainly not be a killing blow. The man wielding the weapon is the popa, a Roman ritual actor whose function was to stun large animals prior to their slaughter. Physiologically speaking, a significant blow to the Atlas vertebra at the base of the skull (or to the next vertebra below it, the Axis, between the two of which the end of the brainstem is located) would have stunned an animal, bringing it down and facilitating the slaughter, which was accomplished by slitting the animal’s throat with a sharp knife (a culter or, in the case of 302 See Ryberg (1955 141-43, pl. 50) and more recently A.L. Kuttner (1995, 124-42), with earlier bibliography. 303 See J. Rüpke 2007a, 148. |
