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202
sacrificial animals that must have impacted the practices of many of the cults that
celebrated animal sacrifice.
Evidence such as “shopping lists” of the first and second century B.C.E.
enumerating the expenses earmarked for the important festivals of the Posideia and
Eileithyaia on Delos, both of which included public sacrifice and banquets, indicate that
animals were often purchased in advance; the temple records for the Posideia even
include the shipping costs incurred by importing a sacrificial bull, which was apparently
not available on the island.327 It is possible that many such pre-purchased animals were
simply designated and set aside by cattle merchants and kept in their holding pens until
they were retrieved on the day of sacrifice, but a significant number of inscriptions from
Greek sanctuaries such as Delphi, the sanctuary of Hera at Tegea, and Ios, among others,
either state regulations against storing and grazing animals within the sacred precincts
(indicating that the practice was common enough to require legislation to discourage it)
or specifically allow for short-term gathering and grazing of animals on-site prior to
sacrificial rites. It is possible that similar practices were common at Roman sanctuaries,
especially those in the Hellenistic East.
Regardless of whether the animals were kept there prior to the rites or only
escorted there on the day of their death, their presence would have had a significant
impact on the environment of the sanctuary. Sensorially speaking, the olfactory elements
in particular would have been notable. The animals themselves produced an animal smell
327 See T. Linders 1994, 74. For a brief discussion of the industry of stock-rearing in relation to sacrifice,
see Rüpke 2007a, 152-53.
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 220 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 202 sacrificial animals that must have impacted the practices of many of the cults that celebrated animal sacrifice. Evidence such as “shopping lists” of the first and second century B.C.E. enumerating the expenses earmarked for the important festivals of the Posideia and Eileithyaia on Delos, both of which included public sacrifice and banquets, indicate that animals were often purchased in advance; the temple records for the Posideia even include the shipping costs incurred by importing a sacrificial bull, which was apparently not available on the island.327 It is possible that many such pre-purchased animals were simply designated and set aside by cattle merchants and kept in their holding pens until they were retrieved on the day of sacrifice, but a significant number of inscriptions from Greek sanctuaries such as Delphi, the sanctuary of Hera at Tegea, and Ios, among others, either state regulations against storing and grazing animals within the sacred precincts (indicating that the practice was common enough to require legislation to discourage it) or specifically allow for short-term gathering and grazing of animals on-site prior to sacrificial rites. It is possible that similar practices were common at Roman sanctuaries, especially those in the Hellenistic East. Regardless of whether the animals were kept there prior to the rites or only escorted there on the day of their death, their presence would have had a significant impact on the environment of the sanctuary. Sensorially speaking, the olfactory elements in particular would have been notable. The animals themselves produced an animal smell 327 See T. Linders 1994, 74. For a brief discussion of the industry of stock-rearing in relation to sacrifice, see Rüpke 2007a, 152-53. |
