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215
an animal.350 Even when the knife is near the animal’s throat or blood is flowing,
scholars have assumed that what we are seeing is either the moment just prior to the
slaughter or the bloodletting that followed the killing, when the carcass was drained
completely before butchering. This has led to a general belief that the Greeks and
Romans did not, as a matter of course, portray the most violent moment of the sacrifice.
This theory is based partly on the fact that the majority of Greek and Roman sacrificial
scenes show pre-sacrifice moments, such as processions of the animals and participants.
However, it is also sometimes assumed that in scenes involving the cutting of an animal,
if the artists were accurately portraying the moment of the animal’s death, the scene
would not be so calm. As Jean-Louis Durand remarked in reference to the sixth century
B.C.E Greek vase painting shown in figure 33, “Even when the precaution has been taken
to stun the animal beforehand, a large body does not let life escape so peacefully...”351 I
can now say with certainty that this idea of the behavior of the animal at the moment of
death is incorrect. Of the bulls that I saw slaughtered during the Bayram sacrifices, under
the hand of a skilled butcher, when the cut was made to the throat successfully, few had
the strength to so much as lift their head, and that was the only movement they were
350 An expression of that theory that also interrogates the appropriate interpretation of the images is J.-L.
Durand’s (1989a, 91): “The reticence of the vases is never disturbed; without exception death and sacrifice
are separated. The act that opens up the passage to the animal’s death is never represented. The blade
approaches, sometimes very near, but the deed that actually drenches the blade and altar in blood is never
pictured. Whenever the throat is shown hewn by the sword, the sacrificial meaning has departed from the
image. The gaping throat, then, speaks of nothing more than the fact of the animal’s death, a death that is
mysterious and incomprehensible and refers only to itself.”
351 Durand 1989a, 90.
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 233 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 215 an animal.350 Even when the knife is near the animal’s throat or blood is flowing, scholars have assumed that what we are seeing is either the moment just prior to the slaughter or the bloodletting that followed the killing, when the carcass was drained completely before butchering. This has led to a general belief that the Greeks and Romans did not, as a matter of course, portray the most violent moment of the sacrifice. This theory is based partly on the fact that the majority of Greek and Roman sacrificial scenes show pre-sacrifice moments, such as processions of the animals and participants. However, it is also sometimes assumed that in scenes involving the cutting of an animal, if the artists were accurately portraying the moment of the animal’s death, the scene would not be so calm. As Jean-Louis Durand remarked in reference to the sixth century B.C.E Greek vase painting shown in figure 33, “Even when the precaution has been taken to stun the animal beforehand, a large body does not let life escape so peacefully...”351 I can now say with certainty that this idea of the behavior of the animal at the moment of death is incorrect. Of the bulls that I saw slaughtered during the Bayram sacrifices, under the hand of a skilled butcher, when the cut was made to the throat successfully, few had the strength to so much as lift their head, and that was the only movement they were 350 An expression of that theory that also interrogates the appropriate interpretation of the images is J.-L. Durand’s (1989a, 91): “The reticence of the vases is never disturbed; without exception death and sacrifice are separated. The act that opens up the passage to the animal’s death is never represented. The blade approaches, sometimes very near, but the deed that actually drenches the blade and altar in blood is never pictured. Whenever the throat is shown hewn by the sword, the sacrificial meaning has departed from the image. The gaping throat, then, speaks of nothing more than the fact of the animal’s death, a death that is mysterious and incomprehensible and refers only to itself.” 351 Durand 1989a, 90. |
