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218
of the blood. My experience of the smell of the fresh blood, and even of the blood in the
Bayram refuse pit, was that it was surprisingly limited and inoffensive. However, my
sacrificial experience took place during the winter, on a day with low ambient
temperatures. Greek and Roman cult rites were practiced year-round, and in the case of
the imperial cult, many of the ceremonies were tied to anniversaries within the imperial
family, such as birthdays and ascension days. The probable environmental conditions
and temperature at various times of the year and their potential impact on the experience
of the rituals may therefore be suggested in certain individual cases. To put it bluntly, the
warmer the weather at the time of year of the prescribed date of the rites, the more
odoriferous those sacrifices and their byproducts would have been. One may imagine
that Hadrian’s vicennalia sacrifice (see Fig. 19), which would have taken place on or
around 11 August 137 C.E., at the height of a Roman summer, must have produced
smells considerably more intense than those I experienced during an Istanbul winter.
The sound of the sacrificial blood should also not be underestimated as a rich and
evocative element of the proceedings. During the Bayram rites, I was forcefully struck
by the sound of blood gushing from the animal onto the floor of the trailer, and falling
from there to the ground below (see Fig. 24). We may assume that a similar sound was
created by the blood of victims striking the ground at Greek and Roman sacrifices.354
354 This would apply equally to either the small portable altars (foculi) sometimes depicted in sacrificial
scenes, or, perhaps even more strikingly, to the platform around a large altar like the one found at the
“Temple of Domitian.” Such large altars, raised on a series of stone steps, would have been approximately
the same height as the Bayram trailer in relation to the audience of the sacrifices, or somewhat taller. Even
if the actual slaughter of bovines was not carried out over the altar at the top of the stairs, it is likely that
smaller animals were cut there. Even in cases in which large animals may have been killed at a lower level
and portions carried up, significant amounts of blood, whether emptied out of bowls or streaming from the
parts burned in sacrifice, would have coated the altar and poured off of it.
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 236 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 218 of the blood. My experience of the smell of the fresh blood, and even of the blood in the Bayram refuse pit, was that it was surprisingly limited and inoffensive. However, my sacrificial experience took place during the winter, on a day with low ambient temperatures. Greek and Roman cult rites were practiced year-round, and in the case of the imperial cult, many of the ceremonies were tied to anniversaries within the imperial family, such as birthdays and ascension days. The probable environmental conditions and temperature at various times of the year and their potential impact on the experience of the rituals may therefore be suggested in certain individual cases. To put it bluntly, the warmer the weather at the time of year of the prescribed date of the rites, the more odoriferous those sacrifices and their byproducts would have been. One may imagine that Hadrian’s vicennalia sacrifice (see Fig. 19), which would have taken place on or around 11 August 137 C.E., at the height of a Roman summer, must have produced smells considerably more intense than those I experienced during an Istanbul winter. The sound of the sacrificial blood should also not be underestimated as a rich and evocative element of the proceedings. During the Bayram rites, I was forcefully struck by the sound of blood gushing from the animal onto the floor of the trailer, and falling from there to the ground below (see Fig. 24). We may assume that a similar sound was created by the blood of victims striking the ground at Greek and Roman sacrifices.354 354 This would apply equally to either the small portable altars (foculi) sometimes depicted in sacrificial scenes, or, perhaps even more strikingly, to the platform around a large altar like the one found at the “Temple of Domitian.” Such large altars, raised on a series of stone steps, would have been approximately the same height as the Bayram trailer in relation to the audience of the sacrifices, or somewhat taller. Even if the actual slaughter of bovines was not carried out over the altar at the top of the stairs, it is likely that smaller animals were cut there. Even in cases in which large animals may have been killed at a lower level and portions carried up, significant amounts of blood, whether emptied out of bowls or streaming from the parts burned in sacrifice, would have coated the altar and poured off of it. |
