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221
slaughter was designated a special class of waste that thus warranted its own particular
treatment. It is not possible to say with certainty that similar prohibitions held in Roman
tradition, or indeed even that the rules governing the cleaning of the sacrificial victims’
innards were standard at every sanctuary in the Greek world. Nevertheless, the
Hekatompedon inscription serves as evidence of the immediacy of what must have been a
significant sensory aspect of the processing of sacrificial animals in antiquity. Such
waste material, combined with the manure on the ground, produced by far the
overpowering source of smell at the sacrifices I attended.
In addition to the waste outside and inside the animals, some portions of the body
may have been discarded in antiquity. As is the case in modern Islamic sacrifices, the
greater part of a sacrificial animal would have been put to use by the Romans. Following
Greek tradition, the meat was divided between the priests and those participating in the
banquets associated with the sacrifices, as discussed in Chapter
Three. After being examined by ritual specialists for imperfections that could negate the
sacrifices or serve as omens of the future, certain internal organs were eaten.357 The
vitalia (the heart, liver, gall-bladder, lungs and the greater omentum) were also cooked as
if for consumption, then immolated along with an offering of wine as the god’s
portion.358 Mythological narratives suggest that the bones were wrapped in the hide of
the animal and burned as part of what belonged to the deity (the ur-source on which this
357 M. Detienne (1979, 74 ff.) analyzes the social and ritual meanings of the consumption of organs from
sacrificial animals in the Greek tradition, with special focus on descriptions of sacrifice in literature. The
subject is complex; as he demonstrates, seemingly minor details such as the type of cooking method used
for each organ (boiling or roasting) and whether a particular organ was eaten with or without salt carried
considerable symbolic meaning.
358 On the distribution of the organs, see Scheid 2003, 84; Rüpke 2007a, 145-47.
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 239 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 221 slaughter was designated a special class of waste that thus warranted its own particular treatment. It is not possible to say with certainty that similar prohibitions held in Roman tradition, or indeed even that the rules governing the cleaning of the sacrificial victims’ innards were standard at every sanctuary in the Greek world. Nevertheless, the Hekatompedon inscription serves as evidence of the immediacy of what must have been a significant sensory aspect of the processing of sacrificial animals in antiquity. Such waste material, combined with the manure on the ground, produced by far the overpowering source of smell at the sacrifices I attended. In addition to the waste outside and inside the animals, some portions of the body may have been discarded in antiquity. As is the case in modern Islamic sacrifices, the greater part of a sacrificial animal would have been put to use by the Romans. Following Greek tradition, the meat was divided between the priests and those participating in the banquets associated with the sacrifices, as discussed in Chapter Three. After being examined by ritual specialists for imperfections that could negate the sacrifices or serve as omens of the future, certain internal organs were eaten.357 The vitalia (the heart, liver, gall-bladder, lungs and the greater omentum) were also cooked as if for consumption, then immolated along with an offering of wine as the god’s portion.358 Mythological narratives suggest that the bones were wrapped in the hide of the animal and burned as part of what belonged to the deity (the ur-source on which this 357 M. Detienne (1979, 74 ff.) analyzes the social and ritual meanings of the consumption of organs from sacrificial animals in the Greek tradition, with special focus on descriptions of sacrifice in literature. The subject is complex; as he demonstrates, seemingly minor details such as the type of cooking method used for each organ (boiling or roasting) and whether a particular organ was eaten with or without salt carried considerable symbolic meaning. 358 On the distribution of the organs, see Scheid 2003, 84; Rüpke 2007a, 145-47. |
