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243
In order to give a sense of the smellscape of antiquity, in the first chapter I
provided literary and material evidence for the broad range of uses to which the ancient
Greeks and Romans put aromatics, and of the intricate social, political and religious
language of scents within which they operated. I demonstrated the key ritual importance
of odors as the primary vehicle for communication between men and gods. Smells
signaled the presence of the divine and, I suggested, functioned as the purest state of a
burnt offering, converting the proffered material into something worthy to be accepted as
sustenance by the gods.
I then considered the evidence for ritual meanings behind the employment of
certain types of scents. They affected both mortals and immortals: they attracted the
attention of the gods and drew them near, but they also physically affected their devotees.
I concluded the chapter with a consideration of the ways in which scents constructed and
activated ritual spaces, attempting to give a sense of the “acoustics” of smell in Greco-
Roman religion. Smells were a tool for creating appropriate spaces in which
communication by means of olfactory cues could take place. Scents could carry out this
role both as active substances deployed during sacrifice and as static and symbolic
features of the sacred landscape, such as Theophrastus’s Sardian incense tree. Finally, I
considered the great mobility of sacred scents and their capacity to affect the areas
surrounding temples and rites, thereby extending both the space and the time of worship.
In Chapter Two, I presented examples, drawn from our wealth of literary and
material evidence, for the sounds of ancient sacrifice. After outlining in brief the
influence of the Etruscan and Greek traditions on the development of Roman cult music,
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 261 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 243 In order to give a sense of the smellscape of antiquity, in the first chapter I provided literary and material evidence for the broad range of uses to which the ancient Greeks and Romans put aromatics, and of the intricate social, political and religious language of scents within which they operated. I demonstrated the key ritual importance of odors as the primary vehicle for communication between men and gods. Smells signaled the presence of the divine and, I suggested, functioned as the purest state of a burnt offering, converting the proffered material into something worthy to be accepted as sustenance by the gods. I then considered the evidence for ritual meanings behind the employment of certain types of scents. They affected both mortals and immortals: they attracted the attention of the gods and drew them near, but they also physically affected their devotees. I concluded the chapter with a consideration of the ways in which scents constructed and activated ritual spaces, attempting to give a sense of the “acoustics” of smell in Greco- Roman religion. Smells were a tool for creating appropriate spaces in which communication by means of olfactory cues could take place. Scents could carry out this role both as active substances deployed during sacrifice and as static and symbolic features of the sacred landscape, such as Theophrastus’s Sardian incense tree. Finally, I considered the great mobility of sacred scents and their capacity to affect the areas surrounding temples and rites, thereby extending both the space and the time of worship. In Chapter Two, I presented examples, drawn from our wealth of literary and material evidence, for the sounds of ancient sacrifice. After outlining in brief the influence of the Etruscan and Greek traditions on the development of Roman cult music, |
