The survival beyond the early Empire of most aspects of the distinction among ritual forms discussed in Section IV cannot be asserted with any confidence. The Romans, however, developed a more naturalistic approach to their art. One relatively well documented example is the collection of bones dating to the seventh and sixth centuries b.c.e. Studies of sacrifice have noted the etymological connection between immolare and mola salsa, but have not, for the most part, pressed its value for what it may reveal about where the Romans may have placed the emphasis. 44 Therefore, instead of privileging either the emic or etic, I argue for an increased awareness of the insider-outsider distinction and for an approach to Roman religion that makes use of both emic and etic concepts. and Paul. Also Var., Men. Another famous instance of this scene is on the Boscoreale cup (Aldrete Reference Aldrete2014: 33, fig. Fontes, Lus 24 To give just a single example, we know that there was originally some technical distinction among the different types of divine signs sent to the Romans by the gods. 56 One does, however, sacrifice with a cow, with a pig, or with a little cruet. 57 32 There is also a queen of gods in Greek and Roman mythologies. 58 and again in 114 or 113 b.c.e. 19 81, Here we have two rituals that look, to an outsider, almost identical, but Livy takes pains to distinguish between them. The most common images of blood sacrifice in Roman art are procession scenes of animals being led to the altar or standing before it, waiting for mola salsa to be applied to them.Footnote 6.34. WebComparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. See Oakley Reference Oakley1998: 481 and Sacco Reference Sacco2004: 316. 90 How, if these animals did not make desirable entrees, could they be considered suitable for sacrifice? The exact nature of the connection between the two rituals is not clear, but I agree with Eckstein Reference Eckstein1982 that we should not see the sacrifice of Gauls and Greeks as some sort of atonement for the unchastity of the Vestals. 358L, s.v. 89 rutilae canes; Var., L. 6.16. More rare are images like those on the arches of Trajan at Benevento and of Septimius Severus at Lepcis Magna which show the moment that the axe is swung.Footnote (ed.) While Romans had many god they belief in that they believed in and they would sacrifice items to the gods so positive things would happened and if something bad happened than people blame the king or whoever does the sacrifice to the gods. 92 Created by. The distinction between sacrificare and mactare was lost by Late Antiquity, but it was still active in the Republic and early Empire.Footnote Although the focus of this investigation is the recovery of some details of the Romans idea of sacrificium, I do not mean to imply that their concept is the right one and that the modern idea is wrong or completely inapplicable to the Roman context. This meant that 45.16.6. Nacirema is American spelt backwards, and Miner shows to, and interprets for, us our own bathroom habits.Footnote 88. 8.9 per cent of the total, according to Moses, Reference Moses, Brocato and Terrenatoforthcoming, table 2. The S. Omobono material shows a definite preference for certain species (sheep, goats, pigs),Footnote Hammers appear in only fifteen scenes, two-thirds of which date between the first century b.c.e. Dog corpses were sometimes deposited with tablets that contained curses, and dog figurines are among the required items for performing some spells.Footnote Max. 58 WebWhile both civilizations left astonishing changes in the world, the developments made by Greek thinkers outdo those of the Aztecs when evaluating their creation of a prosperous government, understanding of literature, and enlightened ideas. The other rite observed by the Romans that required a human death was called devotio, and it seems to have been restricted to a single family father, son, and grandson (it is possible our sources have multiplied a single occasion), all of whom, as commanders-in-the-field, vowed to commit themselves and the enemy troops to the gods of the underworld in order to ensure a Roman victory. 64 For this discussion, the metaphorical extension of the English word sacrifice, by which one can sacrifice for one's family or hit a sacrifice fly in baseball, is not relevant: this meaning is completely unknown to the Romans of the Classical period. Dogs had other ritual uses as well. 77 Greeks call the queen Hera, whereas Romans queen of gods is Juno. Test. 82. The distinction is preserved by Suet., Prat. Military commanders would pay homage to Jupiter at his temple after and for his old-fashioned frugality and incorruptibility.Footnote The vast majority of the bones come from pigs, sheep, and goats. Sic factum ut Libero patri, repertori vitis, hirci immolarentur, proinde ut capite darent poenas; contra ut Minervae caprini generis nihil immolarent propter oleam, quod eam quam laeserit fieri dicunt sterilem (And so therefore, it has been established by opposing justifications that victims of the caprine sort are brought to the altar of one deity, but they are not sacrificed at the altar of another, since on account of the same hatred, one does not want to see a goat and the other desires to see one perish. 1 An exception is Scheid Reference Scheid2005: 52. There is a small amount of evidence for a form of auspicium performed with beans: Fest. That we cannot fully recover what were the critical differences among these rites is frustrating, but the situation is certainly not unique in the study of Roman religion. But we can no longer recover indeed it appears that Romans of the early Empire could no longer recover what was the difference between a monstrum, a prodigium, a portentum, and an ostentum.Footnote It is important to note that there is no indication that these vegetal offerings were thought to be substitutions for what would have been, in better circumstances, animal victims.Footnote MacKinnon Reference MacKinnon2004: 5974. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. 63 ex Fest. The basic argument transfers well to the Roman context. View all Google Scholar citations At the centre of the whole complex was the immolatio, during which the animal was sprinkled with mola salsa (a mixture of spelt and salt), the flat of a knife was run along its back, and then it was slaughtered. Test. Although there is substantial evidence for other types of sacrificial offerings in the literary sources (see below, Section III), Roman authors do not discuss them at length, preferring instead to talk about grand public sacrifices of multiple animal victims. Far less common in the S. Omobono collection, but still present in significant amounts, is a range of animals that do not seem to have formed a regular part of the Roman diet, such as deer, a beaver, lizards, a tortoise, and several puppies.Footnote Knives would have been used only in conjunction with one or other of these implements. Lodwick, Lisa Aldrete Reference Aldrete2014: 32. The errors and flaws that remain are all my own. Curius Dentatus, famous for his victory over Pyrrhus in 275 b.c.e. ), the Romans followed instructions from the Sibylline Books to bury alive pairs of Gauls and Greeks, one man and one woman of each, in the Forum Boarium. J. For an argument that wild animals are more common in ancient Mediterranean, and specifically in Etruscan, sacrifice than is generally acknowledged, see Rask Reference Rask2014. 83 358L. molo. Were they always burnt on an altar or brazier? Rpke Reference Rpke, Georgoudi, Piettre and Schmidt2005 offers a different interpretation of the meal that follows the sacrifice. 1419). 93 68 Scheid Reference Scheid2005: 1002; Reference Scheid2012: 84. An etic approach allows the researcher to see functions, causes, and consequences of insider behaviours and habits that may be invisible to the people who perform them, as Miner illustrated for us. 5401L. and for front limbs.Footnote While there is a growing body of work done on the osteoarchaeological material from other regions of the Empire, especially the north-western provinces,Footnote Working with the two of them together, we can get a more nuanced understanding of a cultural habit. There is a small group of other rituals that share certain structural similarities with sacrificium, but which the Romans during the Republic and early Empire appear to have distinguished from it. subsilles. Douglas Reference Douglas and Douglas1982: 117. 3.12.2. and Paul. Expert solutions. The statues made in Greece were made with perfect people in mind often modeled after gods and goddesses, while the statues in Rome have all the faults a real person would have. This is made clear in numerous passages from several Roman authors. A brief survey of the bone assemblages from sites in west-central Italy is offered by Bouma Reference Bouma1996: 1.22841. 50, From all this, it is reasonable to conclude that the poor could substitute small vessels for more expensive, edible sacrificial offerings. On three occasions during the Republic (228,Footnote Foundational is the collection of essays on Greek sacrifice in Detienne and Vernant Reference Detienne, Vernant and Wissing1989. WebWhat are the main differences between Greek and Roman gods? Minos gave laws to Crete. 99 Match. Paul. See, however, C. Ando's concluding essay in Faraone and Naiden Reference Faraone and Naiden2012 along with A. Hollman's review of that same volume in BMCR 2013.04.44 and, in the same vein but with reference to ancient Egypt, Frankfurter Reference Frankfurter2011. ex. 344L, s.v. 39 34 As a comparandum, we can point to the Roman habit of creating votive deposits, collections of usually relatively inexpensive items buried in the ground: gifts to the gods that had been cleaned out of overstuffed temples and intentionally buried. 283F284C; Liv., Per. Plaut., Amph. Learn. 61 I have tried to respond to them all. 31; Plin., N.H. 36.39; Tac., Ann. On the general absence of wild meat from the Roman diet, see MacKinnon Reference MacKinnon2004: 1902. Pollucere is an old word, appearing mostly in literature of the second century b.c.e.,Footnote 52 Another major difference between Greek gods and Roman gods is in the physical appearance of the deities. 60 3.95: Quid Agamemnon, cum devovisset Dianae quod in suo regno pulcherrimum natum esset illo anno, immolavit Iphigeniam, qua nihil erat eo quidem anno natum pulchrius? Because the context is Greek, it is safe to assume that Cicero is using, as he often does elsewhere when addressing a general audience, technical terms in a very general way. most famously those of Burkert, who identifies sacrificial slaughter as the basic experience of the sacred, and Girard, who begins his investigation into the origin of sacrifice by asserting its close kinship to murder and criminal violence.Footnote 46 It is entirely possible that miniature ceramics were not, in reality, less expensive offerings than actual foodstuffs. 51, There is, of course, a large leap in scale from two literary references to an explanation for a ritual practice performed in hundreds of locations over many centuries. Sacrificium included vegetal and inedible offerings, and it was not the only Roman ritual that had living victims. This has repercussions for our understanding of some elements of Roman religious thought. Augustine, Civ. The insider-outsider problem has had little impact on the study of religion in pre-Christian Rome. Looking at Roman sacrifice through the insider-outsider lens lets us see more clearly that, for the Romans, sacrifice was both more and less than it is for many scholars writing about it today. Birds: Suet., Calig. Greek Translation. Tagliacozzo Reference Tagliacozzo1989: 66. 73 I presume that Miner's observations apply also to bathroom habits elsewhere in North America and Europe. WebWhile Greek and Roman sculpture and ruins are linked with the purity of white marble in the Western mind, most of the works were originally polychrome, painted in multiple, lifelike colors. 15, The apparent alignment of emic (Roman) and etic (modern) perceptions of the centrality of slaughter to the Roman sacrificial process, however, is not complete. Scheid Reference Scheid1998: nn. 62. Sacrifice was just one of several rites (alongside polluctum and magmentum) that the Romans had available to them that look to us, standing outside their religious system, as if they were all identical or nearly so. 65 [1] Comparative mythology has served a Fest. 56 eadem est enim paupertas apud Graecos in Aristide iusta, in Phocione benigna, in Epaminonda strenua, in Socrate sapiens, in Homero diserta. One was killed at the Colline Gate, under the earth as is the custom and the other took her own life Since this horrible event which occurred in the midst of so many terrible things, as is wont to happen, was turned into a prodigy, the Board of Ten Men was ordered to consult the Books. 537 Words 3 Pages Decent Essays Read More Cato's instruction to pollucere to Jupiter an assaria pecunia refers to produce valued at one as (Agr. It is probable, but not certain, that this is the same as the polluctum of ex mercibus libamenta mentioned by Varro at L. 6.54. Were these items sprinkled with mola salsa?Footnote 48 The modern assumption that sacrifice requires an animal victim obfuscates the full range of sacrificium among the Romans. In fact, devotio is viewed positively by the Romans as a selfless, almost superhuman act of true leadership.Footnote Compare Var., R. 2.8.1. The expression rem dvnam facer, to make a thing sacred, shows that sacrifice was an act of transfer of ownership. The elder Cato instructs his reader to pollucere a cup of wine and a daps (ritual meal) to Jupiter Dapalis (Agr. The lack of interest in vegetal sacrifice is widespread in the field of religious studies (McClymond Reference McClymond2008: 65). 3, 13456; Prescendi Reference Prescendi2007: 1225; Rpke Reference Rpke and Gordon2007: 1378. 22. Moses, Reference Moses, Brocato and Terrenatoforthcoming, table 8. 46 5 WebThe gods, heroes, and humans of Greek mythology were flawed. These two passages from Pliny and Apuleius may provide an explanation for the hundreds of thousands of miniature fictile vessels (plates, cups, etc.) Thus it happens that goats are immolated to Liber Pater, who discovered the vine, so that they pay him a penalty and, by a contrary logic, caprine victims are never immolated to Minerva on account of the olive: they say that whatever olive plant a goat bites becomes sterile). At N.H. 29.578, Pliny tells us that a dog was crucified annually at a particular location in Rome, and that puppies used to be considered to be such pure eating that they were used in place of victims (hostiarum vice) to appease the divine; puppy was still on the menu at banquets for the gods in Pliny's own day. magmentum; Serv., A. fabam and Fest. Elsner has proposed that the choice, increasingly frequent in the third century c.e., to represent the whole sacrificial ritual with libation and incense-burning scenes rather than with images involving animals is an indication of the increased emphasis on vegetarian sacrifice in that period.Footnote The argument I lay out here pertains to sacrificial practice as it was conceived by Romans living in Rome and those areas of Italy that came under their control early on, during the Republic and the early Empire. I concede that, to a certain extent, the insider-outsider lens does not show us difficulties that were previously invisible. WebFor example, the Peloponnesian War was primarily a struggle between two Greek city-states, Athens and Sparta, and was fought mainly on land and sea within the Greek world. 94 37 As is implied in all the relevant entries in the OLD. There are at least two other rituals that the Romans performed that also required the death of a person. We do not know what name the Romans gave the ritual burial of an unchaste Vestal Virgin, but we know it was not sacrifice. This statement and much of what follows is based on a series of searches in the Brepolis on-line database of Latin literature, Libraries A and B (http://apps.brepolis.net/BrepolisPortal/default.aspx) conducted throughout the summer of 2015. 4.57) is not clear. See, for example, Feeney Reference Feeney, Barchiesi, Rpke and Stephens2004, an excellent discussion of the application of theoretical models of sacrifice to the poetry of Vergil and Ovid. Greek gods had heavy emphasis placed on their 97 Yet, part of the work of a Roman historian is to try to understand how the Romans understood their world, to be aware of anachronism in our accounts thereof, and to keep in mind that the sources never truly speak for themselves. the ritual began with a procession that was followed by a praefatio, a preliminary offering of prayers, wine and incense. This draws further support from the fact that the object referred to by the instrumental ablatives that accompany the verb sacrificare is almost never a knife, an axe, a hammer, or other weapon.Footnote But while Roman devotio aligns well with our idea of self-sacrifice, it appears that the Romans did not draw a similar connection between devotio and sacrificium. Martins, Manuela 55.1.20 and 58.13) where the presence of an accusative object of immolare necessitates that cultro be instrumental in the traditional sense: ture et vino in igne in foculo fecit immolavitque vino mola cultroque Iovi o(ptimo) m(aximo) b(ovem) m(arem), Iunoni reginae b(ovem) f(eminam), Minervae b(ovem) f(eminam), Saluti publicae populi Romani Quiritium b(ovem) f(eminam).. These offerings, ubiquitous in Roman Italy through to the end of the Republic, are mentioned at most twice in extant Latin literature.Footnote 8 Furthermore, it seems reasonable to conclude that the miniature clay cows, birds, and other animals that are also commonly found in votive collections were also substitutes for live sacrificial victims.Footnote 37ab). Devotio is frequently called self-sacrifice by modern scholars,Footnote 1996: The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd edn), Oxford. On the early Christian appropriation and transformation of Roman sacrificial imagery and discourse, see Castelli Reference Castelli2004: 509. Macr., Sat. It is important to note, however, that we cannot determine conclusively from the extant sources what relationship, if any, existed among them in the Roman mind. 450 Krenkel; Hor., Sat. 86 Was a portion consumed later? WebWhile both civilizations left astonishing changes in the world, the developments made by Greek thinkers outdo those of the Aztecs when evaluating their creation of a prosperous Similar difficulties beset efforts, both ancient and modern, to reconstruct the technical differences among the concepts of sacer, sanctus, and religiosus: see Rives Reference Rives and Tellegen-Couperus2011. Also the same poverty has established from the very beginning an empire for the Roman people and, on behalf of this, still today she sacrifices to the immortal gods a little ladle and a dish made of clay. 95 286L and 287L, s.v. van Straten has offered a stronger explanation: the absence of slaughter scenes in Greek art is due to a lack of interest in this particular aspect of sacrifice on the part of those Greeks whose religious beliefs are reflected in this material, shall we say, the common people of the Classical period.Footnote Incarcerated in such a body, man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of the powerful influences of ritual and ceremony. See, for example, citations from Pomponius and Afranius in Non. Despite the fact that the S. Omobono assemblage dates to several centuries before the Classical period, the range of faunal remains from the site are primarily what one would expect from a sanctuary based on what we know from literary texts. The Romans performed at least four forms of ritual killing, only one of which was sacrifice. Columella 2.21.4 might also refer to dog sacrifice, but the verb (feceris) leaves it ambiguous as to which ritual was being performed. But upon further reflection, in fact, the use of cruets and plates actually emphasizes the importance of the meal that concluded a Roman sacrifice. 55 At present, large-scale analysis of faunal remains from sacred sites in Roman Italy remains a desideratum, but analysis of deposits of animal bones from the region seems to bear out the prevalence of these species in the Roman diet and as the object of religious ritual (whether sacrificium or not it is difficult to say).Footnote Also unfamiliar to the Romans would be another use of sacrifice now current in the life sciences, as a term for euthanasia of research animals with no real religious significance The plea of an editorial in the Canadian Journal of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Science from 1967 (p. 241) that researchers abandon the term because there is no deity involved in the act of euthanizing laboratory animals, fell on deaf ears: sacrifice remains common in animal management literature. By placing this variety of rites that the Romans had under the single rubric of sacrifice, we have lost sight of some of the complexity and nuance of Roman ritual life. noun. October equus. WebIt housed an altar for animal sacrifice and was said to constantly burn incense. 66 Plaut., Stich. 29 18 Upon examination of the Roman evidence, however, it becomes evident that this distinction is an etic one: while we see at least two different rituals, the Romans are clear that they sacrifice a wide range of food substances beyond animal flesh. 83 Goats: Var., R. 1.2.19; Liv. Instead they seem to have conceived of it as the ritual consecration of an animal which was afterwards killed and eaten.
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