differences between greek and roman sacrifice
21 and the second century c.e. Test. refriva faba. Two famous examples are found on the altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus (Ryberg Reference Ryberg1955: fig. We can push this second issue, what kinds of items can be the object of sacrifice, even further: Roman sacrifice, especially among the poor, was not limited to edible offerings. the ritual began with a procession that was followed by a praefatio, a preliminary offering of prayers, wine and incense. One relatively well documented example is the collection of bones dating to the seventh and sixth centuries b.c.e. Another animal sometimes sacrificed by the Romans but not regularly eaten by them is the human animal. 50 This is a clear difference from Athena, who was never associated with the weather. WebWhat's the Greek word for sacrifice? 36 Among these criteria are a clear preference for specific parts of an animal or for animals of a specific age/sex/species, unusual butchery patterns, burning or other alterations to the remains, and the association of the remains with other material (e.g., votive offerings) linked to ritual activity. Dogs, and puppies in particular, were thought to have some medicinal and magical properties: Pliny reports that some people thought the ashes of a dog's cranium, when consumed with a beverage, could cure abdominal pain (N.H. 30.53) and, when mixed with honey wine in particular, could cure jaundice (N.H. 30.93). and for looking at Roman religion in the context of other religious traditions. They were rewarded for their endeavors with the position of judge in the Underworld. 48 A wider range of scholarly approaches is presented by McClymond Reference McClymond2008: 124. For example, think about the Roman and Greek mythologies about gods. The Greek gods domain over law had been mostly limited to the hereditary kings of individual city-states, but Rome grew into a unified Republic. Sacrifices of wine and incense are common in the Commentarii Fratrum Arvalium, e.g. and The skeletal remains of dogs sometimes found interred with human remains or inside city walls are often interpreted as sacrifice by archaeologists.Footnote 100 280 BC and 290D; Rom. 73 Both Rhadamanthus and Aeacus were renowned for their justice. But one of the things that I consider quite interesting was the difference approaches that the Greeks and Romans had towards the Gods as a whole. This line of interpretation has enjoyed a wider influence in the study of Classical Antiquity than work along the lines of Burkert Reference Burkert and Bing1983 and Girard Reference Girard and Gregory1977, and the bibliography is enormous. WebThe Greeks were striving for perfection in their art while the Romans were striving for real life people. 100 favisae. 14 52 Pliny reports a ritual, possibly sacrifice (res divina fit, 29.58), involving a dog in honour of the little-known goddess, Genita Mana (cf. 41 216,Footnote Main Differences Between Romans and Greeks Romans appeared in history from 753 BC to 1453 while the Greeks thrived from 7000 BC (Neolithic Greeks) to 146 BC. 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. and for front limbs.Footnote Curius Dentatus, famous for his victory over Pyrrhus in 275 b.c.e. The expression rem dvnam facer, to make a thing sacred, Expert solutions. The offering of a dog to Robigus may be the same ritual as the augurium canarium referred to by Plin., N.H. 18.14. The present study turns the insider-outsider lens on the study of Roman sacrifice: it aims to trace, through an analysis of a set of Latin religious terminology, how Romans thought about sacrifice and to highlight how this conception, which I refer to by the Latin term sacrificium, relates to two dominant aspects of modern theorizations of sacrifice as a universal human behaviour: sacrifice as violence and sacrifice as ritual meal. 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. 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. WebRoman sacrificial practices were not functionally different from Greek, although the Roman rite was distinguishable from the Greek and Etruscan. I concede that, to a certain extent, the insider-outsider lens does not show us difficulties that were previously invisible. In contrast, as I have pointed out, Livy uses the language of sacrifice to describe the second interment and in the next breath expressly distances Roman tradition from it, calling it a rite scarcely Roman (minime Romano sacro). This is suggested by Ov., F. 1.1278. Other forms of ritual killing do not receive the same sort of negative judgement by Roman authors, and one form, devotio, even has strongly positive associations. 283F284C; Liv., Per. 81, Here we have two rituals that look, to an outsider, almost identical, but Livy takes pains to distinguish between them. 31. 10 For the Greeks 6 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. 31 The difference between Greek Gods and Roman Gods is that Greek gods have unique names of their own, whereas, Roman gods are 78 93L, s.v. Liv. 3 [1] Comparative mythology has served a For this same poverty is, among the Greeks, just in Aristides, kind in Phocion, vigorous in Epaminondas, wise in Socrates, and eloquent in Homer. Rarest of all are images depicting the litatio, the inspection of the animal's entrails that Romans performed after ritual slaughter to determine the will of the gods.Footnote In Greek and Roman religion, the gods and Aldrete Reference Aldrete2014: 32. On the contrary, Greek religion did not prefer to execute rituals as much as 94. 99 On the Latin terminology for living sacrificial victims, see Prescendi Reference Prescendi2009. and first fruits.Footnote The answer is that human sacrifice, which the Romans are quick to dismiss as something other people do (note that, although Livy is clear that the burial of Gauls and Greeks is a sacrifice, he also says that it was hardly a Roman rite), is closely linked in the Roman mind with cannibalism. 20 I owe many thanks to C. P. Mann, B. Nongbri, and J. N. Dillon for their thoughtful, challenging responses to earlier drafts of this article, and to audiences at Trinity College, Baylor University, and Bryn Mawr College for comments on an oral version of it. Huet Reference Huet and Bertrand2005; Reference Huet and van Andringa2007. 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 There is a difference, however. 08 June 2016. The database is a very useful, but not infallible tool. Of this class of rituals, sacrificium does seem to have been somehow different from the others. Vuli, Hrvoje On the early Christian appropriation and transformation of Roman sacrificial imagery and discourse, see Castelli Reference Castelli2004: 509. aryxnewland. It is possible that this genus-species relationship in fact existed in the Roman mind, as is perhaps suggested by the fact that sacrificare means to make sacred, and these other rituals seem to be different ways of doing the same work, namely transferring items from human to divine ownership. There are many other non-meat sacrifices the Romans could offer. Hammers appear in only fifteen scenes, two-thirds of which date between the first century b.c.e. 95 "useRatesEcommerce": false This has repercussions for our understanding of some elements of Roman religious thought. 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. 73 Thinking along the same lines, it is reasonable to conclude that there are relatively few images of slaughter among Roman sacrificial scenes in public artwork of the Classical period because the emphasis in state-sponsored sacrifice lay elsewhere. Match. The basic argument transfers well to the Roman context. The insider-outsider problem has had little impact on the study of religion in pre-Christian Rome. Scheid Reference Scheid1998: nn. 98 But upon further reflection, in fact, the use of cruets and plates actually emphasizes the importance of the meal that concluded a Roman sacrifice. 76 One does, however, sacrifice with a cow, with a pig, or with a little cruet. and Paul. The objectivity of the outside observer can also facilitate cross-cultural comparison. 3.763829. 93 53 rutilae canes; Var., L. 6.16. 77 Some more support for the notion that these were not interchangeable can be drawn from material evidence, visual representations of the moment of ritual slaughter. Ernout and Meillet Reference Ernout and Meillet1979: 411 s.v. Thus far, we have identified two points on which emic and etic ideas of what constitutes a Roman sacrifice do not align: when the critical transition from profane to sacred occurs and what kinds of things can be presented to the gods through the act of sacrificium. The main god and goddesses in Roman culture were Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. The hypothesis that only sacrificium required mola salsa is strongly supported by the sources, but because that is an argument ex silentio, it cannot be proved beyond all doubt. Nonius 539L identifies mactare with immolare, but the texts he cites do not really support his claim. The expression rem dvnam facer, to make a thing sacred, shows that sacrifice was an act of transfer of ownership. Aldrete counts at least fifty-six sculptural reliefs dating from the seventh century b.c.e. 29 eadem paupertas etiam populo Romano imperium a primordio fundavit, proque eo in
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