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WebComparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. For a more extended analysis of the distinction between the punishment of unchaste Vestals and, on the one hand, sacrifice and, on the other, secular capital punishment, see Schultz Reference Schultz2012. Possible Answers: Roman temples were built on the ruins of previous structures. The most common form of ritual killing among the Romans was the disposal of hermaphroditic children.Footnote 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 As in a relief from the Forum of Trajan now in the Louvre (Ryberg Reference Ryberg1955: fig. the killing of the animal was not it, at least in an early period. Interim ex fatalibus libris sacrificia aliquot extraordinaria facta, inter quae Gallus et Galla, Graecus et Graeca in foro boario sub terram vivi demissi sunt in locum saxo consaeptum, iam ante hostiis humanis, minime Romano sacro, imbutum. 32 Peter=FRH F33. On the Latin terminology for living sacrificial victims, see Prescendi Reference Prescendi2009. Let me be clear. Ernout and Meillet Reference Ernout and Meillet1979: 376 s.v. Cornell, T. J. The Romans performed at least four forms of ritual killing, only one of which was sacrifice. Since Greeks were the first ones, Romans followed them. Lodwick, Lisa This is a bad answer - I don't have sources available. It is my understanding that we lack a great deal of the sources needed for an emic unders McClymond treats sacrificial events as clusters of different types of activities, including prayer, killing, cooking, and consumption, which are not in and of themselves sacrificial (they are frequently performed in other contexts), but which become sacrificial in the aggregate (McClymond Reference McClymond2008: 2534). The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease. These two passages from Pliny and Apuleius may provide an explanation for the hundreds of thousands of miniature fictile vessels (plates, cups, etc.) Dogs: Fest. incense,Footnote Footnote molo; Walde and Hofmann Reference Walde and Hofmann1954: 2.1046 s.v. Paul. 62 WebWhat's the Greek word for sacrifice? J. As in the Greek world, sacrifice was the central ritual of religion. 81, Here we have two rituals that look, to an outsider, almost identical, but Livy takes pains to distinguish between them. 83 08 June 2016. The ritual is so closely tied to the notion of dining that polluctum could be used for everyday meals (e.g., Plaut., Rud. See Oakley Reference Oakley1998: 481 and Sacco Reference Sacco2004: 316. Mar. 38 Indeed these two rituals appear at first glance to be identical live interment in underground chambers, though admittedly in different locations within the city and with different victims. 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. 56 Here's a list of translations. molo. 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. Modern theorizations of sacrifice focus on animal victims, treating the sacrifice of vegetal substances, if they are considered at all, as an afterthought or simply setting vegetal offerings as a second, lesser ritual, a substitution or a pale imitation.Footnote and first fruits.Footnote e.g., Martens Reference Martens2004 and Lentacker, Ervynck and Van Neer Reference Lentacker, Ervynck, Van Neer, Martens and De Boe2004 on a mithraeum at Tienen in Belgium, King Reference King2005 on Roman Britain, and the various contributions to Lepetz and Van Andringa Reference Lepetz and van Andringa2008 on Roman Gaul. Create. The article is reprinted in McCutcheon Reference McCutcheon1999, a volume that offers in its introductory chapter a very good overview of the insider-outsider problem and that includes a selection of some of the most important scholarly contributions to the debate within the study of religion. As is implied in all the relevant entries in the OLD. As an example, I offer Var., R. 1.2.19: Itaque propterea institutum diversa de causa ut ex caprino genere ad alii dei aram hostia adduceretur, ad alii non sacrificaretur, cum ab eodem odio alter videre nollet, alter etiam videre pereuntem vellet. On the general absence of wild meat from the Roman diet, see MacKinnon Reference MacKinnon2004: 1902. WebOne major difference between Greek and Roman religion and Christianity is their understanding of the concept of deity. 97L: Immolare est mola, id est farre molito et sale, hostiam perspersam sacrare (To immolate is to make sacred a victim sprinkled with mola, that is, with ground spelt and salt), a passage which also suggests that the link between immolatio and mola salsa was active in the minds of Romans in the early imperial period when the ultimate source of Paulus redaction, the dictionary written by Verrius Flaccus, was compiled.Footnote Elsner Reference Elsner2012 emphasizes the heavy influence of early Christian writers on modern theorizations of sacrifice. 5 Scheid Reference Scheid2005: 1002; Reference Scheid2012: 84. The closest any Roman source comes to linking devotio and sacrifice is Cic., Off. Marcos, Bruno It appears that no Roman source ever uses the language of sacrificium to describe devotio,Footnote 32 The burial of Gauls and Greeks was a sacrifice, but one that Romans ought not to have performed. 86 Similarities Between Greek And Roman Architecture Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. 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. Expert solutions. 98 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. 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. 30 Scheid's reconstruction focuses on a living victim, and this is in keeping with the ancient sources own emphasis on blood sacrifice. 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 Sacrificium included vegetal and inedible offerings, and it was not the only Roman ritual that had living victims. mactus; Walde and Hofmann Reference Walde and Hofmann1954: 2.4 s.v. Working with the two of them together, we can get a more nuanced understanding of a cultural habit. 52 A wider range of scholarly approaches is presented by McClymond Reference McClymond2008: 124. 6.34. from the archaic temple at the site of S. Omobono in Rome.Footnote As suggested by Bouma Reference Bouma1996: 1.23841. 34 As in other cultures, Roman sacrifice was not a single act, but instead comprised a series of actions that gain importance in relationship to each other.Footnote } There is also a queen of gods in Greek and Roman mythologies. Finally, while other rituals seem to have fallen into desuetude, or at least to have fallen out of the literature, by the late Republic or early Empire, sacrificium remained a vital part of Roman religious life for centuries. See also n. 9 above. 90 12 92 and for his old-fashioned frugality and incorruptibility.Footnote Q. Fabius Pictor was sent to the oracle at Delphi to ascertain by what prayers and supplications the Romans might placate the gods, and what end would there be to such calamities. Marcellus, de Medicamentis 8.50; Palmer Reference Palmer and Hall1996: 234. Fest. 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. Martins, Manuela and again in 114 or 113 b.c.e. The prominence of animal victims in Roman accounts overshadows a substantial number of passages that make it absolutely clear that Roman gods received sacrifices of inanimate edibles. On fourteen occasions between 209 and 92 b.c.e., androgyne infants and children were included among the prodigies reported to the Roman Senate. The vast majority of the bones come from pigs, sheep, and goats. An emic explanation is essential for understanding how people within a given system understand that system, but because it is culturally and historically bounded, its use is somewhat limited. 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 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. There is growing consensus that the answer is affirmative. 100 It is unfortunate that the ancient sources on vegetal sacrifice are as exiguous as they are: it is not possible to determine what relationship its outward form bore to blood sacrifice. Scheid Reference Scheid1998: nn. In Livy's account of the first devotio in 340 b.c.e. Bottom line: The Greeks tended towards greater personification of their gods; the Romans tended towards their religion being a series of quid pro quo transactions with uncovered in votive deposits throughout Italy. Two famous examples are found on the altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus (Ryberg Reference Ryberg1955: fig. 100 How, if these animals did not make desirable entrees, could they be considered suitable for sacrifice? Comparative mythology This is a clear difference from Athena, who was never associated with the weather. Tagliacozzo Reference Tagliacozzo1989: 66. to the fourth century c.e. You would do well to remember that there were very few similarities between Roman and Greek religion until the Romans began borrowing from the Gree The basic argument transfers well to the Roman context. 76. WebThe gods, heroes, and humans of Greek mythology were flawed. Significant exceptions to this rule in the study of Roman sacrifice are the treatment of the sacrifice of wheat and wine in Scheid Reference Scheid2012 and the argument for the increased popularity of vegetal sacrifice in Late Antiquity advanced by Elsner Reference Elsner2012. 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. 450 Krenkel; Hor., Sat. Ryberg Reference Ryberg1955: figs 83 and 89b. aryxnewland. The quotation comes from Frankfurter Reference Frankfurter2011: 75. The ritual ended with a litatio, that is, the inspection of the animal's entrails, and it was then followed by a meal. Liv. Footnote The modern assumption that sacrifice requires an animal victim obfuscates the full range of sacrificium among the Romans. We do not know what name the Romans gave the ritual burial of an unchaste Vestal Virgin, but we know it was not sacrifice. Finally, it appears that some of these rites ceased to be performed by some point in the imperial period and that sacrificium continued for centuries. 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. In Greek and Roman religion, the gods and There is no question that the live interment of the Gauls and Greeks was a sacrifice: Livy identifies it as one of the sacrifices not part of the usual practice ordered by the Sibylline Books (sacrificia extraordinaria). 87 Plutarch is the only source for dog sacrifice at the Lupercalia (RQ 68 and 111=Mor. There is also a queen of gods in Greek and Roman mythologies. 4 58 13 Dogs had other ritual uses as well. 57 A parallel use of sacrificare is found in Apuleius Apologia 18, a passage which also shares Pliny's focus on poverty: paupertas, inquam, prisca aput saecula omnium civitatium conditrix, omnium artium repertrix, omnium peccatorum inops, omnis gloriae munifica, cunctis laudibus apud omnis nationes perfuncta. 82 On the contrary, Greek religion did not prefer to execute rituals as much as Roman sacrifice - Oxford Reference Through the outsider point of view, we can interpret it in light of comparable behaviours in other cultures. Livy also uses the language of sacrifice when he describes the underground room as a place that had already seen human victims.Footnote Art historians have debated whether the choice to encapsulate the entirety of sacrificial experience in a scene of libation rather than a scene of animal slaughter (or vice versa) may tell us something about what was being emphasized as significant about sacrifice at that time or context.Footnote Minerva and Athena: Roman vs. Greek Goddesses of War 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. Goats: Var., R. 1.2.19; Liv. Those studying ancient Greece and Rome in general and those focusing on Roman religion in particular have been wrestling with these issues for some time even if the terms of the discussion have not been explicit.Footnote 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. 67 Also Var., Men. Livy's abhorrence of the Romans action is in line with other Roman authors disgust at the performance of sacrificium on humans by other ethnic groups, especially Carthaginians and Gauls.Footnote Roman sacrificium is both less and more than the typical etic notion of sacrifice. The main god and goddesses in Roman culture were Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Yet so stark is the discrepancy between his (assumed) outsider perspective and our own insider understanding of the value of a bathroom, that most readers do not recognize themselves the first time they read this piece. 22.57.26, discussed also in Schultz Reference Schultz2012: 1267. 38 72 WebThe standard view of paganism (traditional city-based polytheistic Graeco-Roman religion) in the Roman empire has long been one of decline beginning in the second and first centuries BC. 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. Although Roman sources identify some specific types of sacrifice (e.g., sollemne, piaculare, lustrale, anniversarium), they do not identify any of the other rituals under discussion here as types of sacrificium.Footnote The ritual seems to be even more flexible than sacrificium in the range of objects on which it could be performed. Roman Gods vs. Greek Gods: Know the Difference ex Fest. 14 Roman Sacrifice, Inside and Out* | The Journal of Roman Studies 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 According to Pliny, Curius declared under oath that he had appropriated for himself no booty praeter guttum faginum, quo sacrificaret (N.H. 16.185).