differences between greek and roman sacrifice differences between greek and roman sacrifice

Instead they seem to have conceived of it as the ritual consecration of an animal which was afterwards killed and eaten. It appears that if a worshipper could not afford to sacrifice something that was itself tasty, he might fulfill his obligation by giving something that evoked the idea of it.Footnote Greek Polluctum is a rite of wider scope than sacrificium, however, in that it could be performed on money and goods that do not appear to have been linked to eating in any way. Finally, both ancient societies have twelve main gods and goddesses. 1 Hemina fr. Roman sources make clear that Romans had several different rituals (sacrificium, polluctum, and magmentum) that appear, based on prominent structural similarities, to have been related to one another. and Narbo in Gallia Narbonensis (CIL 12.4333, dated to 11 c.e.). Paul. The present study argues that looking at the relationship between sacrificium as it is presented in Roman sources and comparing that with modern notions of sacrifice reveals that some important, specific aspects of what has been conceived of as Roman sacrifice are not there in the ancient sources and may not be part of how the Romans perceived their ritual. 26 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. Test. 5 The difference between Greek Gods and Roman Gods is that Greek gods have unique names of their own, whereas, Roman gods are thysa. The small size of the guttus and simpulum is assured by Varro (L. 5.124), who identifies both as vessels that pour out liquid minutatim. The Ancient Greek Underworld ex Fest. ex Fest. This is the insider-outsider problem in nuce. 1; Sall., Hist. To my knowledge, the sole exception is a phrase preserved twice in the Commentarii Fratrum Arvalium (Scheid Reference Scheid1998: nn. ipsilles with 398L, s.v. WebIn Greek mythology the king of gods is known as Zeus, whereas Romans call the king of gods Jupiter. These offerings, ubiquitous in Roman Italy through to the end of the Republic, are mentioned at most twice in extant Latin literature.Footnote (ed.) 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 The same two interment rituals would be performed alongside one another again just about a century later, in 113 b.c.e. 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. The more powerful individuals in the society have several shrines in their houses and, in fact, the opulence of a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possesses. Render date: 2023-03-04T10:22:59.089Z 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. As has long been recognized, sacrificare and sacrificium are compounds of the phrase sacrum facere (to render sacred), and what is sacrum is anything that belongs to the gods.Footnote Aeacus holds the keys to Hades. 344L, s.v. 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. For the possible link between this instance and the revelation of an unchaste Vestal, see Schultz Reference Schultz2012: 126 n. 18. 33 WebThe first way that Roman is different than Christian is because of there believe in gods. 17 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. The errors and flaws that remain are all my own. As illustrated by Livy's description of the first Decius to perform the ritual as he rode out to meet the enemy: aliquanto augustior humano visu, sicut caelo missus (8.9.10). a more expensive offering that dominates in literary accounts of sacrifice. The presence of bones from these species at S. Omobono should not be taken to mean that the site was what scholars call a healing sanctuary, or that it was a place where people came to cast spells on their enemies. This is a clear difference from Athena, who was never associated with the weather. Chr. Aldrete's survey of images commonly identified as sacrifice scenes makes clear that Roman art depicts different procedures (hitting with a hammer, chopping with an axe) and implements (hammers, axes, knives), and that the preference of implement changes over time. The basic argument transfers well to the Roman context. In Livy's account of the first devotio in 340 b.c.e. WebStudy with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Which temples were Greek and which were Roman?, When was the Temple of Zeus at Olympia built?, What the features of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia? Contra Prescendi Reference Prescendi2007: 223. Jupiter also concentrated on protecting the Roman state. 3.12.2. When the Romans sacrificed plant matter to the gods, it appears to be because that is what it was appropriate to do in the specific circumstance. The literary evidence for this is slender but persuasive. 11 The Romans were aware of the link, as is made clear by Paul. 93 Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. 287L, s.v. 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. For many readers of Latin, the most obvious translation of the Latin is except a beechwood cruet with which he would offer sacrifice, taking quo as an instrumental ablative and thereby making the vessel an instrument of sacrifice rather than the object of sacrifice itself. 66 Perhaps these reliefs preserve the performance of one or more of the rituals that seem to have faded in popularity by the high imperial period: magmentum and polluctum. 6 13 10 The ultimate conclusion of this investigation is that, although in many important ways this ritual comes close to aligning with the dominant modern understanding of sacrifice, Roman sacrificium is both more and less than the ritualized killing of a living being as an offering to the divine:Footnote 61 The expanded range of sacrificium suggests that meat and vegetal produce were both welcomed by the gods, and that we should not assume that meat offerings were necessarily privileged over other gifts in every circumstance. 93L, s.v. MacKinnon Reference MacKinnon2004: 5974. 3 This is suggested by Ov., F. 1.1278. and the second century c.e. For example, think about the Roman and Greek mythologies about gods. Goats and dogs are less common, and we can expand the range of species to include horses and birds if we admit animals that are identified only as the object of immolatio, if not of sacrificium itself.Footnote Cornell, T. J. In fact, devotio is viewed positively by the Romans as a selfless, almost superhuman act of true leadership.Footnote Cf. 43 Pliny and Apuleius may reflect an lite misconception about the religious praxis of lower class worshippers, offering an incorrect, emic interpretation of an observable phenomenon. favisae. 35 Greeks call the queen Hera, whereas Romans queen of gods is Juno. Var., L 5.122. Douglas Reference Douglas and Douglas1982: 117. 35 There is no evidence, contra Parker Reference Parker2004 and Wildfang Reference Wildfang2006: 589, that the Romans ever perceived the punishment of a Vestal as sacrifice. For example, Cic., Rep. 3.15 and Font. From this same root also derives the name for the mixture sprinkled on the animal before it was killed, mola salsa.Footnote Another famous instance of this scene is on the Boscoreale cup (Aldrete Reference Aldrete2014: 33, fig. 80 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. 358L. for this article. 82. It is important to remember, however, that no ancient source articulates any sort of relationship among these rituals. Hostname: page-component-7fc98996b9-rf4gk Furthermore, there is reason to think that the crucial moment, or perhaps the first crucial moment, in the whole ritual process of sacrificium for the Romans was the sprinkling of mola salsa onto the victim, whereas several important modern theorizations of sacrifice place the greatest emphasis on, and see the essential meaning of sacrifice in, the moment of slaughter. 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. 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). ), Dictionnaire tymologique de la langue latine, Interpreting sacrificial ritual in Roman poetry: disciplines and their models, Rituals in Ink: A Conference on Religion and Literary Production in Ancient Rome, La mise mort sacrificielle sur les reliefs romains, La Violence dans les mondes grec et romain, Le sacrifice disparu: les reliefs de boucherie, Sacrifices, march de la viande et pratiques alimentaires dans les cits du monde romain, I reperti ossei animali nell'area archeologica di S. Omobono (19621964), Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia, Animal remains from temples in Roman Britain, The symbolic meaning of the cock: the animal remains from the, Roman Mithraism: the Evidence of the Small Finds, Archologie du sacrifice animal en Gaule romaine, Prodigy and Expiation: A Study in Religion and Politics in Republican Rome, Production and Consumption of Animals in Roman Italy, Re-thinking sacred rubbish: the ritual deposits of the temple of Mithras at Tienen (Belgium), Beyond Sacred Violence: A Comparative Study of Sacrifice, The Insider/Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion: A Reader, Views from inside and outside: integrating emic and etic insights about culture and justice judgment, Ricerche nell'area dei templi di Fortuna e Mater Matuta, Revue de philologie, de littrature et d'histoire anciennes, Etruscan Italy: Etruscan Influences on the Civilizations of Italy from Antiquity to the Modern Era, Why were the Vestals virgins? 22.57.26, discussed also in Schultz Reference Schultz2012: 1267. It is likely, but admittedly not certain, that the concept of sacrificium I delineate here was also at play in citizen communities throughout the Empire, at least at moments when those communities performed public rituals in the same manner as did people in the capital. 344L and 345L, s.v. 16 The Gods in Greek and Roman mythology, while initially having almost no differentiation (we could easily lose in the Spot the difference game), yet started slowly being more dependent on the civilization where they were worshiped. Similarities and Differences Between Greek and Roman 2019. to the fourth century c.e. 62. Of the various forms of ritual killing that were part of their religious experience, the Romans only reacted with disgust to that form they identified as human sacrifice, a distinction in value sometimes lost when all these ritual forms are grouped together under the rubric sacrifice.Footnote What is the difference between the Ancient Greek religion and 72 Poorer families imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrine walls.Footnote Has data issue: true 63 Gel. Was a portion consumed later? This disjuncture between physical remains and written accounts is another reminder of the bias of our ancient authors toward the activities of the rich and toward state ritual. Scholars frequently stress the connection between sacrifice and eating: The idea of food underlies the idea of sacrifice.Footnote History of Europe - Greeks, Romans, and barbarians | Britannica Sacrificium is the performance of a complex of actions that presents the gods with an edible gift by the sprinkling of mola salsa and the ultimate goal of which seems to be the feeding of both gods and men. Footnote 85 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. 31. The Similarities And Differences Of Greek And Roman Religions frag. 36 89 6.34. Reed, Kelly Ernout and Meillet Reference Ernout and Meillet1979: 376 s.v. 1 Answer. 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. ex. Furthermore, because there were multiple rituals not just sacrificium through which the Romans could share food and other goods with their gods, we can see that the Romans had a wider range of ritual tools available to them for communicating with the divine. Pliny reports a ritual, possibly sacrifice (res divina fit, 29.58), involving a dog in honour of the little-known goddess, Genita Mana (cf. 450 Krenkel; Hor., Sat. Modern etymologists disagree on the origin of the term. Macr., Sat. 25 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. Learn. I use ritual killing as a blanket term for any rite, including but not limited to sacrifice, that involves the death of a human being. Moses, Reference Moses, Brocato and Terrenatoforthcoming, table 8. 101. Ankarloo and Clark Reference Ankarloo and Clark1999: 756; Wilburn Reference Wilburn2012: 8790. 94 View all Google Scholar citations refriva faba. Neither Miner's nor his reader's understanding is right and the other wrong: they are two different views of the same set of data, and both are valuable. 5 Major Differences Between the Greco-Roman Gods and the God 31; Plin., N.H. 36.39; Tac., Ann. 84 hasContentIssue true, Copyright The Author(s) 2016. As proof, he recounts a story about M. 91 In addition to Zeus and Hera, there were many other major and minor gods in the Greek religion. 50 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. 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. 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 Roman Sacrifice, Inside and Out* | The Journal of Roman Studies 216,Footnote Schultz Reference Schultz2010: 5202. 1034 seems to draw an equivalence between sacrificare and mactare (cf. wine,Footnote molo; Walde and Hofmann Reference Walde and Hofmann1954: 2.1046 s.v. The Romans then observed a regular set of expiatory rituals, most importantly offerings made to the goddesses Ceres and Proserpina by matrons of the city and the procession of a chorus of twenty-seven virgins. 39 that contain scenes of ritual slaughter where the implements can be clearly discerned.Footnote 77L, s.v. There are many other non-meat sacrifices the Romans could offer. 13 Peter=FRH F17. The distinction is preserved by Suet., Prat. The modern assumption that sacrifice requires an animal victim obfuscates the full range of sacrificium among the Romans. The vast majority of the bones come from pigs, sheep, and goats. Test. Magmentum also appears in two imperial leges sacrae pertaining to the observance of the Imperial cult preserved in inscriptions found in the Roman colonies of Salona in Dalmatia (CIL 3.1933, dated to 137 c.e.) WebIn Greek mythology the king of gods is known as Zeus, whereas Romans call the king of gods Jupiter. ex Fest. Difference Between Greek Gods and Roman Gods WebOn the whole, political development in Greece followed a pattern: first the rule of kings, found as early as the period of Mycenaean civilization; then a feudal period, the Footnote Plutarch is the only source for dog sacrifice at the Lupercalia (RQ 68 and 111=Mor. 34 Vaz, Filipe Costa The most famous account is Livy's description of the Romans reaction to their losses at Cannae and Canusium to Hannibal in 216 b.c.e.,Footnote 85 were linked.Footnote 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. 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. 34 4.57. 93 We also find that the gods were open to receiving sacrifices of vegetables, grains, liquids, and, when those were not available, miniature versions of the serveware that would normally have contained them. Augustine, Civ. Although they are universally referred to as votive offerings in the scholarly literature, it is possible that they are, technically, sacrifices. 5401L. Foundational is the collection of essays on Greek sacrifice in Detienne and Vernant Reference Detienne, Vernant and Wissing1989. What we find is that for the Romans, to sacrifice was not simply to kill in a ritual fashion. and again in 114 or 113 b.c.e. Total loading time: 0 Terms in this set (7) Which one Greek influences on Italian craftsmen in the 6 th century BC saw the image of But upon further reflection, in fact, the use of cruets and plates actually emphasizes the importance of the meal that concluded a Roman sacrifice. 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 97 56 Two differences between greek roman religion and christianity. 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. WebComparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. It is entirely possible that miniature ceramics were not, in reality, less expensive offerings than actual foodstuffs. In the sacred realm, Romans could also pollucere a tithe to the god Hercules.Footnote Fontes, Lus 32 59 the ritual began with a procession that was followed by a praefatio, a preliminary offering of prayers, wine and incense. 3.763829. Neither of the acts that Pliny mentions is explicitly identified as sacrificium, or as any other rite in particular. Yet to limit the consideration of immolatio to the moment of killing is to overlook the other actions (running a knife along the animal's back, cutting a few hairs from it) that Scheid has identified as being part of that stage of sacrificium Here I use it as a tool to get at one aspect of Roman religious thought; I do not offer a sustained methodological critique of contemporary approaches of Roman antiquity. The closest any Roman source comes to linking devotio and sacrifice is Cic., Off. This has repercussions for our understanding of some elements of Roman religious thought. Plaut., Amph. 17ac) and the Cancellaria relief (Ryberg Reference Ryberg1955: fig. 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. 2 68 73 The Romans, however, developed a more naturalistic approach to their art. subsilles. Comparative mythology 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. The numerous sources for this event are collected and analysed in Engels Reference Engels2007: 41618, 4438. 64 It was used by Cicero in the opening of his speech Post Reditum and by the figure of Cotta, consul of 75 b.c.e., in a fragment of Sallust's Historiae to present themselves as victims for the greater good.Footnote Parents: Aeacus: Zeus and Aegina; Rhadamanthus and Minos: Zeus and Europa. 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. In this way, the native, or emic, Roman view of sacrifice is more expansive than ours. milk,Footnote 49 ex Fest. 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. The most famous vegetal offering occurred at the Liberalia, the festival of the god Liber, described by Varro: Liberalia dicta, quod per totum oppidum eo die sedent sacerdotes Liberi anus hedera coronatae cum libis et foculo pro emptore sacrificantes (The Liberalia is so called because on that day priestesses of Liber, old women crowned with ivy, settle themselves throughout the whole town with cakes and a brazier, making sacrifices on behalf of the customer).Footnote 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. WebThe Greeks were striving for perfection in their art while the Romans were striving for real life people. In what follows, I aim to clear away a few of the accretions that have arisen from more than a century of modern theorizing about the nature and meaning of sacrifice as a universal human phenomenon in order to gain a better understanding of those actions that the Romans identify by the Latin words sacrificium and sacrificare.Footnote Differences between Greek and Roman sacrifices Flashcards Van Straten Reference Van Straten1995: 188. In Books 29 and 30 of his Natural History, the elder Pliny includes lizards in numerous medicinal recipes to cure everything from hair loss (29.108) to lower back pain (30.53) to dysentery (30.55), and the only text we have that identifies the contents of a bulla, the amulet worn by young Roman boys, instructs the reader to put lizard eyes inside it.Footnote 57 15 At 8.10.1112, Livy notes that a commander could devote one of his soldiers rather than himself. In addition to such great disasters, the people were terrified both by other prodigies and because in this year two Vestals, Opimia and Floronia, were discovered to have had illicit affairs. For illustration, we can turn once again to the elder Pliny, who writes about the habits of the Gallic tribes north of the Alps: et nuperrime trans Alpis hominem immolari gentium earum more solitum, quod paulum a mandendo abest (And very recently, on the other side of the Alps, in accordance with the custom of those peoples, individuals were habitually sacrificed, which is not all that far from eating them N.H. 7.9). Home. Ernout and Meillet Reference Ernout and Meillet1979: 411 s.v. WebWhat's the Greek word for sacrifice? 40 Greek Gods vs Roman Gods. 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. 8.10.)). 68 It is understandable that, from the etic viewpoint, two rituals performed in roughly the same way should appear to be identical to each other, even if emic accounts distinguish between them. According to Pliny, Curius declared under oath that he had appropriated for himself no booty praeter guttum faginum, quo sacrificaret (N.H. 16.185). Footnote Differences Cic., Red. Compare Var., R. 2.8.1. 3.3.2, citing the late republican jurist Trebatius; Prescendi Reference Prescendi2007: 256. Flashcards. 87 Now, the Romans did not eat people, so how does their performance of human sacrifice reinforce the link between sacrifice and dining? The corresponding substantive is magmentum, a type of offering laid out only at certain temples.Footnote 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. WebAnswer (1 of 3): The differences between the heroes of Greco-Roman mythology come down to significant contrasts in the cultural identities of both civilisations. 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. Greeks call the queen Hera, whereas Romans queen of gods is Juno. 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. By looking at Roman sacrificium through the insider-outsider lens, by keeping in sight what is there in the sources, what we add to it, and where our modern notion of sacrifice does and does not align with the Romans own idea, we have a sharper, more detailed picture of one aspect of Roman antiquity. The two texts are nearly identical and perhaps go back to the original lex sacra of the altar of Diana on the Aventine hill in Rome, to which the inscriptions explicitly appeal. 7 Sacrificium included vegetal and inedible offerings, and it was not the only Roman ritual that had living victims. ex Fest. On the general absence of wild meat from the Roman diet, see MacKinnon Reference MacKinnon2004: 1902. Somewhat surprising is the considerably smaller presence of bovines,Footnote Var., L. 5.112; see also Cic., Har. Our author makes clear that the sacrifice of two Gauls and two Greeks happened alongside another ritual: the punishment of an unchaste Vestal Virgin. 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 ), 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. 90 Ryberg Reference Ryberg1955: figs 83 and 89b. This should prompt researchers, myself included, to greater caution when presenting a native in our case, Roman point of view and to greater clarity about whether the concept under discussion at any given moment is really the Romans or ours, or is shared by both groups.