Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T09:47:06.881Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 3 - Ancient Greek Smellscapes and Divine Fragrances

Anthropomorphizing the Gods in Ancient Greek Culture

from Part II - Representation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2022

Esther Eidinow
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Armin W. Geertz
Affiliation:
Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
John North
Affiliation:
University College London
Get access

Summary

This chapter examines the ways that Greek gods were perceived as anthropomorphic, positing why and how these perceptions may have developed in relation to specific cultural forms, such as narrative. By drawing on the theory of situated conceptualization, within the framework of grounded cognition (as developed by Lawrence Barsalou), it aims to explore how the mind, body, and physical and social environments were inextricably linked in shaping god concepts in ancient Greek culture. Examining both narrative as a cultural form, and narratives that described or alluded to other cultural forms, including ritual activities, it investigates how descriptions of smell and smelling could evoke, and in turn shape, experience of a divine presence for their audience. Such an approach, it argues, allows for cultural, group, and individual variation within the constraints of shared cultural forms, illuminating how ancient Greek conceptions of the gods became embedded, while at the same time allowing for the variety of a polytheistic culture, and, in addition, the personal response of individuals. As such, it contributes to discussions of belief in ancient Greek cultures by offering some suggestions for the ways in which concepts of the divine may have been formed, shared, personalized, embodied, and embedded within, across, and between communities.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, T. W. and Sikes, E. E.. 1904. The Homeric Hymns, Edited, with Preface, Apparatus Criticus, Notes, and Appendices. London.Google Scholar
Archibald, Z., Morgan, C., Smith, D. M., Murphy-Smith, H., Pitt, R., Papadopoulou, C., Marchand, F., Haysom, M., Livarda, A., and Stewart, D.. 2013. ‘Archaeology in Greece 2013–2014’, Archaeological Reports 60: 1135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avis, J. and Harris, P. L.. 1991. ‘Belief–desire Reasoning among Baka Children: Evidence for a Universal Conception of Mind’, Child Development 62: 460467.Google Scholar
Barber, E. 1994. Women’s Work, The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Barrett, J. L. 1999. ‘Theological Correctness: Cognitive Constraint and the Study of Religion’, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 11: 325339.Google Scholar
Barrett, J. L. 2000. ‘Exploring the Natural Foundations of Religion’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4: 2934.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrett, J. L. and Keil, F. C.. 1996. ‘Conceptualizing a Nonnatural Entity: Anthropomorphism in God Concepts’, Cognitive Psychology 31: 219247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barsalou, L. W. 1999. ‘Perceptual Symbol Systems’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22: 577660.Google Scholar
Barsalou, L. W. 2003. ‘Situated Simulation in the Human Conceptual System’, Language and Cognitive Processes 18: 56, 513–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barsalou, L. W., Barbey, A. K., Simmons, W. K., and Santos, A.. 2005. ‘Embodiment in Religious Knowledge’, Journal of Cognition and Culture 5(1–2): 1457.Google Scholar
Barsalou, L. W. 2008. ‘Grounded Cognition’, Annual Review of Psychology 59: 617645.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barsalou, L. W. 2016. ‘Situated Conceptualization: Theory and Applications’, in Coello, Y. and Fischer, M. H., eds. Foundations of Embodied Cognition: Perceptual and Emotional Embodiment, 1137. London.Google Scholar
Barsalou, L. W. 2020. ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Grounding Cognition’, Journal of Cognition 3(1): 31, 124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boyer, P. 2002. Religion Explained: The Human Instincts That Fashion Gods, Spirits and Ancestors. London.Google Scholar
Boyer, P. 2001. Explaining Religion: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. New York.Google Scholar
Buxton, R. 2009. Forms of Astonishment: Greek Myths of Metamorphosis. Oxford.Google Scholar
Campenni, C. E., Crawley, E. J., and Meier, M. E.. 2004. ‘Role of Suggestion in Odor-induced Mood Change’, Psychological Reports 94: 11271136.Google Scholar
Caporael, L. R. and Heyes, C.. 1997. ‘Why Anthropomorphize? Folk Psychology and Other Stories’, in Mitchell, R. W., Thompson, N. S., and Miles, H. L., eds. Anthropomorphism, Anecdotes, and Animals, 5973. Albany, NY.Google Scholar
Carr, E., Kever, A., and Winkielman, P. 2018. Embodiment of Emotion and its Situated Nature’, in Newen, A., De Bruin, L., and Gallagher, S., eds. The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition. Oxford. Retrieved 5 January 2020, from www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198735410.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780198735410-e-30.Google Scholar
Chastrette, M. 2002. ‘Classification of Odors and Structure-Odor Relationships’ , in Rouby, C., Schaal, B., Dubois, D., Gervais, R., and Holley, A., eds. Olfaction, Taste and Cognition, 100113. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Chen, D. and Dalton, P.. 2005. ‘The Effect of Emotion and Personality on Olfactory Perception’, Chemical Senses, 30(4): 345351.Google Scholar
Classen, C., Howes, D., and Synott, A.. 1995. Aroma – the Cultural History of Smell. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Clements, A. 2015. ‘Divine Scents and Presence’, in Bradley, M., ed. Smell and the Ancient Senses, 4659. London.Google Scholar
Day, J. 2011 ‘Crocuses in Context. A Diachronic Survey of the Crocus Motif in the Aegean Bronze Age’, Hesperia 80: 337379.Google Scholar
Dunbar, R. I. M. 2003. ‘The Social Brain: Mind, Language, and Society in Evolutionary Perspective’, Annual Review of Anthropology 32(1): 163181.Google Scholar
Eidinow, E. 2013. Oracles, Curses, and Risk among the Ancient Greeks. Oxford.Google Scholar
Eidinow, E. 2019. ‘Testing the Oracle? On the Experience of (Multiple) Oracular Consultations’, in Driediger-Murphy, L. G. and Eidinow, E., eds. Ancient Divination and Experience, 4467. Oxford.Google Scholar
Eidinow, E. 2022. ‘The Problem of Relating to the Gods’, in Deacy, S. and Eidinow, E., eds. Bulletin of Classical Studies, special issue ‘Problems with Greek Gods’, 66(1).Google Scholar
Ekroth, G. 2011. ‘Meat for the Gods’, in Pirenne-Delforge, V. and Prescendi, F., eds. Nourrir les dieux?’: sacrifice et représentation du divin. Actes de la VIe rencontre du Groupe de recherche européen “Figura, représentation du divin dans les sociétés grecque et romaine” (Université de Liège, 23–24 octobre 2009). Kernos Suppl. 17, 1541. Liège.Google Scholar
Finke, R. A., Ward, T. B., and Smith, S. M.. 1992. Creative Cognition: Theory, Research and Application. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Fiorelli, G. 1873. Gli Scavi di Pompei dal 1861–1872. Naples.Google Scholar
Fludernik, M. 2003. ‘Natural Narratology and Cognitive Parameters’, in Herman, D., ed. Narrative Theory and the Cognitive Sciences, 243267, Stanford, CA.Google Scholar
Frontisi-Ducroux, F. 2003. L’Homme-cerf et la femme-araignée. Figures grecques de la métamorphose. Paris.Google Scholar
Gaifman, M. 2012. Aniconism in Greek Antiquity. Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture and Representation. Oxford.Google Scholar
Gervais, W. M., Willard, A. K., Norenzayan, A., and Henrich, J.. 2011. ‘The Cultural Transmission of Faith: Why Natural Intuitions and Memory Biases Are Necessary, but Insufficient, to Explain Religious Belief’, Religion 41(1): 389400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, R. ed. 2005. ‘Introduction’, in Embodiment and Cognitive Science, 113. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godley, A. G. 1920. Herodotus: The Histories. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
González, J., Barros-Loscertales, A., Pulvermüller, F., Meseguer, V., Sanjuán, A., Belloch, V., and Ávila, C.. 2006. ‘Reading Cinnamon Activates Olfactory Brain Regions’, NeuroImage 32: 906912.Google Scholar
Gordon, R. 1979. ‘The Real and the Imaginary: Production and Religion in the Graeco-Roman World’, Art History 2: 534.Google Scholar
Guthrie, S. E. 1995. Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion. Oxford.Google Scholar
Hammond, M. 2000. Homer. The Odyssey. London.Google Scholar
Henderson, J. 1998. Aristophanes Volume II. Clouds. Wasps. Peace. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Herz, R. 2002. ‘Influences of Odors on Mood and Affective Cognition’, in Rouby, C., Schaal, B., Dubois, D., Gervais, R., and Holley, A., eds. Olfaction, Taste and Cognition, 160177. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Herz, R. 2016. ‘The Role of Odor-Evoked Memory in Psychological and Physiological Health’, Brain Sciences 6(3), 22: 113.Google Scholar
Heurtley, W. A., and Hutchinson, R. W.. 1925. ‘Report on Excavations at the Toumba and Tables of Vardaróftsa, Macedonia, 1925, 1926: Part I. The Toumba’, The Annual of the British School at Athens 27: 166.Google Scholar
Hornblower, S. and Pelling, C., eds. 2017. Herodotus. Histories Book 6. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Jaillard, D. 2007. Configurations d’Hermès. Une ‘théogonie hermaïque’, Kernos Suppl. 17. Liège.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. D. P., Blumstein, D. T., Fowler, J. H., and Haselton, M. G., 2013. ‘The Evolution of Error: Error Management, Cognitive Constraints, and Adaptive Decision-Making Biases’, Trends in Ecology & Evolution 28(8): 474481.Google Scholar
Jones, W. H. S. and Ormerod, H. A.. 1918. Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Kovacs, D. 1995. Euripides. Children of Heracles. Hippolytus. Andromache. Hecuba. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Krusemark, E. A., Novak, L. R., Gitelman, D. R., and Li, W.. 2013. ‘When the Sense of Smell Meets Emotion: Anxiety-State-Dependent Olfactory Processing and Neural Circuitry Adaptation’, Journal of Neuroscience 33(39): 1532415332.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kundtová Klocová, E. and Geertz, A. W.. 2019. ‘Ritual and Embodied Cognition’, in Uro, R., Day, J. J., Demaris., R. E. and Roitto, R., eds. The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual, 7494. Oxford.Google Scholar
Larsson, M. 2002. ‘Odor Memory: A Memory Systems Approach’, in Rouby, C., Schaal, B., Dubois, D., Gervais, R., and Holley, A., eds. Olfaction, Taste, and Cognition, 231245. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lee, S. W. and Schwarz, N.. 2012. ‘Bidirectionality, Mediation, and Moderation of Metaphorical Effects: The Embodiment of Social Suspicion and Fishy Smells’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103: 737749.Google Scholar
Levitan, C. A., Ren, J., Woods, A. T., Boesveldt, S., Chan, J. S., McKenzie, K J., Dodson, M., Levin, J. A., Leong, C. X. R., and van den Bosch, J. J. F.. 2014. ‘Cross-Cultural Color-Odor Associations’, PLOS ONE 9(7): e101651.Google Scholar
Llewellyn-Jones, L. 2003. Aphrodite’s Tortoise: The Veiled Woman of Ancient Greece. Swansea.Google Scholar
Mackinnon, M. 2007. ‘Osteological Research in Classical Archaeology’, American Journal of Archaeology 111(3): 473504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, B. and Ringham., F. 2006. Key Terms in Semiotics. London.Google Scholar
Massumi, B. and McKim, J.. 2009. ‘Of Microperception and Micropolitics An Interview with Brian Massumi, 15 August 2008’, INFLeXions No. 3 – Micropolitics: Exploring Ethico-Aesthetics (October 2009). www.inflexions.org/n3_massumihtml.html.Google Scholar
McCauley, R. 2000. ‘The Naturalness of Religion and the Unnaturalness of Science’, in Wilson, R. and Keil, F. C., eds. Explanation and Cognition, 6186. Cambridge.Google Scholar
McCauley, R. and Lawson, T.. 2002. Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Mikrakis, M. 2013. ‘The Destruction of the Mycenaean Palaces and the Construction of the Epic World: Performative Perspectives’, in Driessen, J., ed. Destruction: Archaeological, Philological and Historical Perspectives [International Workshop, Centre d’Étude des Mondes Antiques, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 24-26 November 2011], 221242. Louvain-la-Neuve.Google Scholar
Mithen, S. and Boyer, P.. 1996. ‘Anthropomorphism and the Evolution of Cognition’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2(4): 717721.Google Scholar
Most, G. 2018. Hesiod Volume II. The Shield. Catalogue of Women. Other Fragments. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Newen, A., Gallagher, S., and De Bruin, L.. 2018. ‘Introduction: 4E Cognition: Historical Roots, Key Concepts, and Central Issues’, in Newen, A., De Bruin, L., and Gallagher, S., eds. The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition, 315. Oxford.Google Scholar
Nilsson, M. P. 1908. ‘Schlangesnstele des Zeus KtesiosAthenische Mitteilungen 33: 279–88 [repr. 1951]. Opuscula selecta linguis Anglica, Francogallica, Germania conscripta vol. 1, 2534. Lund.Google Scholar
Nilsson, M. P. (trans. F. J. Fielden). 1925. A History of Greek Religion. Oxford.Google Scholar
Oosterwijk, S., Mackey, S., Wilson-Mendenhall, C., Winkielman, P., and Paulus, M. P.. 2015. ‘Concepts in Context: Processing Mental State Concepts with Internal or External Focus Involves Different Neural Systems’, Social Neuroscience 10: 294307.Google Scholar
Peels, S. 2016. Hosios: A Semantic Study of Greek Piety. Mnemosyne Suppl. 387. Leiden.Google Scholar
Petridou, G. 2015. Divine Epiphany in Greek Literature and Culture. Oxford.Google Scholar
Picard, C. 1943. ‘Sanctuaires et representations et symboles de Zeus Meilichios’, Revue de l’Histoire de Religions 126: 97127.Google Scholar
Platt, V. 2011. Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature and Religion. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Pollatos, O., Kopietz, R., Linn, J., Albrecht, J., Sakar, V., Anzinger, A., Schandry, R., and Wiesmann, M.. 2007. ‘Emotional Stimulation Alters Olfactory Sensitivity and Odor Judgment’, Chemical Senses 32(6): 583589.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porteous, J. D. 1985. ‘Smellscape’, Progress in Human Geography 9(3): 356378.Google Scholar
Purzycki, B. G. and Willard, A. K.. 2016. ‘MCI Theory: A Critical Discussion’, Religion, Brain & Behavior 6(3): 207248.Google Scholar
Richardson, N. J. 2010. Three Homeric Hymns: To Apollo, Hermes, and Aphrodite, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Rindisbacher, H. J. 2015. ‘What’s This Smell? Shifting Worlds of Olfactory Perception’, KulturPoetik 15(1): 70104.Google Scholar
Roberts, H. 1981. ‘Reconstructing the Greek Tortoise‐shell Lyre’, World Archaeology 12: 3: 303312.Google Scholar
Rodaway, P. 1994. Sensuous Geographies: Body, Sense and Place. New York, NY.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, Y. I., and Gobet, F.. 2013. ‘What Is Counterintuitive? Religious Cognition and Natural Expectation’, Review of Philosophy and Psychology 4(4): 715749.Google Scholar
Saive, A. L., Royet, J. P., and Plailly, J.. 2014. ‘A Review on the Neural Bases of Episodic Odor Memory: From Laboratory-based to Autobiographical Approaches’, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 8, 240.Google Scholar
Schab, F. R. and Crowder, R. G., eds. 1995. Memory for Odors. Hillsdale, NJ.Google Scholar
Shapiro, L. 2011. Embodied Cognition. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Silk, M. S. 2000. ‘Aristophanes versus the Rest: Comic Poetry in Old Comedy’, in Harvey, D. and Wilkins, J., eds. The Rivals of Aristophanes: Studies in Athenian Old Comedy, 299315. London.Google Scholar
Simmons, W. K. and Barsalou, L. W.. 2003. ‘The Similarity-in-Topography Principle: Reconciling Theories of Conceptual Deficits’, Cognitive Neuropsychology 20: 451486.Google Scholar
Sperber, D. 1994. ‘The Modularity of Thought and the Epidemiology of Representations’, in Hirschfeld, L. A. and Gelman, S. A., eds. Mapping the Mind: Domain Specificity in Cognition and Culture, 3967. New York, NY.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sperber, D. 1996. Explaining Culture: A Naturalistic Approach. Oxford.Google Scholar
Tritle, L. A. 2000. From Melos to My Lai: War and Survival. London and New York, NY.Google Scholar
Urquiza-Haas, E. G. and Kotrschal, K.. 2015. ‘The Mind behind Anthropomorphic Thinking: Attribution of Mental States to Other Species’, Animal Behaviour 109: 167176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Leeuwen, N. and van Elk, M.. 2019. ‘Seeking the Supernatural: The Interactive Religious Experience Model’, Religion, Brain & Behavior 9(3): 221251.Google Scholar
Vernant, J.-P. 1989. ‘Dim Body, Dazzling Body’, in Feher, M., ed. Fragments for a History of the Human Body, Part One (Zone3), 1847. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Versnel, H. 1987. ‘Some Reflections on Greco-Roman Epiphany’, in van der Plas, D., ed. Effigies Dei: Chapters on the History of Religions, 4255. Leiden.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Versnel, H. 2011. Coping with the Gods: Wayward Readings in Greek Theology. Leiden.Google Scholar
Walker, S. 1992a. ‘Developmental Changes in the Representation of Word-Meaning: Cross-Cultural Findings’, British Journal of Developmental Psychology 10: 285299.Google Scholar
Walker, S. 1992b. ‘Supernatural Beliefs, Natural Kinds and Conceptual Structure’, Memory and Cognition 20: 655662.Google Scholar
West, M. 1992. Ancient Greek Music. Oxford.Google Scholar
West, M. 2003. Homeric Hymns. Homeric Apocrypha. Lives of Homer. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Westh, P. 2014. ‘Anthropomorphism in God Concepts: The Role of Narrative’, in Geertz, A. W., ed. Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture, 396413. Abingdon.Google Scholar
Willard, A. K., Henrich, J., and Norenzayan, A.. 2016. ‘Memory and Belief in the Transmission of Counterintuitive Content’, Human Nature 27 (3): 221243.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. and Golonka, S.. 2013. ‘Embodied Cognition Is Not What You Think It Is’, Frontiers in Psychology 4: 58. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00058Google Scholar
Yeshrun, Y. and Sobel, N.. 2010. ‘An Odor Is Not Worth a Thousand Words: From Multidimensional Odors to Unidimensional Odor Objects’, Annual Review of Psychology 61: 219241.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×