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IV. Ritual

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2016

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Extract

In his handbook, Burkert considers ritual to be the cornerstone of Greek religion and, accordingly, starts his analysis with a chapter called ‘Ritual and sanctuary’. As he uses the term ‘ritual’ as self-evident, we will start with some introductory observations on the use of the term and on the possibilities for studying ancient ritual (§ 1). Subsequently we analyse important ritual acts, such as prayer, procession and, in particular, sacrifice (§ 2). We conclude the chapter with a discussion of various larger ritual complexes (§ 3).

Type
Research Article
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New Surveys in the Classics , Volume 24: Greek Religion with addenda , 1999 , pp. 38 - 54
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Copyright © The Classical Association 1999

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References

Notes

1. As do Bruit/Schmitt, Religion, but Rudhardt, J., Notions fondamentales de la pensée religieuse. . ., 1958 1 (Paris, 1992 2)Google Scholar, begins with the vocabulary of the sacred, and Jost, Aspects, with the gods.

2. But note his Structure and History, pp. 35–58.

3. For a (not quite satisfactory) historical survey see I. Morris, ‘Poetics of Power. The Interpretation of Ritual Action in Archaic Greece’, in Dougherty/Kurke, Cultural Poetics, pp. 15–45.

4. As is observed by Calarne, C., ‘“Mythe” et “rite” en Grèce: des catégories indigènes?’ Kernos 4 (1991), 179–204, esp. 196–203Google Scholar.

5. Cf. Hobsbawn, E. and Ranger, T. (eds), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983)Google Scholar.

6. Cf. Calarne, C., ‘Morfologia e funzione della festa nell’ Antichità’, AION 4-5 (1982-3), 3–23 Google Scholar; Rudhardt, J., ‘Remarques sur le geste rituel...’, in Blondeau, A.-M. and Schipper, K. (eds), Essais sur le rituel 2 (Louvain and Paris, 1988), pp. 1–13 Google Scholar.

7. The usual translation by ‘festival’ hardly covers the variety of ancient festivities or the presence of sombre aspects amongst them.

8. Mikalson, J., ‘The Heorte of Heortology’, GRBS 23 (1982), 213-21Google Scholar; Calarne (n. 4), 196f. In general: Burkert, , ‘Die antike Stadt als Festgemeinschaft’, in Hugger, P. (ed), Stadt und Fest (Unterägeri and Stuttgart, 1987), pp. 25–44 Google Scholar; Meier, C., ‘Zur Funktion der Feste in Athen im 5. Jahrhundert vor Christus’, in Haug, W. and Warning, R. (eds), Das Fest (Munich, 1989), pp. 569-91Google Scholar.

9. Cf. Asad, Genealogies of Religion, pp. 55–79. The opposition sacred/profane originated at exactly the same time, cf. Isambert, F.-A., Le sens du sacré (Paris, 1982), pp. 215-45Google Scholar. This coincidence requires further study.

10. Lonsdale, S. H., Dance and Ritual Play in Greek Religion (Baltimore and London, 1993)Google Scholar.

11. Kotsidu, H., Die musischen Agone in archaischer und klassischer Zeit (Munich, 1991)Google Scholar; H.A. Shapiro, ‘Mousikoi Agones: Music and Poetry at the Panathenaia’ and Kyle, D., ‘The Panathenaic Games: Sacred and Civic Athletics’, in Neils, J. (ed), Goddess and Polis. The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens (Hanover and Princeton, 1992), pp. 53–75, 77–101Google Scholar, respectively.

12. See, respectively, H. S. Versnel, ‘Religious Mentality in Ancient Prayer’, in Versnel, Faith, pp. 1–64; van der Horst, P. W., ‘Silent Prayer in Antiquity’, Numen 41 (1994), 1–25 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; J. M. Bremer, ‘Greek Hymns’, in Versnel, Faith, pp. 193–215. In general: Mikalson, J. D., ‘Unanswered Prayers in Greek Tragedy’, JHS 109 (1989), 81–98 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Aubriot-Sévin, D., Prière et conceptions religieuses en Grèce ancienne (Paris, 1992)Google Scholar.

13. Käppel, Paian; Zimmermann, B., Dithyrambus (Göttingen, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14. Burkert, GR, pp. 102f; Connor, W. R., ‘Tribes, Festivals and Processions’, JHS 107 (1987), 40–50 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bruit/Schmitt, Religion, pp. 105–7.

15. Plataea: Burkert, , Homo necans, 1972 1 (Berkeley etc., 1983), pp. 56fGoogle Scholar. Molpoi: Gödecken, K., ‘Beobachtungen und Funde an der Heiligen Strasse zwischen Milet und Didyma, 1984’, ZPE 66 (1986), 217-53Google Scholar. Thrasybulus: Strauss, B., ‘Ritual, Social Drama and Politics in Classical Athens’, Am. J. Ane. Hist. 10(1985 [1992!]), 67–83 Google Scholar.

16. IG I3 34.42, 46.15f, 71.57 (cow, phallus, and panoply); Ael. VH. 6.1 (equipment); Miller, M. C., ‘The Parasol: An Oriental Status-Symbol in Late-Archaic and Classical Athens’, JHS 112 (1992), 91–105, esp. 103–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Neils, Goddess and Polis (beautifully produced); Cole, S. G., ‘Procession and Celebration at the Dionysia’, in Scodel, R. (ed), Theater and Society in the Classical World (Ann Arbor, 1993), pp. 25–38 Google Scholar.

17. Xen. Ag. 8.7 (quote); C. Calarne, Les choeurs de jeunes filles 1, pp. 306f.

18. For good surveys see now Jameson, M. H., ‘Sacrifice and Ritual: Greece’, in Grant, M. and Kit-zinger, R. (eds), Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean. Greece and Rome 2 (New York, 1988), pp. 959-79Google Scholar; Lambert, M., ‘Ancient Greek and Zulu Sacrificial Ritual’, Numen 40 (1993), 293–318 Google Scholar.

19. But see now Rosivach, V., The System of Public Sacrifice in Fourth-Century Athens (Atlanta, 1993)Google Scholar.

20. Cf. Durand, J.-L., Sacrifice et labour en Grèce ancienne (Paris, 1986)Google Scholar; see also van Straten, F. T., ‘Greek Sacrificial Representations: Livestock Prices and Religious Mentality’, in Linders, T. and Nordquist, G., Gifts to the Gods (Uppsala, 1987), pp. 159–70 Google Scholar and, especially, Peirce, S., ‘Death, Revelry, and Thysia ’, Class. Ant. 12 (1993), 219-66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21. See more recently Boessneck, J. and von den Driesch, A., ‘Tierknochenfunde aus Didyma’, Arch. Anz. 1983, 611–51 Google Scholar; id., Knochenabfall von Opfermahlen und Weihgaben aus dem Heraion von Samos (Munich, 1988); Boessneck, J. and Schärfer, J., ‘Tierknochenfùnde aus Didyma II’, Arch. Anz. 1986, 251–301 Google Scholar; Reese, D., ‘Faunal Remains from the Altar of Aphrodite Ourania, Athens’, Hesperia 58 (1989), 63–70 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stanzel, M., Die Tierreste aus dem Artemis-/Apollon-Heiligtum bei Kalapodi in Bötien/Griechenland (Diss. Munich, 1991)Google Scholar; Tuchelt, K., ‘Tieropfer in Didyma – Ein Nachtrag’, Arch. Anz. 1992, 61–81 Google Scholar.

22. Battle: M. Jameson, ‘Sacrifice before Battle’, in Hanson, Hoplites, pp. 197–227; Jouan, F., ‘Comment partir en guerre en Grèce antique en ayant les dieux pour soi’, Revue de la société Ernest Renan 40 (1990-1), 25–42 Google Scholar (also on crossing rivers); Peirce, ‘Death’, 253f. Oath: Faraone, C., ‘Molten Wax ...’, JHS 113 (1993), 60–80 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23. Henrichs, A., ‘Human Sacrifice in Greek Religion’, Entretiens Hardt 27 (Vandoeuvres and Geneva, 1981), 195–235 Google Scholar; Bremmer, , ‘Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece’, HSCP 87 (1983), 299–320 Google Scholar; Hughes, D., Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece (London and New York, 1991)Google Scholar, rev. Burkert, , Gnomon 66 (1994), 97–100 Google Scholar.

24. Cf. Jameson, M., ‘Sacrifice and Animal Husbandry in Classical Greece’, in Whittaker, C. R. (ed), Pastoral Economies in Classical Antiquity = PCPhS, Suppl. 14 (1988), 87–119, esp. 94Google Scholar.

25. Hestia: Eupolis fr. 301; Graf, NK, 363; Detienne, M., L’écriture d’Orphée (Paris, 1989), pp. 89–98 Google Scholar. Demeter: Jameson, ‘Sacrifice’, 92; Pemberton, E.G., Corinth. The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, vol. 18.1 (Princeton, 1989), p. 96 Google Scholar (pigs and goats); Ruscillo, D., ‘Faunal Remains from the Acropolis Site, Mytilene’, Class. Views 37 (1993), 201-10Google Scholar. Dionysus: Peirce, ‘Death’, 255f.

26. Dogs: Parker, Miasma, pp. 357f; Graf, NK, 422. Birds: Lydus, Mens. 4.64. Fish: Anthol. Graeca 10.9, 14, 16; Robert, L., Hellenica 9 (1950), 82 Google Scholar.

27. Cf. Boessneck and Schäffer, ‘Didyma II’, 285–94, 300; Collins, B.J., ‘The Puppy in Hittite Ritual’, J. Cuneiform Stud. 42 (1990), 211-26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28. Cf. Jameson, ‘Sacrifice’, 98f. Houston, W., Purity and Monotheism (Sheffield, 1993), pp. 82, 85fGoogle Scholar, also points out that pigs need shade and water, neither of which was continuously available in most places in ancient Greece.

29. Meuli, K.: Gesammelte Schriften II (Basle, 1975), pp. 907–1021 Google Scholar (19461). On Meuli see especially Henrichs, A., ‘Gott, Mensch und Tier: Antike Daseinsstruktur und religiöses Verhalten im Denken Karl Meulis’, in Graf, F. (ed), Klassische Antike und Neue Wege der Kulturwissenschaften. Symposium Karl Meuli (Basle, 1992), pp. 129-67Google Scholar.

30. For Burkert’s views see most recently: Opferritual bei Sophokles. Pragmatik – Symbolik -Theater’, Der altsprachliche Unterricht 27 (1985), 5–20; ‘The Problem of Ritual Killing’, in Hamerton-Kelly, R. G. (ed), Violent Origins (Stanford, 1987), pp. 149-76, 177–88Google Scholar (discussion); Offerings in perspective: surrender, distribution, exchange’, in Linders/Nordquist, Gifts to the Gods, pp. 43–50.

31. Burkert, Homo necans, pp. 136–43; Durand, Sacrifice et labour, pp. 43–87 (representations in black-figure vase painting).

32. This is rightly stressed by Peirce, ‘Death’.

33. The month Bouphonion, ‘Ox-killing’ only occurs on Euboea, its colonies, and adjacent islands: Karystos (IG XII.9.207), Chalkidike (SEG 38.671), Delos (IG XI.2.203 A; SEG 35.882), and Tenos (IG XII.5.842).

34. So, rightly, Obbink, D., ‘The Origin of Greek Sacrifice: Theophrastus on Religion and Cultural History’, in Fortenbaugh, W. W. and Sharpies, R. W. (eds), Theophrastean Studies (New Brunswick and London, 1988), pp. 272-95Google Scholar; Henrichs, ‘Gott, Mensch, Tier’, pp. 153–8; M. A. Katz, ‘Buphonia and Goring Ox: Homicide, Animal sacrifice, and Judicial Process’, in Rosen/Farrell, Nomodeiktes, pp. 155–78.

35. Aristoxenus fr. 29 Wehrli (Pythagoras avoided eating plough-oxen); Ael. VH 5.14; Varro, De re rustica 2.5.3; Cominella 6 praefi 7; Schol. Od. 12.353; see also Aratus 131f; Ovid, Met. 15.120-42,470; Rosivach, Public Sacrifice in Fourth-Century Athens, pp. 161–3.

36. Detienne, M. and Vernant, J.-P. (eds), The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks, 19791 (Chicago, 1989)Google Scholar; Vernant, Mortals and Immortals, pp. 290–302 (Vernant’s opposition to Meuli and Burkert: pp. 291f).

37. Vernant, Mortals and Immortals, 296, translated, less lapidarily, as ‘overt and falsifying omission’.

38. Burkert, ‘Opfer als Tötungsritual. Eine Konstante der menschlichen Kulturgeschichte?’, in Graf, Klassische Antike, pp. 169–89.

39. Samos: Boessneck and Von den Driesch, Knochenabfall, 6. Didyma: id., ‘Didyma II’, 257. Kalapodi: Stanzel, Tierreste aus Kalapodi, p. 45.

40. Peirce, ‘Death’, 256f has overlooked the fact that from her few exceptions Busiris’ attempt to sacrifice Heracles is a typical case of a ‘perverted’ sacrifice, which supports rather than undermines the ‘taboo’ on the presence of the knife, cf. Durand, J.-L. and Lissarrague, F., ‘Héros cru ou hôte cuit: histoire quasi cannibale d’Héraklès chez Busiris’, in Lissarrague, and Thelamon, F. (eds), Image et céramique grecque (Rouen, 1983), pp. 153-67Google Scholar.

41. Parker, Miasma, pp. 299f.

42. Cf. Meuli, , Gesammelte Schuften II, p. 948 Google Scholar: ‘das Olympische Opfer nichts anderes sei als ein rituelles Schlachten’; Burkert, Homo necans, pp. 35–48; Vernant, , in Entretiens Hardt 27 (1981), 26 Google Scholar: ‘Sacrifier, c’est fondamentalement tuer pour manger’.

43. See, most recently, Seaford, R., ‘Homeric and Tragic Sacrifice’, TAPhA 119 (1989), 87–95 Google Scholar; Jouanna, J., ‘Libations et sacrifices dans la tragédie grecque’, REG 105 (1992), 406-34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44. For example, Peirce, ‘Death’, bases her views of sacrifice mainly on the iconographical evidence with its strong Dionysiac bias. Such a view is as skewed as that of Greek religion based solely on tragedy (Ch. II.1); on the difference between ‘icon and text’, Hamilton, R., Choes & Anthestena (Ann Arbor, 1992), pp. 123-46Google Scholar.

45. Burkert, GR, pp. 260–4, 448f; Moreau, A., ‘Initiation en Grèce antique’, Dial. d’Hist. Anc. 18 (1992), 191–244 Google Scholar; Versnel, , Inconsistencies 2, pp. 48–60 Google Scholar (extensive bibliographies); Graf, F., ‘Initiationsriten in der antiken Mittelmeerwelt’, Der altsprachliche Unterricht 36.2 (1993), 29–40 Google Scholar.

46. Sparta: see now Pettersson, M., Cults of Apollo at Sparta. The Hyakinthia, the Gymnopaidiai and the Karneia (Stockholm, 1992)Google Scholar. Athens: Vidal-Naquet, P., Le Chasseur noir (Paris, 1983 2), pp. 151-75Google Scholar (19681: a classic); see now also his ‘The Black Hunter Revisited’, PCPhS 212 (1986), 126–44 ~ ‘Retour au chasseur noir’, in Mélanges Pierre Leveque II (Paris, 1989), pp. 387–411.

47. Ephoros FGrH 70 F 149 (= Strabo 10.4.16-20: all quotes); Laurencic, M., ‘Andreion’, Tyche 3 (1988), 147-61Google Scholar.

48. Marinatos, N., Minoan Religion (New York, 1993), pp. 201-20Google Scholar; Bremmer, J. and Horsfall, N., Roman Myth and Mythography (London, 1987), pp. 38–43 Google Scholar, 53–6 (Bremmer: Indo-Europeans).

49. Anthropologists, such as Geertz, C., Local Knowledge (New York, 1983), pp. 56-8Google Scholar, have stressed that these views are two, necessary, sides of the same coin. This is a more constructive attitude than that of Rudhardt and Vernant cum suis, who sometimes seem to suggest that we can look at Greek practices as if we ourselves were Greeks.

50. For this important metaphor in Greek initiation see Calame, , Les choeurs de jeunes filles 1, pp. 374fGoogle Scholar; this volume, Ch. VI.1.

51. Ekdysia: Nicander apud Ant. Lib. 17, cf. Bremmer, ‘Dionysos travesti’, 194. ‘To undress’: IC. I.ix (Dreros).1.A.99f; Lxix (Malla). 1.17f, etc. ‘Nude ones’: IC. I.ix (Dreros).1.D.140f (azostoi), cf. Hsch. s.v. azostos. ‘Very nude ones’: 1C. I.ix (Dreros).1 A.11f (Panazostoi). Periblemaia: IC. Lxix (Malla).19.1.

52. See my ‘Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality’, in Bremmer, (ed), From Sappho to De Sade (London, 1991 2), pp. 1–14 Google Scholar; Calarne, C., I Greci e l’Eros (Bari, 1992), pp. 65–81 Google Scholar. For (unpersuasive) objections to the initiatory interpretation see Dover, K.J., The Greeks and their Legacy (Oxford, 1988), pp. 115-34Google Scholar; Halperin, D., One Hundred Years of Homosexuality (London, 1990), pp. 54–61 Google Scholar. ‘Kidnap’: Bremmer/Horsfall, Roman Myth, pp. 105–11 (Bremmer).

53. Ares and Aphrodite: LIMC III (1984), 123–5 (A. Delivorrias), 482f (Ph. Bruneau); Graf, NK, 264 (magistrates). Ares: Wathelet, P., ‘Ares le mal aimé’, Les Et. Class. 60 (1992), 113-28Google Scholar; DDD, s.v. (Bremmer). Aphrodite: Pirenne-Delforge, V., L’Aphrodite grecque (Athens and Liège, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54. See Bremmer, CR 35 (1985), 312f and Mnemosyne IV 43 (1989), 260–3, respectively.

55. Cf. Burkert, Homo necans, pp. 213–43; Bremmer, , The Early Greek Concept of the Soul (Princeton, 1983), pp. 108-22Google Scholar; Simon, E., Festivals of Attica (Madison, 1983), pp. 92-9Google Scholar; Auffarth, C., Der drohende Untergang. “Schöpfung” in Mythos und Ritual im Alten Orient und in Griechenland (Berlin and New York, 1991), pp. 202-72Google Scholar; Hamilton, Choes (the most systematic, if rather sceptical, discussion of the sources); Bowie, A., Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Comedy (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 35-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 147–50 and ‘Religion and Politics in Aeschylus’ Oresteia’, CQ 43 (1993), 10–31, esp. 22–4.

56. Trumpet: Graf, NK, 245; P. Krentz, ‘The Salpinx in Greek Warfare’, in Hanson, Hoplites, pp. 110–20.

57. Cf. Graf, NK, 28 (wreaths, libations); Henrichs, A., ‘The Eumenides and Wineless Libations in the Derveni Papyrus’, Atti XVII Congr. Int. Papir. II (Naples, 1984), 255-68Google Scholar.

58. Whereas Burkert in his Homo necans overvalues sacrifice, painting it always in dark colours, sacrifice is virtually absent in Graf’s Nordionische Kulte. In my view sacrifice is an important element in determining the nature of Greek rituals but usually not as sombre as Burkert suggests.

59. Sad or glad events were often remembered on ominous or felicitous days, cf. Grafton, A. and Swerdlow, N., ‘Calendar Dates and Ominous Days in Ancient Historiography’, J. Warburg and Couriauld Insl. 51 (1988), 14–42 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chianotis, A., ‘Gedenktage der Griechen’, in Assmann, J. (ed), Das Fest und das Heilige (Gütersloh, 1991), pp. 123-45Google Scholar.

60. Buxton, R., Sophocles (Oxford, 1984), p. 4 Google Scholar; Val. Max. 9.8 (Anacreon). Acharnians: Fisher, N., ‘Multiple Personalities and Dionysiac Festivals: Dicaeopolis in Aristophanes’ Acharnians’, G & R 40 (1993), 31–47 Google Scholar. Misanthrope: Plut. Ant. 70.

61. Choes: Hamilton, Choes, pp. 63–121. Kares/Keres: Bremmer, Soul, pp. 113–18.

62. Contra Versnel, Inconsistencies 2, pp. 116f (cf. Bremmer/Horsfall, Roman Myth, pp. 86f), although his observations on festivals of reversal are of great interest (pp. 115–21).

63. Thorikos: SEG 33.147, cf. R. Parker, ‘Festivals of the Attic Demes’, in Linders/Nordquist, Gifts to the Gods, pp. 137–47, esp. 142; Henrichs, A., ‘Between Country and City: Cultic Dimensions of Dionysus in Athens and Attica’, in Griffith, M. and Mastronarde, D. (eds), Cabinet of the Muses (Atlanta, 1990), pp. 257-77Google Scholar, esp. 262f.

64. As is persuasively argued by Hamilton, Choes, pp. 55f. In any case, Burkert, Homo necans, p. 235, mistakenly suggests that Aristotle speaks of a sexual act, cf. Rhodes, P. J., A Commentary on the Aristotelian Alhenaion Politela (Oxford, 1981), pp. 104fGoogle Scholar. In general: Avagianou, A., Sacred Marriage in the Rituals of Greek Religion (Berne, 1991)Google Scholar; Janko, Commentary, p. 171.

65. Choruses: Hamilton, Choes, pp. 38–42. Phallus: Com. Ant. Fragm. III 398f, no. 7 Kock; Dio Chr. 33.63.

66. Pochmarski, E., LIMC III.l (1986)Google Scholar, s.v. Erigone I; Gondicas, D., LIMC V.1 (1990)Google Scholar, s.v. Ikarios I.

67. See, respectively, Possis FGrH 480 F 1; Diog. Laert. 4.8; Philodemus, De pietate 806–8, 865–9 Obbink (Epicurus: to be added to the sources in Hamilton, Choes); Call. fr. 178.

68. La grande festa: Versnel, Inconsistencies 2, pp. 127f. Synoikia: Graf, NK, 167; Hornblower, Commentary, p. 265. Skira: Burkert, Homo necans, pp. 143–9.

69. Thucydides: 2.14.4, but see Hornblower, Commentary, pp. 266f. Names: J. Sarkady, ‘A Problem in the History of the Greek Calendar (The Date of the Origin of the Months’ Names)’, Acta Class. Debrecen 21 (1985), 3–17; Burkert, , ‘Athenian Cults and Festivals’, Cambr. Anc. Hist. IV 2 (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 245-67Google Scholar.