Bibliography
| Title: Sacrifice and Battle Secondary Title: War & Violence in Ancient Greece Pages: 299-314 Type: Book Section Year: 2000 Abstract: Parker's chapter seeks an answer to three questions regarding the place of sacrifice in warfare: was there a period during which Greek warfare relied heavily upon consultative sacrificing? If a change occurred, were there wider religious implications? Can we construct a general rationale among the Greeks towards sacrifice through this connection between killing animals (in sacrifice) and killing men (in battle)? He traces the origin and nature of a Xenophontic system of sacrificing, which seems to have fallen out of use in the time of Alexander. The Greek historians writing in the Hellenistic world fail to mention the practice, and in the case of Polybius, gods seem to have been banished from the battlefield altogether. Parker connects this decline in divination and sacrifice to the end of the great period of 'polity' in Greek society and the emergence of a world of kings. On the other hand, divination does appear in some of the later Greek writings as a way for the commander to maintain control over his troops, often regardless of the success of the consultation. Religious observances were not so much of a straitjacket as they appear to be. The chapter closes with a brief discussion of the connections between sacrifice and battle, concluding that the pre-battle sacrifice particularly was both an act of aggression against the enemy and a 'precautionary self-maiming'. The animal dies to save, but also embodies the death of the enemy. Parker's chapter is important for not only for considerations of the role of religious practices in warfare, but also for their role in the writings of ancient historians. Keywords: Polybius, warfare, sacrifice, divination, religion, Xenophon |