Review: [untitled] Author(s): A.

Schachter Reviewed work(s): Hiera kala: Images of Animal Sacrifice in Archaic and Classical Greece by F. T. van Straten Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 100, No. 3 (Jul., 1996), pp. 619-620 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/507044 Accessed: 01/03/2009 18:00
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move from the main settlement, as expressing the nascent eighth-century polis's claim to its territory; the town sanctuaries were conceptually and chronologically secondary. He now grants that the process was more gradual, a transition rather than a birth, with significant regional variations in early Greece, while more systematic in the colonial West. "Mediation" (handy but slippery) is now the keynote. In some respects the problems are blurred rather than solved. Alan Peatfield connects the breakup of Late Bronze Age Crete's Neopalatial economic network, and the development of Postpalatial independent political units that followed, with the proliferation of sanctuaries of the Goddesswith-Upraised-Arms; the latter, he suggests, hints at the conceptual differentiation that leads to Greek polytheism. James Wright, by contrast, in a clear and useful review of the evidence (slim before LH IIIA2 and the formation of the palaces) reconstructs the developments that come to a head in the centralization of Mycenaean cult under the palaces. He balances persistent "values and beliefs" formed from Minoan and indigenous sources with the more transitory political and ritual dominance of the palaces. Catherine Morgan and Carla Antonaccio share de Polignac's interest in the Early Iron Age and the Archaic period. Morgan, from her study of the Corinthia, stresses the significantly greater evidence for pre-eighth century cult than he had acknowledged, thus modifying the role of the polis. Antonaccio focuses on the use of the past, Bronze Age sites in Laconia, Attica, and especially the Argeia, in the construction of a new bounded and sacred landscape. Inevitably, these qualifications, adding complexity and nuance to the structuralist approach, raise further questions. Osborne rejects completely the common view that the town of Athens and in particular the Peisistratids unified the cults of Archaic Attica. He uses the genos of the Salaminioi (whom, with S.C. Humphreys, ZPE 83 [1990] 247, he brings from Salamis to the town in the Dark Age) as an example of the seventh-century expansion of central cults and people into the territory. The corrective is welcome but perhaps excessive: were Eleusis and Marathon empty before the seventh century, or was Attic religion under the Peisistratids frozen for close to 50 years? Joseph Carter draws on both excavation and intensive survey work in the chora of Archaic and Classical Metapontion in South Italy to show the relationship of rural sanctuaries to dense settlement in the countryside rather than to a nucleated population. Jost examines Arcadia as a region and emphasizes the variety of possible relations between rural shrine and settlement, the contrast between the dispersed settlements of western Arcadia and the nucleated centers of the east, and the programmatic structuring of cults when Megalopolis was founded in the fourth century. Susan Cole's study of Demeter sanctuaries enlarges the place of women in the cultic landscape and adds a number of urban, even acropolis, sites to de Polignac's periurban and exurban examples, and yet these too have a sense of isolation to them. Darice Birge, on trees in Pausanias, is usefully negative-his silences are not necessarily significant since he was interested mostly in what had mythical or historical associations. Alcock calls attention to the decided decline in the number of rural shrines in the Hellenistic and Early Roman

periods (and, in passing, to their apparent scarcity at all times in some regions), no doubt related to the changed use of the land and the relationship of the people to the land. A revival in Late Roman times, as yet not well understood, does not necessarily derive from a return to prior conditions-a fitting challenge with which to conclude. MICHAELH. JAMESON
DEPARTMENT STANFORD OF CLASSICS

UNIVERSITY

STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305-2080

[email protected]

HIERA KALA: IMAGES OF ANIMAL SACRIFICE IN ARCHAICAND CLASSICALGREECE,by F.T. Van Straten.

(Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 127.) Pp. ix + 374, figs. 168, diagrams 3, tables 3. E.J. Brill, Leiden 1995. ISBN 90-04-10292-2; ISSN 09277633.
No one since Stengel has systematically examined scenes of Greek ritual. The work reviewed here fills the gap for monuments depicting animal sacrifice. It is a compendium and analysis of scenes of animal sacrifice on Greek painted pottery of the Archaic and Classical periods, votive reliefs (mostly of the fourth century B.C.), and, treated summarily, pinakes of wood and terracotta, and votive statues and statuettes. The author is at pains to point out the limitations imposed both by himself and by the evidence: the accident of survival, the taste of the artist and his patron, the chronological range of the two main kinds of datum, the conventions of the genres, the relative popularity of certain motifs, and the consequent imbalance with which different stages of the action are pictured (for example, for obvious reasons, the moment at which the sacrificial animal signifies its willingness to be killed by nodding its head is not shown). The first part of the text discusses the material under three headings: "Pre-kill," "The Killing," and "Post-kill."Iconographic evidence for the second and third categories is exclusively from vase paintings. Most of the rest of the book is devoted to a catalogue (citation, date [usually], description of scene, bibliography) of vase paintings (over 400) and reliefs (over 200); 115 of the vases, 53 reliefs, and one wooden pinax (fig. 56, uncatalogued) are illustrated. A list of abbreviations is provided, which would have been more useful if incorporated into the bibliography. The latter is extensive and, as far as I can see, exhaustive. The only gap obvious to me is R. Etienne's "Autels et sacrifices" (in Le sanctuaire grec [Geneva 1992] 291-319). The bibliography's usefulness is reduced by the failure to provide the place of publication of monographs. The indexes (general and ancient sources cited) are adequate. Typographical errors are few. Most of the monuments (all the reliefs) depict scenes from the "pre-kill" stage. Only 10 vase paintings show the killing, and 113 "post-kill."In addition to the 140 vase paintings in the "pre-kill" category, there are 71 in which no sacrificial animal is depicted but which belong to this phase,

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and 99 "mythical sacrifices." The author includes as votive reliefs 98 showing sacrifices to heroes, most unidentified. It is difficult to draw the line in such cases between votive and sepulchral monuments. Inscriptions occasionally help: nos. R144, 150, 164; perhaps 154, 193, 206. But it is correct to include them all. Van Straten distinguishes between depictions of real sacrifices and sacrifices in a mythical context, using the latter to supplement the former. I am not certain that this distinction is absolutely necessary; it certainly makes the catalogue rather difficult to use. It might have helped to have some cross-references at the head of each category in the catalogue of vase paintings. Van Straten gives more than a mere description of the monuments. He is also careful to identify where possible objects and acts alluded to in literature and inscriptions. In almost every case his interpretation is convincing. For example, his section on the kanoun and chernips (pp. 31-40) is amply illustrated from the monuments and literature (Aristophanes, Euripides, and others, cited at length in the original), while his discussion of the "kill" and "post-kill" stages meticulously matches monuments to written sources. Several of the interpretations are new and particularly good. For example, in the short section (pp. 109-13) entitled, humorously, "The Butchers Who Laughed at Stengel," he convincingly identifies an important feature of the actual sacrifice hitherto neglected, but which is attested in literature, inscriptions, and now, thanks to Van Straten, in vase paintings. This is the lifting up of the sacrificial animal onto the shoulders of a group of men, so that its throat may be cut. To the texts he cites I can add the Boarsai of Rhodes (first century B.C.: see LSJ Suppl.) and the ephebic Boarsion of Tanagra (third century A.D.: see my Cults of Boeotia [London 1981] 1.136). In an uncharacteristic lapse, Van Straten overlooks the significance of the fact that in three of seven depictions of the sacrifice of Polyxena the unhappy girl has been hoisted to the shoulders of the participants, and in one of these scenes is actually having her throat cut (V421; see too V420 and V426). These scenes are particularly valuable in that two are among the earliest illustrations of any sacrificial act: 675/650 B.C. (V420), 575/550 B.C. (V421). Without them, it might be thought that the practice was unusual, whereas it now appears that it was already a fundamental feature of the ritual in the Archaic period. On pages 141-44, Van Straten identifies as thylemata-a mixture of meal, wine, and oil, which is sprinkled over the god's portion as it lies on the burning altar-pellets or small balls, usually painted red, which are shown either being prepared (V195) or being held ready for use (the description of the scenes is on pp. 139-41). I can accept the latter group as thylemata,but am less certain about the objects in V195, fig. 145. These are rather large red lumps, and it seems that they are being collected and about to be counted. They may be pieces of meat destined for distribution among the worshippers. If so, this scene is a hapax. Compare the inscriptions cited on page 145, notes 96-97. One of the book's virtues lies in the mass of comparative material it provides, which can provoke the reader to further thought. For example, it is instructive to see how the artist of V107 (British Museum B80) adapts a generic scene to a local-in this case Boiotian-festival. This is

a useful, interesting, and thought-provoking book, which adds a valuable tool to the batterie de cuisine of students of Greek ritual.
A. SCHACHTER DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY MCGILL UNIVERSITY 855 SHERBROOKE STREET WEST MONTREAL, QUEBEC CANADA H3A 2T7 [email protected]

THE ATHENIAN

AGORA XXVII:

THE EAST SIDE OF

THE AGORA: THE REMAINS BENEATH THE STOA OF

ATTALOS, by Rhys F Townsend.Pp. xxi + 248, figs.

14, pls. 62. American School of Classical Studies

227-3.
In this, the latest volume in the Agora series, Rhys Townsend carefully documents and analyzes the architectural remains discovered beneath the Stoa of Attalos. As is explained in the introduction, most of these remains were excavated between 1949 and 1958 under the direction of Homer A. Thompson and Eugene Vanderpool. While these excavations were still in progress, work began on the reconstruction of the Stoa of Attalos, which required the reburial of most of the structures beneath it. Consequently, Townsend was unable to observe for himself many of the remains he treats in the book. That he is nonetheless able to provide a thorough account of them is, as he acknowledges, a tribute to the archaeologists who supervised and recorded the excavations with exemplary care. We might regret that the excavators themselves did not produce a final report of their findings, but we can be grateful that the task has fallen to someone so attentive to archaeological detail and well versed in Athenian architecture. The volume is divided into three parts. Part I, the longest and most important, is devoted to the structures that preceded the Stoa of Attalos. The remains in situ are fully described and, to the extent that is possible, reconstructions of individual buildings are proposed on the basis of those remains and associated architectural elements. The function of each structure is also considered, as are its date and historical significance. The organization of part I is, as one might expect, chronological. After summarizing the evidence of Mycenaean burials in the area (already published in Agora XIII), Townsend proceeds to the Protogeometric and Geometric periods, during which graves give way to wells indicating a shift from cemetery use to habitation. Wells alone provide evidence for potters workshops in the sixth century B.C. and for their abandonment at the time of the Persian invasion. Remains of a round altar base and the foundations of a shallow colonnade suggest that a small sanctuary was established soon after the Persian destruction and remained in use for some 50 years. A group of makeshift structures, built largely of rubble and mudbrick, attest to dense occupation during the years of the Peloponnesian War, when Athenians were forced to take refuge within their city walls. At the end