Sacrificial Ritual in Ancient Greece. Some Methodological Remarks

The article discusses some selected problems in analysis of ritual in the religion of ancient Greeks. Part one presents the history of study of the relationship between myth and ritual, focusing on principal ideas which appeared in the late 19th century. A turn toward ritual in studying ancient religion meant a shift in emphasis away from mythology. Nonetheless, questions about links between mythological texts and rituals still remain part of research scope. In the 1960’s, scholars’ attention focused on sacrificial ritual, with various interpretative methods being used. Walter Burkert proposed a pre-agrarian origin of blood sacrifices, tracing them to the behavior of Paleolithic hunters. Jean-Pierre Vernant (with associates) used structuralist methods to interpret offerings as a symbolic expression of man’s status as between gods and beasts. Thus Burkert’s theory explains myths as a cultural interpretation of inherited rituals which may be reduced to biologically programmed behavior, while Vernant’s theory sees myth and ritual as two forms expressing the anthropological concepts of Greek Man. In part two, the article contains translations of key source texts, proving that, on close reading, they render great theories less than obvious.

The article discusses some selected problems in analysis of ritual in the religion of ancient Greeks. Part one presents the history of study of the relationship between myth and ritual, focusing on principal ideas which appeared in the late 19th century. A turn toward ritual in studying ancient religion meant a shift in emphasis away from mythology. Nonetheless, questions about links between mythological texts and rituals still remain part of research scope. In the 1960’s, scholars’ attention focused on sacrificial ritual, with various interpretative methods being used. Walter Burkert proposed a pre-agrarian origin of blood sacrifices, tracing them to the behavior of Paleolithic hunters. Jean-Pierre Vernant (with associates) used structuralist methods to interpret offerings as a symbolic expression of man’s status as between gods and beasts. Thus Burkert’s theory explains myths as a cultural interpretation of inherited rituals which may be reduced to biologically programmed behavior, while Vernant’s theory sees myth and ritual as two forms expressing the anthropological concepts of Greek Man. In part two, the article contains translations of key source texts, proving that, on close reading, they render great theories less than obvious.