Gäste der Götter - Götter als Gäste

Contrasting with the Greek case, the link between sacrifice to the gods and banquet for humans is practically never found explicit among the Romans. Inuitare deum is no usual locution. How can we distinguish between an ordinary and a sacrificial banquet? In private spaces the dining-room offers a playing field for social competition to such a point, that it became necessary to limit the luxury by means of sumptuary laws. In the eyes of many, senators are just as unapproachable as gods themselves. By performing a sacrifice-an event that divides animals from men and gods-, is man inviting god, or god inviting man? Classical uses of the verb inuitare shows that to be invited by the gods means to die, that inviting the gods means consecrating a cult space or calling them down to their altar by pouring out wine and burning incense. The paper also examines the expression «meal of the gods» in a poem from Horace (Sat. 2, 6, 60-71), and the large scale of uses of the verb inuitare among the Christians. It shows that lectisternium and epulum Iouis are no exceptions to the rule: a Roman communal meal requires social equality even in the sharing of sacrificial flesh

Art · Humanities · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Philosophy

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