The Romans and Ritual Murder
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8200362 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Celia E Schultz (Yale University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 78 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 516-541 |
| Publication date | 2010-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7189 • E-ISSN: 1477-4585 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jaarel/lfq002 |
| PMID | 20726130 |
| OpenAlex | W2049453912 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 7 |
The Roman abhorrence of human sacrifice presented by ancient literary sources stands in contrast to the frequency of rites requiring the death of a human being performed by the Romans during the Republic (509-44 BCE). After examining the ways our sources talk about ritual murder, especially as it was practiced by foreign peoples and subversive or tyrannical elements within Roman society, this discussion turns to the issue of the forms of ritual murder performed by the Romans. Of these various rites, the only one clearly identified by them as human sacrifice, that is, as an offering to the gods of a human life, is the live interment of Gauls and Greeks. Other forms of ritual murder-the burial of unchaste Vestal Virgins and the drowning of hermaphroditic children-were not, in Roman opinion, sacrifice. This distinction made the disposal of Vestal Virgins and hermaphrodites acceptable
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Greeks · Human life · Human sacrifice · Literature · Sacrifice · Theology · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Philosophy
Roman Theologies in Crisis
How to Write Religious Ritual into Theatre. Gérard Genette’s Palimpsests Applied in Plautus’ Rudens and Simone Weil’s Venice Sauvée
Fabio Píctor y el doble de Breno
Tarpeia the Vestal
Flamingos and Perverted Sacrifices in Suetonius’ Life of Caligula
Pseudo-Sacrificial Allusions in Hosidius Geta's Medea
Numa and Jupiter
Animal Sacrifice in the Roman Empire (31 BCE-395 CE)
Roman Sacrifice, Inside and Out
The Name of the Vestal, or When a Vestal is Named
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |