Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.  Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Exultation in the ritual slaughter of animals
Collins, Billie Jean
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1995; 36, 4; ProQuest
pg. 319

Greek GAOA ut;ro and Hittite palwai-: 
Exultation in the Ritual Slaughter 

of Animals 

Billie Jean Collins 

G
REEK1 OAOA:U~<O and its cognates 2 are typically an expres­

sion of jubilance. The old nurse, Eurycleia, cries out for 
joy at the death of the suitors in the Odyssey and is 

scolded by Odysseus for the inappropriateness of such an ex­
pression of joy: (a) "But as she viewed the corpses and also the 
unspeakable bloodshed, she made ready at once to cry out 
when she beheld the great deed," to which Odysseus responds, 
"rejoice in your heart, old woman, and yet hold back and do 
not cry out loud. It is not appropriate to exult over slain men."3 

Eteocles, in Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes, beseeches the 
Theban women to accompany his vow with the OAOAUrfl, 
reflecting a wartime rite to bolster the morale of the combat­
ants: (b) "And, after hearing our vow, then singloU in triumph 
the sacred, favorable cry, the Greek custom 0 the sacrificial 
shout, encouragement to (our) friends, and (thus) remove the 
terror of battle." 4 

I Abbreviations: CHD=The Hittite Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of 
the University of Chicago Vol. PIl (Chicago 1994); HN=W. Burkert, Homo 
Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth, tr. 
P. Bing (Berkeley 1983); I Bo T II=lstanbul Arkeoloji Muzelerinde Bulunan 
Boghazkoy Tabletler II (Istanbul 1947); KBo=Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazkoi 
(Berlin 1923-); KUB=Keilschrifturkunden aus Boghazkoi (Berlin 1921-). 

2 LSJ 5.7)7). OMlAurfl. OAoAuy~~. OMlAu~ro. and OMlAu'Y~a. 
3 Od. 22.407f, 411 f: 

iJ /)' ro.; oov VElrua.; 'tE lW.l aCJItE'tov ElcnSEv aIIll, 
i.'IluO'£v p' OMlAU9n btd ILCya ElCllSEV EpyOV .... 
"f;v SuJUllYp11\i, XaiPE Kal lCSXEO ILIlS' OA.OAU~E· 
oUt OO'lllK'tUIL£vOlO'lV E1t' uvSpacnv EUxE't«xuaOm." 

4 Sept. 267-70: 

lCU}1iOV ctlcO'uoao' ElrYl-la:tc:ov I £1t£l'tU au 
OAoA UWov lEpi>V t:UlLEvii 1tUlCOVlClOV, 
'EMllvlKOV VOlLlO'Ill9uCl't~ 13oi\C;. 
9apaoc; IplMll<;, Aooooa 1tOA.£lLlOV <P6J30v. 

319 



Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.  Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

320 GREEK OAOAYZQ AND HITTITE PALWAI-

In Aristophanes' Pax (96f), Trygaeus asks for support on his 
would-be journey to the gods on a winged beetle: (c) "It is 
necessary to keep a holy silence and not to grunt out any 
foolish thing, but rather to cheer" (d)cpll~rtv XPll Kat ~ll cpAau­
pov ~ll()EV ypU~EtV, aAA' 6MAU~EtV). 

But historians of Greek religion, most notably Burkert, have 
suggested that in ritual contexts this word also expresses sad­
ness or horror at the sacrificial act. Passages commonly cited as 
typical examples of Greek sacrifice include Od. 4.759-67, where 
Penelope raises the cry to accompany a prayer to Athena: 

(d) After bathing and taking clean clothes on her body, 
(Penelope) went with her women attendants to the upper 
chamber, (where) she placed barley grains in a basket and 
prayed to Athena, "Hear me, 0 Unwearied One, child of 
aegis-bearing Zeus. If ever Odysseus of many counsels 
burned to you in these halls the fatty thighs of a heifer or a 
sheep, recall those offerings now and save my beloved son. 
Ward off the wickedly arrogant suitors." Having spoken 
thus, she raised the cry, and the goddess heard her prayer.5 

Earlier, at Od. 3.447-52, the women raise a cry as the men 
strike the preliminary blow to the animal victim of a sacrificial 
rite: 

(e) Now when they had prayed, and had tossed the barley 
grains, at once the high-spirited son of Nestor, Thrasy­
medes stood near and struck, and the axe cut through the 
tendons of the neck, and loosened the strength of the heifer. 
Then the women raised the cry, the daughters and daughters­
in-law and also the revered wife of Nestor, Eurydice, the 
eldest of the daughters of Clymeneus.6 

5 il 0' uOp11vajl£vTl, lCaOapa xpoi Eljla9' EAoUOU 
£i~ U1tEpq>' aV£~atVE ouv ajlqn1tOAotOt "(\lvat~tV, 
tV 0' £en' ooAoxu'ta~ lCav£q>, ";pa'to 0' 'A911vU· 

« KAWi jlE\). aiytOxotO ~tO~ 't£lCO~. a'tp\)'tcOvTl, 
Ei 1to't£ 'tot 1tOAUjlTJ'tl~ £Vt jlEyapOtOtv 'OO\)OOEU~ 
i\ ~oo~ i\ 5tO~ 1(:a'tu 1ttova jlTJpt' ElCTlE, 
'troY vuv flOt jlvijOat. lCat flOt <p1Aov \)k oacooov, 
jlVTJo'tijpa~ 0' a1taAaAxE lCalCiii~ {l1tEp11VOpEov'ta<;." 

"Q<; d1tOuo' OA6A\)~. gea liE oi rlChev aptk 
6 Au'tup t1tEt p' eu~av'to lCat OUAoXU'tu<; 1tpO~aAov'to. 

au'ttlCa NEO'tOPO<; \)io~ U1t£p9\)flO~ 8pao\JI.1l1&]~ 
TlAaOEV ant o'ta<;· 1tEUlC\)<; 0' a1t£lCO'l'e 't£vov'ta<; 
UUXeVlo\)<;, AUOEV OE ~oo<; jlEVO~. ai 0' 6A6A\)9;tV 
~YU't£PE~ 'tE V\)Ol 'tE lCat aiooiTJ 1tUpalCOt'tl<; 
N£o'topo<;, EUP\lOtlCTl, 1tp£O~ KA\)jliVOtO 9\)yu'tpiiiv. 



Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.  Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

BILLIE JEAN COLLINS 321 

In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Clytemnestra remembers the 
sacrifices that were made at the news of Troy's fall: (f) "Still, 
they sacrificed; even in the manner of a woman they rang out 
the ritual cry from place to place throughout the city, shouting 
triumphantly in the sanctuaries of the gods, (and) lulling the 
fragrant flame as it consumed the offering."7 

Unfortunately, in descriptions of sacrificial scenes, such as 
passages (d) and (e), we have no insight into the demeanor of 
those who cry out, although in (f) the ritual cry is associated 
with an attitude of triumph. Burkert persistently presents this 
action as a shrill (i. e., unpleasant) and highly emotional act,8 
which then fits into his characterization of Greek sacrifice as 
guilt ridden and cathartic of unpleasant emotions and tensions. 
He refers (H N 12) to the sacrificial act as "a central action 
clearly marked as the emotional climax by a piercing scream, 
the 'Ololyge'." For him the oAoAuYll becomes the emotional 
climax of a "terrifying midpoint." But elsewhere (HN 5) Bur­
kert concedes the semantic conflict: "Women raise a piercing 
cry, whether in fear or in triumph or both at once."9 

Although Bremmer is not content with Burkert's interpreta­
tions of the guilt attached to sacrifice, he, with Vernant, stops 
short of denying the existence of any discomfort associated 
with the act: "Killing for sacrifice, then, did not generate fear 
and Angst, but certainly generated feelings of unease. "10 "Un­
ease," however, is still incompatible with the joy presupposed 
by the expected meaning of oAoAuyll. Jameson, on the other 
hand, subtly questions Burkert's analysis altogether, suggesting 
instead that the cry was a summoning of the gods. I! In support 
of this idea, he cites Eur. fr. 351, which explictly orders women 

7 Ag. 594-97: 

oj.LCO<; o· Ee'llov. lCUl ~'IlVUllCd<p vOJll!> 
OA.oA.'IlYIlOV UA.A.~ UA.A.oSEV lCU'tU 1t'tOA.lV 
EA.a(JlCOV d><p'1lloUV'tEl; tV SEWV tOpa\(; 
S'Il'1q>UYov lCOtIlWvnx; (1)00'1 <pA.Oyu. 

8 See e.g. W. Burkert, Greek Religion, tr. J. Raffan (Cambridge [Mass.] 1985) 
56: " As the fatal blow falls, the women must cry out in high, shrill tones: the 
Greek custom of the sacrificial cry marks the emotional climax. Life screams 
over death.» 

9 See also his discussion of Eur. Herac/. 770-83 in CAH V2 (1982) 256. 
10 J. Bremmer, Greek Religion (=Greece & Rome. New Surveys in the 

Classics 24 [Oxford 1994]) 43. 
\I M. Jameson, ·Sacrifice and Ritual: Greece," in M. Grant and R. 

Kitzinger, edd., Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome 
II (New York 1988) 970. 



Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.  Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

322 GREEK OAOAYZ.Q AND HIITITE PALWAI-

to cry out in order that Athena might come as a helper to the 
city: (g) "Cry, 0 women, so that the Goddess, holding the 
golden Gorgon, may come as a helper to the city" (OA.oAU~E't', C1 
YUVa.lKEC;. WC; EA8n 8Ea XPucr11v EXOUcra. fopyov' bti1wupoc; 
nOAu). Jameson further contends that "other demonstrative 
acts in the procedure, including the lifting up of the animals" 
were intended along these same lines. 

Ritual texts from Hittite Anatolia may shed new light on this 
debate. Indeed, parallels from Hittite sacrificial rituals indicate 
that the Greek use of oAoAuYll is consistent and that in the 
context of sacrifice the Greeks were in fact expressing jubilation 
over the gift being dedicated to the god, perhaps in the hope of 
inducing the god to receive it with equal joy and delight. 
Moreover, the Hittite evidence supports Jameson's contention 
that the cry was a summoning or capturing of the deity's 
attention. 

Burkert has demonstrated beyond doubt the bond that exists 
between Greek and Anatolian religious practices. 12 The pouring 
of libations and their use as symbolic markers, scapegoat rites, 
the cult of Kubaba/Cybele, and the mythological motif of the 
missing deity are only a few of the subjects that he discusses at 
length. The similarities between the two regions should come as 
no surprise, for the two cultures were in increasingly persistent 
contact with each other in western Anatolia from the onset of 
the Mycenaean period onward. Sacrificial ritual is a subject long 
overdue for comparative study, but as Hittite sacrifice is only 
now beginning to receive the systematic attention from 
Hittitologists that it deserves, similarities have remained unex­
amined on both sides of the academic fence. As the Hittite 
material slowly becomes more accessible and Hittite ritual 
observances gradually become better understood, commonal­
ities with their western neighbors become increasingly appar­
ent. One such commonality, I would suggest, can be seen in 
attitudes toward ritual killing. 

The Hittite verb palwai- was long thought to refer to a kind of 
ritual clapping or the like. The CHD (Pit 83) has, however, re­
cently revised this interpretation, applying instead the following 
range of meanings to this word: "to cry out, shout for joy, 
cheer; to make a long, sustained utterance (probably in a loud 

12 See in particular his Structure and History in Greek Mythology and 
Ritual (Berkeley 1979), and The Orientalizing Revolution, trr. M. E. Pindar 
and W. Burkert (Cambridge [Mass.] 1992). 



Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.  Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

BILLIE JEAN COLLINS 323 

voice). declaim (?)." That it denotes a joyful crying out is clear 
from contexts cited by the CH D. 13 One Hittite festival 
included a mock wrestling match in which one wrestler 
represented Ijatti and the other wrestler the enemy country. 
Here palwai- Indicates cheering for the home team: (1) "When 
he attacks and [takes] down (the wrestler) of the enemy. our 
army and everyone cheers. [He who] won bows again to the 
king." And a few lines later: "'[They be]gin again to wrestle. 
When our (man) takes him down. th[ey c]heer, and that one 
(i.e., the loser) bows to the deity. Our man crouches."14 

In another festival a ritual practitioner shouts out his prayer 
for the king and queen: 

(2) (Someone) fills two rhyta: [one for the Storm god of 
M]anuzziya, and one [fJor Lilluri. They place one rhyton 
for (the war god) ZABABA and (s)he (Sc. the practitioner) 
cries out I declaims: 'Lelluri has achieved her heart's desire 
(literally, "that of her heart"). May the Stormgod of 
Manuzziya and Lelluri bring the king and queen (to the 
fulfillment) of (their) wish. Let them put his enemies under 
his feet'.lS 

I] Pit 82: .p. is an audible manifestation of joy and acclaim, also performed 
in rituals, often accompanied by music and dancing. n Additional passages are 
also given here. 

14 Festival, KBo 23.55 i 5'-T, 20'-23': 

nu mahhan walhzi nu=kan SA LUKUR katta l[aknuzll 
nu anz~'i ERIN~MES !Jlimanzass=a palwa-izz[i nu kum 
tar~ta namma LUGAL ~in<k>zi ... 
... nu namma=at 
KITPULU ti[anzi] n=an=kan mahhan anzel 
laknuzi [n=at pa] lwiinzi apas"?=a ANA D INGIR-Ll M 
USKEN nu an [z]el parlanaizzi 

15 IjisuwaS festival, KBo 24.76:1 '-11 ': 

[ ... ] 2 BI[BRI] 
[I-EN ANA dIM M]anuzi l-EN=ma 
[A ]NA dLelJu-ri sunnai 
I-EN BIBRU=ma ANA dZA.BA 4.BA 4 
tianzi nu. ealwa-izzi v • v v v 

d LelluTls=wa=kan SA-as=sas 
iirM dIM Manuziya=ma=wa=kan 
dLelluris LUGAL-un 
MUN~~.U.JGAr.,-an ~I-as arn~wandu 
nu=wa=ssi LU.MES KUR GIR-as kattan 
tiandu 



Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.  Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

324 GREEK OAOAYZ,Q AND HIITITE PALWAI-

In a myth of the Kumarbi cycle, Ea instructs Tasmisu, the 
vizier and brother of the stormgod, T eSsub, to rouse the gods 
to assembly for the final battle against the supplanter, Ullikum­
mi: (3) "Tasmisu [heJard (Ea's words) and began to rejoice. He 
shouted three times, and the gods in [hea]ven heard (him); he 
shouted twice, and Tessub, the valiant king of Kummiya, heard 
him; and they came to the place of assembly. "1(' 

When, therefore, palwai- is used within the context of ritual 
sacrifice, one expects a similar connotation of joy, acclaim, or 
jubilation. In passage (4) the singer, who is a regular attendee at 
sacrificial ceremonies and in Hittite rituals in general, calls out 
(halzai-) just prior to the slaughter of a sacrificial victim and then 
shouts or cheers (palwai-) at the moment that the animal is 
killed: (4) "Further she [the queenJ goes into the forest and 
dedicates one sheep and one goat to the praised ZABABA. The 
singer cries" aga" and they kill them at the kuwas"i. The singer 
cheers/ shouts. "17 

In a cult inventory text the exclamation of the palwatalla­
("crierlshouter"), here a woman, is accompanied by the blast of 
"thunderhorn":18 (5) "He presents one sheep to the deity 
IJilaSSi. They kill the annalli-(sheep) on the altar. The men of the 

16 Myth of Ullikummi, KEo 26.65 iv 15'-18': 

... dTa~misu~ , 
[ist]ama~ta n==as=za dusk4jeiwan da-(t nu 3-SU pal wait nu=~~n sari 
[AN -lsi DINGIR.MES -mu~ i~tama[f]ler 2 -anki palwait nu dU-as" 

uRUKummiya'S 
UR.SAG-[i]S' [LJUGAL-uS' i'Stttma'Sta n==at duliya: pidi anda en 

17 Cult of Ijuwashnna, KEo 20.72 iii 15'-18': 

nu namma INA GISTIR paizzi 
na~ttt 1 UDU U 1 MAs.GAL larlanti ANA dZA.B~.BA4 
sipanti LU:t:'l'AR aeaealzai n=us NA'giiwasiya 
hukanzi LUNAR palwaizzi 

18 The act~ of palwai- is characteristic of, although not exclusive to, the ritual 
participants called palwattalla-. These were one of a number of professional 
ritual participants and could be either men or women (and even sometimes 
children), although the sex was probably not chosen at random but was pre­
determined. See F. Pecchioli Daddi, Mestieri, professioni e dignita nell' 
Anatolia ittita (=Incunabula Graeca 79 [Rome 1982]) 246-52, 394ff. 

Regarding Greek sacrifice, ]. Bremmer, ·Communication with the Divine: 
Sacrifice" (forthcoming), has asked why the cry was raised by women, sug­
gesting that the reason may be that the men were already busy with the 
sacrifice. I suggest rather that women were suited to this task, at least in part, 
because of the pitch of their voices. Note that in Hittite passage (5) the ·crier" 
is a woman. 



Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.  Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

BILLIE JEAN COLLINS 325 

thunderhorn blow. The (female) crier cheers/shouts. They set 
(out) the meat." 19 Based on the language of this text alone and 
the loose construction of the sentence, it is difficult to know for 
certain exactly how closely each act followed upon the previous 
one, or, indeed, if they were simultaneous. But there is no 
reason to doubt a direct connection beween the kill and the cry. 

As example (3) indicates, and as the CH D points out, the 
action of palwai- is audible at a great distance and could be used 
to summon gods to assembly. Thus, when the meat is set out 
for the god after (or while?) the palwatalla-woman raises the cry 
in passage (5), it seems reasonable to suppose that the sound 
was meant to attract the attention of the deity to the fact of the 
sacrifice and the meal being offered him. 

The above examples suggest that the vocalization accom­
panying sacrifice was for both Greeks and Hittites a jubilant 
cry, not one of mourning, horror, or guilt. Within the context 
of sacrifice, it appears to have had two functions: first, as a cry 
of joy or triumph, not at the destruction of the animal per se, 
but rather at the honor that this offering brought the deity and 
in anticipation of the pleasure that it was expected to give him; 
its other purpose was to capture the attention of the deity and 
to summon him to the joyful and sacred event of the shared 
ri tual meal. 20 

EMORY UNIVERSITY 

April,1996 

19 Cult inventory, fBoT II 103 iv 11-14: 

1 UDU dHilassvi BAL-anti annalJ (sic) INA GISZAG.GAR[.RA] 
~Ukanzi Ltk.ME~> SI!.KAxIM paprianzi 
MUNUSpalwataUar palwaizzi }uppa 
tianzi 

20 I wish to thank Christopher Faraone, Michael Jameson, Harry Hoffner, 
and Thomas Dousa for reading this manuscript and offering valuable com­
ments. I am also grateful to Jan Bremmer, who not only read the manuscript, 
but made his forthcoming article (supra n.18) available to me.