Inscrire un serment en Grèce ancienne : couper et verser

• Main Author: Renée Koch-Piettre
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Anthropologie et Histoire des Mondes Antiques 2013-07-01
• Series: Cahiers Mondes Anciens
• Subjects: Ancient Greece; blood; gesture; Homer; imprecation; oath
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/mondesanciens/112

By focusing on the topic of ritual oath in Archaic and Classical Greece, the paper deals with a specific feature of writing as an anthropological gesture. A general introduction aims at the distinction between the ritual gesture of writing and other linguistic and symbolical religious activities ; it points out two concrete features of writing : depending on techniques, on the one hand hard sealing, engraving or cutting in, on the other hand fluidity. The paper goes on demonstrating that both kinds of gestures appear in the meaning of some Greek words built on the linguistic root *tem–/*tom–/*tm– (« to cut »), which applies to ritual oath. People « cut » the sacrificial victim’s throat, intending to make blood flowing. Now it is possible to write with drops. From treaty making to pact dissolving, both cutting and dripping set up the efficient commitment of those who swear, and curse on those who break their oath.