Hesperia
Honorary Shares of Sacrificial Meat in Attic Vase Painting: Visual Signs of Distinction and Civic Identity
by Victoria Tsoukala
Hesperia, Volume 78, Issue 1
Page(s): 1-40
Stable URL:
Year: 2009
ABSTRACT:
A group of Attic black- and red-figure vases from the late 6th and 5th centuries B.C. is decorated with scenes that prominently feature legs of meat in iconographic contexts other than sacrificial butchering. These leg joints are interpreted as honorary shares of sacrificial meat awarded to select individuals at the festivals of the polis; the honorary shares included more meat than the shares distributed to the general public. Because leg joints were awarded as honorary shares to the priests who officiated at sacrifices, they came to represent honorary shares in general. By extension, the leg joints that appear in painted scenes symbolize meritorious participation in city festivals, and thus can be viewed as expressions of civic identity.