Author’s Note: 6 - 12. The Cosmology of War
From The Observatory
Author’s Note: 6
The following author’s note (starting with a bibliographic source without an introduction or transition characteristic of his writing throughout The Creation of Order) appeared at the end of Chapter 12. Can you help us work its contents into the body of this chapter to be consistent with the rest of The Creation of Order? And can you help us add transitions/explanations around the quotations? A new section in Chapter 12 may be created for it to work.
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Temples and War (Snodgrass 1980)
[Anthony Snodgrass, Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment (London: 1980), pp. 63–64:]
Temples also were linked with the process of overseas expansion and colonization. “Several ancient narratives of early colonial foundations begin with an account of a consultation of the oracle of Apollo at Delphi.”[1] The priests must have had good geographical information, at least at Delphi. Ancient Greek colonists’ dedications made it a repository for such knowledge. Thank-offerings were made after successful commercial voyages, originally backed by the temples (Delphi, and Hera of Samos). “Mutual dependence between the sanctuaries and the land, both for arable and for livestock farming, was close. Sacrifices, it goes without saying, commonly took the form of agricultural produce and farm animals. … Many Greek sanctuaries were in a real sense war museums, and on occasion they served as armouries too. Not only were the portable dedications of arms and armour usually a tithe of the spoils taken from defeated enemies, or else personal offerings of their own equipment by grateful victors; but sometimes the temples themselves were built with the proceeds of successful campaigns. In later times, at least, booty-dedications took other forms as well: we hear of male and female captives being dedicated as temple-slaves, and of plots of profitable land being made over to the sanctuary to increase its revenue.”[2]
In short, “the activities of a Greek sanctuary, far from being a detached and spiritual sphere, were very close to the heart of all political, economic and military life.”[3] See Pausanias’s Description of Greece.Add ContextMore context/development in the text is needed here.
- ↑ Anthony Snodgrass, Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment (London: 1980), pp. 63–64.
- ↑ Anthony Snodgrass, Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment (London: 1980), pp. 63–64.
- ↑ Anthony Snodgrass, Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment (London: 1980), p. 64.
