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schlapbachsensingthroughdanceoffprint
Journal article

Sensing through dance in Roman religion

BHAP-HA+SCANT

  • 2021
Published in:
  • Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni . - 2021, vol. 87, no. 2, p. 507-519
Dance
ritual
sense perception
Roman religion
Rituels
Littérature latine
Danse
Servius
Virgile
Religion romaine
English This essay addresses the physical and kinetic dimensions of Roman religion through the lens of dance. It takes a proverb and two strikingly “modern” observations on dance and religion in Servius’ commentaries on Vergil as points of departure for this enquiry (Aen. 8, 110; Ecl. 5, 73; Georg. 1, 347-350), which is informed by an aesthetics of religion (Religionsästhetik) and dance studies. Examining a number of poetic vignettes of rustic dances, the essay argues that dance has variable functions: it is both a crucial element in assuring the correct execution of religious rituals and an interface between ritual and ordinary experience; it serves at once to distinguish these dimensions and to connect them as a permeable frontier of sorts. Dance movements may differ from ordinary kinetic behaviour by exploring greater freedom of movement (as in the inexpert dances of rustics, e.g. Tib. 2, 1, 56) or else by imposing determinate patterns (as when Cynthia “imitates” rustic dances in Prop. 2, 19, 15). Either way, they make these different options, which are provided by the physiology of the human body, perceptible to both dancers and spectators and help to anchor religious practice in sensory experience.
Faculty
Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
Department
Département de philologie classique
Language
  • English
Classification
Literature
License
License undefined
Open access status
green
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/321005
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