Gut Scent – The Smell of Guts

0583254 - FLÚ 2024 RIV eng A - Abstract
Golubev, Victor - Coughlin, Sean
Gut Scent – The Smell of Guts.
[Comparative guts. Kiel, 07.06.2023-09.06.2023]
Method of presentation: Zvaná přednáška
Event organizer: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
URL events: https://comparative-guts.net/gut-scent-the-smell-of-guts/ 
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GM21-30494M
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : scent * Greek * ritual * sacrifice
OECD category: Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Scent was a prominent part of the experience of ritual animal sacrifice in Greco-Roman antiquity. Literary sources of the period typically describe the experience as pleasant, focusing on the scent of the animal meat roasting on the altar fire. This scent, called knisa in Greek and nidor in Latin, is one of the primary purposes of the ritual, being not only pleasant in itself but also the offering presented to divine beings. Animal sacrifice, however, would have produced conditions for a far more complex smellscape than the hedonic and performative one emphasised in literary sources. Entrails of freshly slaughtered animals would have released odorant compounds typically characterised today as foul, acrid, or otherwise unpleasant. Concentrations of such compounds would vary during the ritual, with some present during the slaughter and butchering of the animals, others during the removal and roasting of the inner organs. The talk describes the stages of animal sacrifice, the mechanisms underlying human olfaction, and what odor-causing compounds one might expect to find in the environment at each stage of the sacrifice.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0351774