ABSTRACT
Taste and touch are natural partners in a study of Graeco-Roman sacrifice not only because they served similar ritual purposes (as I will show), but also because these two senses were considered by Graeco-Roman philosophers to be strongly intertwined. Taste and touch are natural partners in a study of Graeco-Roman sacrifice not only because they served similar ritual purposes, but also because these two senses were considered by Graeco-Roman philosophers to be strongly intertwined. This chapter discusses these two senses and demonstrates the important ritual role they played in the sacrificial process, one that is markedly different from that played by most of the other senses. To state it simply, the sounds of prayers and music called the gods to attend rites where the scents of sacrifices were understood as the primary conduit for communication between gods and men. In both Greek and Roman rites, the animal was touched in specific ways, using specific instruments.
