Sacred Groves: Sacrifice and the Order of Nature in Ancient Greek Landscapes

Abstract

The sacred groves of ancient Greece were designed for the specific purpose of linking the sacred realm of the gods and the profane world of humans. The terrain occupied by a grove was carefully delineated as separate and different from the landscapes of ordinary life. Here, special rituals took place that reestablished the connection with untrammeled nature that human beings had lost through the work required by animal and plant husbandry. One of these rituals was animal sacrifice, a practice that turned the fruits of human labor into a gift to the gods whose natural realm is chaotic and wild. The sacred grove is therefore a threshold space, a portal to the domain of disorder. As such, it shares characteristics with nonlinear systems that require disturbance in order to remain emergent and transformative. This essay advances a reading of sacred groves as nonlinear landscapes that permit the passage of the sacred into human systems by means of the loving and transgressive gift of sacrifice.