Austin’s theory of performative language provides a fruitful approach to understanding the ancient emphasis on the power of ritual words. In Austin’s sense of the word, prayers are performative, that is, speech acts that perform actions. Roman prayers were not simple locutionary acts, addressing statements to the gods or describing the human position vis-a-vis the gods. Rather, prayers were the performance of petition or promise or thanks based on an accepted convention in ritual contexts. This performative quality is perhaps most clearly understood in prayers of thanksgiving. In saying the words “I give thanks that,” the worshiper explicitly performs the act of thanksgiving. While a gift or sacrifice often accompanied the prayer, the function and efficacy of that offering was dependent on the words of thanks. Furthermore, it is significant that prayers of thanksgiving always made mention of the divine act that merited the offering of thanks. This is the act of praise that is so closely bound up with thanksgiving. To say “I give thanks that” is to thank and praise. The utterance in and of itself has force or power. Similarly, to say “I vow” is to perform the act of committing oneself to a future action; the promise comes into existence only through and at the moment of the speech act. The phrase “I swear” or “I summon witnesses” is the essence of oath-taking. Likewise, to say “I pray and entreat that” is to perform the act of petition.
Prayers may also be termed performative in the sense of dramatic performances, since they involve actors and an audience, a set-apart space and time, and conventional words and movements. In this dramatic sense, any Roman prayer other than an individual’s lone address distinguishes between actors and human audience. But even that individual typically spoke prayers aloud, like an actor soliloquizing on an empty stage. Unlike the common Christian practice, there was no collective prayer in which all present participated verbally. In the private religion of the family, a single individual, most often the palter familias, offered prayers on behalf of the group, while other family members stood quietly by. Similarly in public religion, typically a single designated speaker addressed the divine, while the citizen audience stood watching silently. On official occasions, the speakers of prayer were usually either magistrates or priests, although children or women might be specially selected to perform a hymn. In another characteristic shared with dramatic performances, music, often played on pipes, accompanied public prayers. Choral performances would have seemed even more dramatic in their use of multiple instruments and in the frequent addition of movement. On certain occasions, choruses walked in a solemn manner in a ritual procession reminiscent of Greek cult practices and the closely related dramatic performances. The Arval priests performed a three-step dance while reciting the words of their ancient hymn to Mars (CIL 6.2104 = CFA 296). In a similar fashion, the Salian priests of Mars danced while processing through the city and singing (Dion. H. 2.70.1-5). Even non-choral prayer included some movement, generally the lifting of arms toward the heavens (e. g. Sall. Bellum Catilinae 31.3; Livy 5.21.15).
World History
