> IIRC the roman gladiator tradition started as part of funeral
rites,
> and that they had picked this up from the Etruscans. Now, plenty
Rings a bell. Thats more or less the kind of thing I would like to explore, where this fits in. there a couple of strands one could draw from the arenas as described in the digest.
> other cultures had physical specatacles, but I think that
gladiatoral
> displays were fairly unique to the roman world.
In that form, although arguably the meso-american ball-courts had a similar function. And I also think that we tend to apply to the galdiatorial and olympic games something of the ideology we apply to their modern euivalents - sportsmanship, friendly competition, etc. If one were to make the leap that the arena itself is a sort of sacrificial field, we can draw all sorts of things from these structures...
> events spread elsewhere, it would likely bring the cult with it.
> Shargash seems to have spread beyond Alkoth, if I understand
> correctly.
So I understood, yes. Although I'm not sure that the games have in their Alkothian form.
> strengthen but still somewhat control this useful but dangerous
cult
> by sponsoring and promoting more such events. I don't imagine that
> under Dara Happan command other cities would have adopted Shargash
to
> such a scale, but with lunar cross-pollination happening I can
> imagine this being a useful way to bring the cult to new regions.
I have some difficulty with how Shargash is seen by Lunars; the writeups in HW so far have given me the impression of a very remote, bloodthirsty deity. I will be interested to see more information when Lunar books are released.
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