Would You Barter with God?

Why Holy Debts and Not Profane Markets Created Money

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By ALLA SEMENOVA*
ABSTRACT. Attempting to revitalize the substantive approach to economics in the tradition of K. Polanyi, this paper revives the neglected substantive theory of moneys origins by Bernhard Laum and thus disputes the formal approaches that see the origins of money in the context of trade. A wide range of evidence, from archeological to etymological, is utilized to demonstrate that relations between men and God, carried out through the intermediary of state-religious authorities, played a causal role in the genesis of the ox-unit of value and account, and, further, in the origins of money, and, subsequently, coinage. The substantive state-religious approach presented in this paper is also compared and contrasted to the Chartalist perspective on moneys origins. It is concluded that the substantive approach presented in this paper differs from the more formal approaches (e.g., Metallism) because it does not rely upon a projection of modern institutions and habits of thought (e.g., a medium of exchange; monetary taxation) into ancient societies.

Introduction

This article begins by examining the signicance of the ox-unit of value and account in the ancient Greek world. While the ox-unit is commonly acknowledged as one of the earliest (if not the earliest) units of value and account in ancient Greek societies, there are
*Alla Semenova is a Visiting Instructor in Economics at Dickinson College. The author is thankful to John F. Henry and Mark Peacock for providing feedback on an earlier version of this paper. The author thanks two anonymous referees for very helpful comments and suggestions that improved this paper. The paper itself was inspired by L. Randall Wrays approach to money. All the remaining mistakes are the authors. Direct correspondence to: Alla Semenova, Department of Economics Dickinson College, PO Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013; e-mail: semenova@dickinson.edu
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 70, No. 2 (April, 2011). 2011 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc.

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competing interpretations regarding the origins of this unit. Correspondingly, there are competing perspectives on the origins of a mere notion (or idea) of valuing objects in terms of other objects. Highlighting the marginality of trade in ancient Greece, this paper disputes the common interpretation that the origins of the ox-unit must be sought in barter exchange. As an alternative, this article revives Bernhard Laums neglected contribution towards the theory of moneys origins. One of the key propositions of Laums thesis is that the origins of the ox-unit must be located in non-commercial state religious practices and institutions of ancient Greek societies. To locate such origins, this article examines the ancient Greek rituals of sacricial offerings to deities. It is argued that by specifying the precise quality, type and quantity of oxen to be sacriced, ancient Greek religion provided the rst instance of a unit of value established and guaranteed by the state. Further, this article examines the ancient Greek rituals of communal sacricial meals to demonstrate how the ox-unit of value gave rise to the rst form of money embodied in sacricial bulls esh that was centrally (re)distributed among the ritual participants. Next, it is explained how temple-issued coinage emerged as a symbolic representation of roasted bulls esh, thus making the latter currency obsolete. This article concludes that money emerged as a means of recompense administered by the temple-state to its subjects. Finally, the state-religious mechanism of moneys origins presented in this article is contrasted to the traditional Chartalist perspective of moneys introduction by the state. While in the latter money emerges as a token that extinguishes a populations debt to the state, the state-religious approach expounded in this article views money as a token via which the state extinguishes its debt to the underlying population.
The Ox-Unit of Value and Account

In the early history of the Graeco-Roman culture, oxen were commonly used as a unit of value and account (Desmonde 1962: 109; Burns 1927: 68; Seaford 2004; Angell 1929). Homeric epics (ca. 9th8th cc. BC) where values are invariably expressed in terms of oxen serve as one of the earliest written testimonies to this (Des-

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monde 1962: 109; see also Seaford 2004: 30).1 For example, the arms of Diomedes were declared worth nine oxen, while those of Glaucos were proclaimed equivalent to one hundred. Female slaves skilled in crafts sold for four oxen, and the three-legged pot was worth twelve (Desmonde 1962: 109). When metallic coinage appeared in ancient Lydia and Greece (ca. 7th6th cc. BC),2 it was common to talk of a given coin being worth so many oxen, not the ox being worth so many coins (Angell 1929: 59). Further, the ox-unit of value became the unit of account in which various nes and payments were denominated in the earliest laws of the Graeco-Roman world, such as the laws of Draco (ca. 620 BC)3 (Desmonde 1962: 110; Quiggin [1949] 1963: 271; Einzig [1949] 1966: 223). The testimony of language can also be evoked here. As is well documented (Laum 1924a; Quiggin [1949] 1963; Desmonde 1962; Grierson 1977; Seaford 2004) many modern terms pertaining to monetary and nancial matters have been derived from the use of cattle as a unit of value and account in the early times. To begin with, everyone is familiar with the derivation of the term pecuniary from Latin pecus denoting cattle. Another example is the term fee, presumably derived from Gothic faihi meaning cattle. The term capital derived from capitale originally designating cattle counted by the head (Desmonde 1962: 110). And, nally, some have suggested that the term collateral might have derived from Greek kolakterai originally referring to the receivers of bulls limbs during the ancient Greek rituals of communal sacricial meals, and later designating Athenian nancial ofcials (Seaford 2004: 79). Lastly, the earliest Greek word for coinage, nomisma, derived from nemein meaning to distribute and referring originally to the ordered distribution of roasted bulls esh during the rituals of communal sacricial meals (Seaford 2004: 4950; von Reden [1995] 2003: 177). These and numerous other examples attest to the fact that the ox served as a recognized traditional and conventional unit of value and account prior to and after the introduction of coinage in Lydia and Greece (Angell 1929: 60). Importantly, the use of the ox-unit persisted long after the introduction of metal use and the invention of coinage (Einzig [1949] 1966: 223). While the role of oxen as one of the earliest units of value and account is generally acknowledged, views differ as to the origin of this

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role. Where did the idea of valuing objects in terms of cattle (in particular, oxen) come from? Or, one could raise a more fundamental question: what is the origin of a mere notion or idea of valuing one object in terms of another? How did the notion or idea of a unit of value and account come into being (Grierson 1977)? The conventional answer to this question is that barter gave rise to the notion and use of a unit of value. Within this barter-based perspective, there are two distinct mechanisms explaining how exactly this could have taken place. In the rst mechanism, [t]he difculties of pure barter were rst overcome by the expression of values [of commodities] in terms of some common prized object before that object or any other object served as a medium of exchange, and the qualities which tted the commodity to serve as a common denominator of values would not necessarily t it to serve as a given medium of exchange (Gregory 1933: 603, emphases added).4 In this way, price-lists could be established and commodities of equal value could be exchanged against each other. In the second mechanism, the logical precedence of a unit of value for the carrying out of commodity exchanges is ignored. Instead, it is proclaimed that a favorite medium of barter became a unit of value. The ox was the old unit of barter, wrote Ridgeway (1892: 6), which explains its further use as the (oldest) unit of value and account (1892: 6). Notably, this position is supported by Karl Menger ([1909] 2002), who argued that Homeric valuation of goods in terms of cattle derived from the primary role of cattle as objects of barter in Homeric Greece (1909 [2002]: 59):
At the time of Homer, barter was already highly developed among the Greeks, and in the acquisition of substantial items of wealth, as even today on many barter markets, the larger of the domestic animals must have been preferably accepted in payment; that is why he [Homer] could value their heroes arms in cattle, even though his assessments could not claim meticulous exactness. ([1909] 2002: 59, emphases added)5

The barter-based view is contrasted by the state-religious approach, the advocates of which would argue that the ox-unit of value and account derived from the use of oxen in state-religious practices (Laum 1924a; Desmonde 1962; Seaford 2004). Likewise, it is argued that the mere notion of a unit of value and account was developed in the context of socially-embedded state-religious institutions. Because

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the institution of trade, both foreign and domestic, played a marginal role in archaic Greek and Lydian societies, it would be unlikely that the ox-unit derived from the practice of exchanging commodities (Laum 1924a; Desmonde 1962; Grierson 1977; von Reden [1995] 2003; Kurke 1999; Seaford 2004). For the marginality of trade in ancient Lydia and Greece, Homeric epics (ca. 9th8th century BC) provide a good testimony (Laum 1924a; Grierson 1977; von Reden 1995 [2003]; Seaford 2004).

The Marginality of Trade in Homeric Societies

As noted by Seaford (2004), in Homeric epics references to trade hardly ever occur in the main narrative and are almost always conned to asides (2004: 27). References to local trade are almost non-existent, while foreign commerce is usually conned to trafc in slaves (2004: 27). Among modern scholars, this aspect of Homeric societies has also been emphasized by von Reden ([1995] 2003), while Grierson (1977) stressed this point two decades earlier:
In [Homeric] epic, sale is by denition an exchange between strangers. As Finley observed, not once is there a sale transaction which involves either two Greeks or two Trojans. This is supported by the semantic eld of the word pernmi and its derivatives pratr and prasis. In all its occurrences pernmi denotes transactions abroad; and it always describes the purchase or ransom of a captive. (von Reden [1995] 2003: 67) Virtually the only buying and selling in Homer, apart from jewelry and similar foreign luxuries, is that of slaves, and pernemi, the early word for selling, seems to be conned to the selling of captives from abroad, so that scholars have doubted if it had any wider sense at all. (Grierson 1977: 27)

Thus, similar to Grierson (1977), von Reden ([1995] 2003) draws attention to the early term for sellingpernmistressing its wider connotations of provisioning and voyage rather than that of commercial exchange. The term pernmi is probably related to the word pera and poros, which never assumed clearly commercial meanings but retained more precisely the connotations of voyage and provisioning ([1995] 2003: 67). The marginality of market commodity-exchange is conspicuous in Homeric transactions, and, instead, numerous references are made to

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(centralized) allocations of prizes, rewards, and booty; gift-exchange, payment of ransom, bride-price, payment of compensation, etc. (Seaford 2004: 2326). Likewise, Homeric goods are rarely described as commodities exchanged impersonally in the market place. Rather, they are the objects that embody personal relationships and are exchanged as gifts, or redistributed as booty, or given away as rewards or prizes. Exchange of things, not of people, and not to create interpersonal links but for the sake of the thingswrites Seaford (2004)occurs rarely in Homeric epics (2004: 2, emphases added). Considering the marginality of market exchange and trade in general, and taking into account the prevalence of centralized redistribution and reciprocity as the dominant modes of integration in archaic Greece and Lydia (2004: 27), the ox-unit of value and account could not have derived from market exchange, and its origins must be sought elsewhere.
The State-Religious Context for the Origins of the Ox-Unit of Value and Account

Accounting for the marginal sphere occupied by trade in ancient Lydia and Greece, the use of the ox-unit must have derived from a nonmarket context. In fact, Bernhard Laum (1924a, 1924b, 1925a, 1925b) was among the rst scholars to question the conventional theory that the ox-unit of value derived from a market exchange of commodities. Rather, in his work Heiliges Geld (Holy Money) Laum (1924a) suggested that the evolution of cattle as a unit of value originated in their religious use (Laum 1924a: 17, in Burns 1927: 6, ft. 1; see also Einzig [1949] 1966: 369370; Peacock 2010).6 Far from the market, the (re)distributive economies of ancient Greek and Lydian societies were shaped by religion and its normative character. This applies to both chieftain societies reected (though indirectly) in Homeric epics and the archaic Greek city-states. While the process of transformation of the largely chieftain societies reected in Homeric epics into the archaic Greek city-states is beyond the scope of this article, the point is that temples came to be among the very rst manifestations of the polis (Seaford [1994] 2003: 197). As we know from archeological evidence, from 8th century BC onwards (the period when the archaic Greek city-state came to emerge), the

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leaders dwelling place was replaced by, or transformed into a templea center of giving to the deity ([1994] 2003: 197).7 With the state and religious authorities generally inter-related in the closest and most ancient bonds (Burns 1927: 81), no distinction between State and Church [temple] (Barker [1918] 1925: 8) could practically be made. Religion was not another lifewrote Barker ([1918] 1925) but an aspect of the political life of a political society ([1918] 1925: 8). The pre-eminence of state religion in civic matters was signied by the Priest-King, the head of the archaic Greek and Lydian city-state; and a well-dened hierarchy of priests and other state-religious authorities (Desmonde 1962: 61). Thus, it was the economics of state religion rather than market exchange that provided an organizational framework for the archaic Greek and Lydian societies. The well-being of the archaic city demanded that its protective divinity be pacied by public gift-offerings (Laum 1924a: 28, in Burns 1927: 7). Here, the ox served as the most prestigious and important sacricial animal (Peacock 2010: 10). Importantly, the types, quality and quantity of oxen used as religious offerings were subject to thorough regulation by the state-religious authorities (Laum 1924a: 28, in Burns 1927: 6, ft. 1). The ox brought to deities had to be of a very denite type and character, conforming to painstakingly described rules (Desmonde 1962: 115). Considering the thorough regulation by the state-religious authorities of the type, quality and quantity of oxen offered, Laum (1924a) suggested that the ox-unit served as the rst unit of value and account, a unit established and guaranteed by the state (Laum 1924a: 40, in Burns 1927: 7, ft. 1). As Einzig ([1949] 1966) wrote in summary of Laums (1924a) argument, . . . the State authority in Ancient Greece and elsewhere laid down rules determining the precise quality of animals suitable for sacrice and guaranteed this quality, thereby providing early instances of State-guaranteed units of value (Einzig [1949] 1966: 372). Thus, it was in the relationship between humans and deities, mediated through the temple, that the ox-unit of value was developed. But what was the precise nature of this relationship? On the surface, the relationship between man and his gods consisted of offerings to deities8 in return for which certain blessings were expected, such as favorable weather conditions and good harvests, protection from

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sickness, safety from foreign invasions. Alternatively, as suggested by Einzig ([1949] 1966), offerings could have been made to deities in payment for blessings already received ([1949] 1966: 371, emphases added). It may be tempting to conceive of this relationship between man and God as an exchange akin to that in the market place, where Gods blessings are traded for livestock. For example, Desmondes (1962) characterization of the ox-unit as a medium of exchange in the relationship between humans and deity (Desmonde 1962: 115, emphases added), or as a xed unit . . . of payment in an exchange between man and god (1962: 115, emphasis added) is suggestive that the relationship between man and deities is perceived as a trade relationship. [T]he practice of making sacrices to deity was to a large extent a form of barter between man and his gods, wrote Einzig ([1949] 1966) while summarizing Laums (1924a) contribution (Einzig [1949] 1966: 371, emphasis added). If this interpretation is plausible, and the relationship between men and deities could be considered as a form of barter exchange, then sacred rather than profane exchange gave rise to the ox-unit of value. But would the archaic man barter with God? As Desmonde (1962) himself admitted in another passage, the personal relationship between man and God was similar to the reciprocities among individuals (Desmonde 1962: 114, emphasis added). Likewise, questioning his previous argument, Einzig ([1949] 1966) asserted that there was no question of any barter between man and god ([1949] 1966: 372) because, as Laum (1924a) himself admitted, man only returned to god a small proportion of the goods received from him ([1949] 1966: 372). In a similar vein, Finley (1965) argued against a barter-based interpretation of the relationship between man and God, emphasizing that an act of giving was in an essential sense always the rst half of a reciprocal action, the other half of which was a counter-gift (Finley 1965: 62, emphasis added). Therefore, rather than making payments for blessings received (or to be received in the future), a mortal could express his gratitude for the blessings obtained (or expected) from the deities through the acts of reciprocation. This transforms the relationship between humans and deities into a reciprocal gift-exchange rather than that of barter. Finally, as Polanyi (1957) emphasized, reciprocity demands adequacy

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of response, not mathematical equality of the goods or services reciprocated (Polanyi 1957: 73). Therefore, as summarized by Einzig ([1949] 1966), the exchange between man and God cannot be interpreted as a barter relationship unless it is assumed that the difference between value received and given was made up in prayers and various forms of rites designed to please the deity who, on a strictly commercial basis, came second best out of the bargain ([1949] 1966: 372). Further arguments could be made against a commercial interpretation of sacrice. The presence of an obligation to make sacrices to deities is one of them: for if people have an obligation to make sacrices to the gods, humans cannot be deemed equal partners in a free relationship of exchange (Peacock 2010: 13). Already in Homer, mortals are not free to refuse sacricial interactions with deities (2010: 13). The presence of a sacricial obligation suggests that humans not only wish to thank their deities for goods and blessings received (or to be received in the future), but people also make sacrices to honour the gods, as is their due (2010: 13). Finally, considering the normative character of state-religion prescribing a precise quality and quantity of sacricial objects, while at the same time determining an exact timing of offerings (Desmonde 1962), the relationship between humans and deities, carried out through an intermediary of state-religious authorities, could be analyzed as a debt relationship. While this relationship could appear as a reciprocal gift-exchange to the archaic Greek men, the inherent nature of this relationship, mediated through the temple authorities, was that of a centrally imposed debt relationship, in which a man was Gods debtor. Within this debt relationship, a denitive unit of value and account was adopted for the repayment of debts to deities. The ox, as the most important sacricial offering in archaic Lydia and Greece, whose quality and type was rigidly regulated by state-religious authorities, thus performed a monetary function of a unit of value and account in which debts to deities could be extinguished (Laum 1924a: 40, in Burns 1927: 7, ft. 1). Another important context for the social use of the ox-unit of value and account was the payment of fees to priests for the services they performed at religious rituals and elsewhere. Because livestock (such

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as oxen) served as the most important and prestigious category of sacricial offerings to deities, they naturally became the means of payment to priests (Laum 1924a: 43, in Burns 1927: 7, ft. 1). It was in this state-religious context, therefore, rather than in the market place, as Laum (1924a) had argued, that oxen were rst used in payments between man and man (Einzig [1949] 1966: 373). Gradually, the range of commodities offered as sacrices to deities and in payment to priests began to increase, and it was necessary to establish equivalency ratios, so that fees and sacrices previously expressed and paid in terms of oxen could be reckoned in terms of other commodities. For this purpose, these other commodities became evaluated in terms of the already existent ox-unit of value and account ([1949] 1966: 373). It bears noting that Homeric epics contain important evidence in support of Laums (1924a) overall thesis that the idea and practice of valuing commodities in terms of cattle (such as oxen) originated in a religious context. In particular, what is so peculiar about Homeric valuation of things in terms of cattle (worth a hundred cattle, worth ninety cattle) is the correspondence between the numbers of cattle quoted as the value of various objects to the numbers of cattle sacriced in Homeric sacricial rituals (Seaford 2004: 61). More specically, the numbers of oxen sacriced are usually hundred, twenty, twelve, nine, four and one. But these units are also the customary units of value in the Iliad and Odyssey (Einzig [1949] 1966: 382; Seaford 2004: 61). This means that there is a distinct connection between the customized numbers of sacricial victims and the specic quantities of oxen (the specic numbers of the ox-units) in terms of which the worth of various goods was estimated. Moreover, the above mentioned quantities of cattle would be too large and cumbersome to be used as a medium of exchange, and so as a measure could not have derived from commerce (Seaford 2004: 61). Rather, the numbers specied suggest that their suitability as a unit of value and account derived, at least partially, from the sacrice of set numbers of cattle of standard quality (2004: 61). These numbers suggest that valuations were relatively certain only when they mirrored sums . . . to which people were accustomed in sacricial sphere (Peacock 2010: 11). Notably, Laum (1924a) was the rst to establish this connection between specic numbers of cattle sacriced as offerings to deities

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and specic numbers of cattle-units in terms of which the worth of Homeric goods was reckoned (Seaford 2004: 61; Einzig [1949] 1966: 373). The next section of this article will focus specically on the sacricial rituals of communal sacricial meals that emerged in Homeric societies and gave rise to the ox-unit of value and account subsequently adopted by the Greek city-states.
The Rituals of Communal Sacricial Meals

While the rituals of sacricial offerings to deities served as a mechanism through which a surplus of goods was collected from the local population and made available to the state priest-kingship and priesthood, the quasi-redistributive part of the rite took place in the rituals of communal sacricial meals. As a universal feature of the city worship throughout Greece, a communal sacricial meal was a ritualized repast in honor of a commonly-worshiped divinity (Desmonde 1962: 60). The ritual consisted of a public killing, roasting and eating of sacricial animals (such as bulls), accompanied by liturgies and prayers. The priest-king, who presided over the ritualized repast, distributed the portions of a roasted bull to all the ritual participants, including deities. Importantly, all members of a community, even the slaves, had an equal right of participation in a public sacricial repast. In fact, such participation was considered a symbol of citizenship (1962: 124, 60, 116). It is important to emphasize the concept and the social role of this symbolic citizenship. Note that the slave population of the archaic Greek plis did not hold a legal citizenship status, as such status was granted to free-born members of a community only (Martin [1966] 1996: 61). In this, the institution of citizenship further intensied the degree to which slaves were excluded from civic society. A participation in an all-inclusive communal sacricial meal, on the other hand, allowed those excluded from citizenship and civic community, the slave population, to experience a sense of unity with it, as if they were full-edged members of a civic society. Allowing an experience of a sense of communality, rather than a feeling of exclusion from a larger society, the ritualized public repast performed a harmonizing

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social function. Indeed, argued Desmonde (1962), generating a spirit of communality was an important social function of a communal sacricial repast. Here, the priest-king himself, the members of the city priest-kingship and priesthood, citizens and slaves, all participated in a common meal, sharing the esh of the same animal(s), sitting at the same table(s), in the same public space. The public meal thus fostered a spirit of a communal association, or koinomia, thereby disguising the underlying social reality of antagonistic relationships between masters and slaves, and other dependents. Without doubt, the sacricial meal performed a harmonizing social function creating a sense of a loving communion between the ruling elite and the lower classes (Desmonde 1962: 63). At this point, it bears noting that the tradition of communal sacricial meals existed long before the establishment of the archaic Greek city-state. For example, there are six lengthy descriptions of communal sacricial meals in Homer (Seaford 2004: 40). From these descriptions we know that consumption involved an egalitarian participation of the whole group. In Homeric epics, this point is stressed by a formulaic sentence they feasted, nor was anybodys hunger denied the equal feast (2004: 40). This all-inclusive and harmonizing character of communal sacricial meals has been recently emphasized by Seaford (2004):
The ancient, regular, and highly ritualized slaughter and distribution of the animal ensures that everybody is given a share, that there is an equal feast. Equal distribution to all and (especially) collective participation (koinonia) are persistently emphasized in numerous later references to animal sacrice performed by groups varying in size from the household to the whole city-state or even Greeks from different city-states at Panhellenic festivals. (2004: 41)

While equal distribution to all and collective participation (koinonia) were among the vital features of communal sacricial repasts, the principle of equal distribution among all did not preclude the existence of a privileged share or a leading role for a chieftain and later for a priest-king and members of the priesthood.
. . . we nd not only a privileged share or leading role for chieftain or leading men but also the principle of equal distribution among all. (2004: 24)

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This is because the principle of equal share to all did not correspond to the principle of absolute equality. Rather, it was proportionate equality that was evoked, where ones equal share corresponded to ones social status (see Seaford 2004; von Reden 1995 [2003], Desmonde 1962). In this way, the portion received by each communicant expressed his worth and the degree of his esteem in the community (in accordance with the principle of proportionate rather than absolute equality). This explains the vital importance of the specic manner in which a sacricial animal was allocated among ritual participants (Desmonde 1962: 115). Each person received a share deemed commensurate with his social status: to the order of social rank there corresponded an order of rank in the apportionment of the roasted esh (1962: 116). An inscription from Attica ca. 330 BC, though belonging to a much later period, demonstrates the case in point very well. The inscription carefully describes the specic manner in which a bulls esh was to be distributed, where the just portion allotted to each communicant was proportionate to his social status:
Five pieces each to the presidents Five pieces each to the nine archons One piece each to the treasurers of the goddess One piece each to the managers of the feast The customary portions to others.9

The just shares allocated to ritual participants differed not only in quantity, but in quality as well. The more honored parts of the sacricial animal, such as the limbs, were customarily allotted to religious ofcials. Notably, the term kolakretai that was later used to designate Athenian nancial ofcials, originally referred to the receivers of limbs suggesting a connection between sacred rituals and state nances (Desmonde 1962: 116; Seaford 2004: 79). Finally, a right of participation in a sacricial repast was perceived as a recompense received by the subjects for the goods and services rendered to the temple-state. Or, to put it differently, a portion of a sacricial bulls esh allotted to a communicant served as a priestkings payment or compensation for the contributions rendered (Desmonde 1962: 116). Thus, we see a movement of surplus goods to the temple from the public (sacricial offerings to deities), and a further redistribution of a portion of a surplus during the rituals of

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communal sacricial meals. Moreover, a portion of the surplus given to a communicant serves as a temples recompense or payment for his contributions. The portions of roasted bulls esh allocated to communicants could likewise be viewed as counter-gifts offered by the temple to the contributing community within a social context of reciprocity. The temple reciprocated on behalf of the deities in response to the gifts to gods given by the mortals. Recall that reciprocity demands adequacy of response, not mathematical equality of the goods reciprocated (Polanyi 1957: 73). The vital importance of sacricial distribution in Homeric and archaic Greek societies is conrmed by its notable impact on a range of Greek conceptions, vocabulary and institutions. To begin with, the ordered distribution of food was associated by Greeks with the beginning of civilization. Further, the Greek terminology for dividing urban space commonly employed the terminology of carving up an animal. When the archaic Greek city-state was established, full citizenship and entitlement to participation in the sacricial repast seemed be one and the same (Seaford 2004: 4950). What is more, etymological evidence suggests that the rituals of communal sacricial meals became the foundation of the archaic and classical Greek judicial systems. The Greek word for law or convention, nomos, derived from nemein meaning to distribute and so presumably at rst meant distribution, then the principle of distribution (2004: 49). Nomos originally meant anything assigned, distributed, or dealt out (Del Mar [1885] 1968: 335). While the terminology of nomos does not occur in Homer, nemein is frequently used in the context of distribution of food and drink. And so it seems reasonable to inferwrites Seaford (2004)that nomos had its origins in the widespread and economically fundamental practice of distributing meat (Seaford 2004: 50; see also Del Mar [1885] 1968: 335; von Reden 1995: 177; Kurke 1999). Related terms for which a sacricial origin has been inferred include nemesis (retribution), isonomia (equality of political rights), and nomisdein (acknowledge, consider) (Seaford 2004: 50). Finally, the early Greek word for moneynomismasuggests a connection between the rituals of communal sacricial meals and the origins of money and coinage.

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From Holy Debts to Nomos: The State-Religious Origins of Money and Coinage

When Aristotle referred to money he called it nomisma (Seaford 2004: 143; von Reden [1995] 2003: 184187; Del Mar [1885] 1968: 172).10 To begin with, this suggests that in the classical period Greeks well understood that the value of money was conventional, based upon convention, usage, or law, rather than upon its intrinsic characteristics (von Reden [1995] 2003: 184185; Seaford 2004: 5; Kurke 1999: 4142; Del Mar [1885] 1968: 338, 172, ft. 2).11
That is the reason why it is called money (nomisma), because it has not a natural but a conventional (nomos) existence, and because it is in our power to change it, and make it useless. (Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Book 5)

Secondly, since nomos referred originally to the just apportionment of the esh of a sacricial animal during the rituals of communal sacricial meals, and later came to designate anything assigned, distributed, or dealt out by convention, this suggests an important connection between the rituals of communal sacricial meals and centralized redistribution in general, and the institution of money (nomisma). Another piece of evidence in support of a connection between communal sacricial meals and the origins of money and also coinage pertains to the iron spits commonly used in the ritualized repasts. Utilized for roasting a sacricial animal, an iron spit, called obelos, was also used for distributing roasted portions of meat among the ritual participants. In the course of time, suggested Laum (1924a), sacricial meat on an iron spit came to be known as obelos. Notably, obolos is the name of the 6th century BC silver Greek coin. Another 6th century BC Greek coin of a larger denomination, drachma, originally meant a handful of six iron spits (or a handful of six obeloe) (Seaford 2004: 102). The Greeks themselves were awarewrites Seaford (2004)that their coin of low value the obol (obolos) took its name from the spit (obelos), and that drachma meant originally a handful of (six) spits (2004: 102).

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A famous passage from Etymologicum Magnum describes the abrupt transition from iron spits to coins (obolos and drachma), carried out by King Pheidon of Argos on the island of Aegina in the rst half of the 6th century BC:
First of all men Pheidon of Argos struck money in Aegina; and having given them (his subjects) coin and abolished the spits, he dedicated them to Hera in Argos. But since at that time the spits used to ll the hand, that is the grasp, we, although we do not ll our hand with the six obols (spits) call it a grasp full (dracm ) owing to the grasping of them. (cited in Ridgeway 1892: 214)

Notably, the above legendary dedication of iron spits in the temple of Hera in Argos was conrmed as factual when archeological excavations on the site of the temple ruins revealed a bundle of 180 iron spits (Quiggin [1949] 1963: 282; Burns 1927: 27). The exact reason for this dedication cannot be known with certainty. Most probably, however, the iron spits were dedicated as specimens of obsolete currency which had been superseded by the coins introduced by Pheidon, or as an obsolete apparatus of the period before the introduction of coins which was no longer required (Burns 1927: 27). The use of the term nomisma in reference to money, the use of the terms obolos and drachma to designate some of the earliest Greek coins, the dedication of iron spits in the temple of Hera, the connection between holy debts, religious rituals and the ox-unit of value and account, and the religious imagery on the earliest Greek and Lydian coins (such as a bull-image), among other pieces of evidence, suggested to Laum (1924a) that the coin originated in the spitted portion of the esh of the sacricial bull (Desmonde 1962: 117).
This apparent transition from roasting spits to coins was, along with other terms that seem to embody the transition from the sacricial to the nancial, adduced by Laum as part of an argument to the effect that animal sacrice was an important factor in the genesis of coinage. (Seaford 2004: 102)

More specically, Laum (1924a) argued that obelos, i.e., a spitted portion of a roasted bulls esh distributed among the ritual participants as a states payment for [their] contributions was the rst form of money (Desmonde 1962: 15). Coins, when they rst appeared, served as a symbolic representation of the spitted portions of the bulls

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esh distributed among the communicants, coins served as a symbolic representation of obelos. Coins superseded obelos: the distribution of coins replaced the actual distribution of the sacricial bulls meat. In this, we see a transition from the actual forms (a portion of roasted meat on a spit) to symbolic representations (a coin as a representation of the roasted meat).12 Notably, because of a belief in magic (Hocart [1925] 1970), no distinction was made between a symbol (a coin) and that which the symbol represented (a sacricial bulls esh). Possessing a coin was equivalent to the actual sharing in the sacricial esh of a bull (1962: 134). To conclude, coins began as religious symbols, each coin representing a piece of a sacricial bulls esh allotted to a communicant as a reward, recompense or payment for the goods and services rendered to the temple-state (Desmonde 1962: 121). This means that the earliest coins did not begin as media of exchange in commerce, but functioned in the same fashion as the portion of food distributed at the sacred meal (1962: 125). In this, the earliest coins could also be regarded as religious medals: similar to the allotment of obelos, coins (or medals) were given by the priest-king to his subjects in a manner that reected the degree of their worth and esteem in the community (1962: 125). If a connection between communal sacricial meals and the earliest coins is a plausible one, and a coin served as a representation of a sacricial bulls meat, then we can explain why so many of the earliest Lydian and Greek coins bear the image of a bull or a bulls head on their surface (Gardner 1883; Barclay and Head 1968). This also explains why the earliest Lydian and Greek coins were struck within temple precincts, under direct auspices of the priests (Barclay and Head 1968: 7; Angell 1929: 96; Del Mar [1885] 1968: 162; Desmonde 1962: 113; Gardner 1883: 6; Seaford 2004). Further, because the earliest Lydian and Greek coins were not intended for commercial circulation, the image of a bull on a coins surface did not serve as a guarantee of a coins commercial value (Desmonde 1962: 125). Rather than economic, the value of the earliest Lydian and Greek coins was symbolic: a coin served as a symbol of ones contribution to the temple state. Coinage became a symbolic means of recompense by the priest-king to his subjects. Nor did the value of the earliest coins derive

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from their intrinsic characteristics: the earliest Lydian coins13 were made of electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver, the internal composition of which is highly variable by nature. This means that a coins weight, purity and neness, and, thus, its intrinsic value, could not be guaranteed (Grierson 1977: 7; see also Innes 1913).
As to the electrum coins, which are the oldest coins known to us, their composition varies in the most extraordinary way. While some contain more than 60 per cent of gold, others known to be of the same origin contain more than 60 per cent of silver, and between these extremes, there is every degree of alloy, so that they could not possibly have a xed intrinsic value. (Innes 1913: 379)

In the mid-6th century BC, silver coinage began to spread in mainland Greek states (Kurke 1999: 9). Yet the only metallurgical device for testing precious metals, known to us from the texts of the 6th and 5th centuries BC, is the touchstone (basanos) (1999: 4245). But the touchstone is ineffective in testing silver, as it is inadequate in testing electrum (1999: 45, ft. 13). Thus, the evidence does not support the common interpretation that the value of the earliest coins derived from their intrinsic characteristics. Rather, metallurgical knowledge pertaining to intrinsic properties of precious metals (electrum, in the rst place) was not sufcient to provide near accurate assessments of the coins intrinsic value (see also Desmonde 1962: 121122).

A Footnote on the Competing Interpretations of the Earliest Greek Coinage

Whereas Laum (1924a) argued that the earliest bull-type coins served as representations of sacricial bulls esh distributed at communal sacricial meals, proponents of the exchange-based view maintain that bull-type coins represented previously existing units of barter. The earliest coins were representations of the objects of barter of more primitive times, argued Ridgeway (1892: 314). In accordance with this interpretation, each coin type stood for a specic commodity previously used as a unit of barter, as indicated by a coins stamp. In this way, a bull-type coin allegedly replaced the actual bull previously used as a unit of bartering. At the same time, the value of a coin (worth one bull) was indicated by placing a symbol of a commodity

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(a bull) upon its surface. The coin image guaranteed that coins weight and quality stood at parity with the object previously employed as a unit of barter. In this vein, Ridgeway (1892) argued that, for example, the value of an early Greek coin called talent was set equal to the value of a cow (or an ox)the oldest unit of barter (1892: 387). Whereas a golden talent represented a cow, other coins represented other units of barter. For instance, the early Greek coins representing pots and kettles presumably replaced the actual pots and kettles previously employed as the objects of primitive barter. Another example is the famous tunny-sh electrum coin from Cyzicus (1892: 313316). The image of a tunny sh on the coins of Cyzicus, is, according to Ridgeway (1892), an indication that these coins superseded a primitive system in which the tunny formed a monetary unit, just as the Kettle and Pot counter-marks on the coins . . . point back to the days when real kettles formed the chief medium of exchange (1892: 316). Elaborating upon the question who issued the earliest Lydian and Greek coins, Ridgeway (1892) concluded that they were very likely struck in the temples, which had vast reserves of precious metals (1892: 215). However, contrary to Laums thesis, Ridgeway (1892) believed that coins were issued by the temples in order to facilitate the needs of trade, which the temple authorities encouraged in every way and hosted on their premises. The argument is rooted in a proposition that merchants and traders took advantage of huge public gatherings at the temple premises during the times of temple feasts (1892: 215216). The advocates of the state-religious approach (Laum 1924a; Desmonde 1962; Seaford 2004), on the other hand, stress the marginality of both domestic and foreign trade in 7th6th cc. BC Lydia and Greece, and establish the origins of money and coinage in the context of state-religious practices of centralized collection and redistribution. More specically, the origins of the ox-unit of value and account are established in a context of a debt relationship between men and deitiesa relationship mediated through the temple authorities. Further, it is pointed out how money emerged in the form of roasted bulls esh (re)distributed among the participants of communal sacricial meals. This money, called obelos, served as a reward, rec-

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ompense or payment administered by the priest-king for in-kind contributions rendered by the underlying population.
The State-Religious and Chartalist Approaches: A Comparison

Notably, the above outlined state-religious mechanism of moneys origins shares important similarities with the Chartalist perspective on money (Knapp [1905] 1924; Wray 1998; Goodhart 1998). To begin with, both the Chartalist and the state-religious perspectives share a common opposition to exchange-based interpretations of moneys origins (accounts in the tradition of Karl Menger) (see Menger 1892, [1909] 2002). Both perspectives locate the origins of money in a context of a debt relationship between a central public authority and an underlying population. Importantly, both the Chartalist and the state-religious approaches establish the causal role of the state in the origins of money. In both approaches, money is not viewed as a commodity with an intrinsic value. Rather, money is perceived as a states token whose value and general acceptance do not derive from its intrinsic composition. However, some differences remain. To begin with, the substantivist state-religious approach establishes the origins of the ox-unit of value and account in a context of a debt relationship between men and deitiesa relationship mediated through the temple authoritiesthus bringing in the causal role of religious institutions into the origins of money. Further, money in the form of roasted bulls esh is introduced by the temple as a reward or recompense or payment for the contributions rendered by the underlying population. The actual distribution of roasted bulls esh at the rituals of communal sacricial meals is further replaced by a distribution of its symbolic representation in the form of a coin (with a bull-image imprinted upon its surface). While being a reward or a recompense bestowed by the temple, money is, at the same time, a certicate of ones contribution to the temple-state. In the traditional Chartalist mechanism, on the other hand, money is introduced as a means of inducing the population into making such contributions in the rst place. While in the traditional Chartalist perspective money is a token that extinguishes a populations debt to the state, within the state-religious approach money serves as a token via which the state

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extinguishes its debt to the underlying population. While the traditional Chartalist perspective locates the origins of money by projecting modern habits of thought and modern institutions (such as monetary taxation) into ancient societies, the substantivist state-religious approach inquires into the actual modes of socio-economic integration of archaic societies, and establishes a mechanism of moneys origins that would be embedded into the actual institutions and social practices of those societies. This is what makes this approach a substantive interdisciplinary inquiry into the origins of money.
Conclusions

The ox-unit is commonly acknowledged as one of the earliest units of value and account in the Graeco-Roman world and elsewhere. Reviving a neglected contribution by Bernhard Laum (1924a), a contribution that was never translated into English, this article argues that the origins of the ox-unit of value and account must be sought in the context of ancient Greek state-religious practices and institutions, rather than in the context of trade, whether foreign or domestic. More specically, the origins of the ox-unit of value and account were established in a context of a debt relationship between men and deities, mediated through the temple authorities. The ox-unit of value and account further became the unit of recompense whereby the state-religious authorities compensated the underlying population for their contributions to the temple. It was argued that the earliest Greek money took the form of roasted bulls esh, which was centrally (re)distributed during the rituals of communal sacricial meals. Money in the form of roasted bulls esh, which came to be known as obelos, was perceived as ones just share allocated by the temple in accordance with ones social status and socially-established value of ones contributions to the temple. The recompense in the form of obelos was further superseded by its symbolic representation in the form of coins such as obeloe and drachma. Overall, this article disputes the origins of money in the context of trade. Rather, a wide range of evidence, from archeological to etymological, is utilized to demonstrate that relations between men and deities, carried out through the intermediary of state-religious authori-

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ties, played a causal role in the genesis of the earliest unit of value and account, and, further, in the origins of money, and, subsequently, coinage. The state-religious approach presented in this article was also compared and contrasted to the traditional Chartalist perspective on moneys origins. It was concluded that the state-religious approach is a substantive inquiry into the origins of money that does not rely upon a projection of modern institutions and habits of thought (monetary taxation; a medium of exchange) into ancient societies in order to establish the origins of money. Rather, the state-religious approach establishes the origins of money by embarking on a substantivist inquiry into the actual institutions and modes of socio-economic integration of ancient societies.
Notes 1. See Peacock (2010) for a review of arguments supporting the use of Homeric epics as a historical source to illuminate archaic Greek society. 2. The earliest electrum coinage of Lydia (Asia Minor) dates back to ca. 640630 BC; the earliest Greek coins were struck in 595 BC on the island of Aegina; in 575 BC in Athens, and in 570 BC in Corinth (Davies 2002: 6465). 3. Cattle served as a unit in which nes and rewards were xed in Athens by Draco (circa 620 BC). One of the reforms implemented by Solon (circa 590 BC) was the computation of nes and rewards in terms of coined money instead of livestock (Einzig [1949] 1966: 223). 4. Quoted in Einzig ([1949] 1966): 356. 5. The heroes arms that Menger ([1909] 2002) refers to are certainly the arms of Glaucos and Diomedes mentioned above. 6. Unfortunately, none of Laums works on the origins of money has been translated into English, and in what follows I will rely on references to Laums work collected from various sources such as Desmonde (1962), Einzig ([1949] 1966), Burns (1927), Seaford (2004), and Peacock (2010). 7. Prior to the 8th century BC, monumental temple buildings were very rare. Most offerings to deities were conducted either in the open or at the house of the chieftain (Seaford 2004: 63). 8. Oxen (and livestock in general) formed the most important and prestigious category of sacred offerings (Peacock 2010), but such offerings were not limited to livestock and included agricultural staples and handicrafts such as vessels and utensils (Desmonde 1962; Seaford 2004). 9. Yerkes (1952: 108), in Desmonde (1962: 105). 10. As is well known to classicists (see von Reden [1995] 2003; Kurke 1999; Seaford 2004; also see Peacock 2006), Aristotle discussed the origins,

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functions and meanings of money and coinage in two different contexts and in two different works (von Reden [1995] 2003: 184). One context is related to wealth, commerce and prot (as discussed in Aristotles Politics), while the other context deals with the origins of the polis (as in Nicomachean Ethics). The two different contexts for the origins and functions of money and coinage correspond to Aristotles distinction between money as a commodity (Politics) and money as a political token (Nicomachean Ethics). Money as a token was a means of unilateral payment in a system of generalized reciprocity while money as a commodity served as a medium of exchange in commerce (von Reden [1995] 2003: 184). Aristotle evaluated the two functions of money completely differently ([1995] 2003: 184). In the passage below, von Reden ([1995] 2003) evaluates Aristotles conception of money as a political means of payment necessary to achieve distributive justice in a community: Coinage as payment was necessary in order to achieve justice in the koinnia (community) of the polis. As a standard of value it made different sorts of need (chreia) commensurate and was thus a crucial instrument for creating just relationships in the community of people whose products or needs were of necessity different: . . . . ([1995] 2003: 184) 11. When coinage was introduced by the Greek city-states, its value was duciary or conventional: the value of a stamped coin was higher than the value of its melted metal component (Seaford 2004: 78, 136146; Peacock 2006: 639640, 2010: 18). 12. Another account of representation applies to tripods and cauldrons vessels used for cooking sacricial bulls meat. Providing a translation of Laums (1924a) argument, Peacock (2010) writes that tripods and cauldrons were part of a currency which emanates directly from the cattle currency, and, like the latter, is based in sacrice. The difference with the pure cattle currency is that a symbol [cauldron or tripod] has taken the place of the real good [cattle] (Peacock 2010: 18). Further, archeological evidence suggests that the phenomenon of representation applied to sacricial offerings as well (Laum 1924a; Seaford 2004; Peacock 2010). We nd sacricial offerings in the form of miniature cauldrons (commonly made of bronze), and hence symbols (the miniatures) of the symbols (actual cauldrons) of the real good (cattle) were used to represent cattle in sacrice (Peacock 2010: 1718). Likewise, there are terracotta and wood gurines symbolizing cattle (and serving as substitutes for real animal sacrices) (Peacock 2010: 16). Although such offerings are not mentioned in Homer, they date back to the period in which he wrote, and increase greatly in number thereafter (Peacock 2010: 16). 13. According to Grierson (1977: 7) the earliest electrum coins date back to the third quarter of the 7th century BC, though their exact timing is still a matter of dispute.

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