Alala

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Alala (Ancient Greek: Ἀλαλά (alalá); "battle-cry" or "war-cry"), was the personification of the war cry in Greek mythology. Her name derives from the onomatopoeic Greek word ἀλαλή (alalḗ),^[1] meaning 'warrior', hence the verb ἀλαλάζω (alalázō), "to raise the war-cry". Greek soldiers attacked the enemy with this cry in order to cause panic in their lines. Hesiod asserted that Athenians adopted it to emulate the cry of the owl, the bird of their patron goddess Athena.^[2] She is one of those deities whose name remains the same in Roman as in Greek mythology.

Italian aviators shout the war-cry in October 1917

According to Pindar, Alala was the daughter of Polemos, the personification of war, and was characterised by the poet as "Prelude of spears, to whom soldiers are sacrificed for their city’s sake in the holy sacrifice of death".^[3] Her aunt was the war goddess Enyo^[4] and her uncle was the war god Ares, whose poetic epithet is Alaláxios (Ἀλαλάξιος). As such she is one of the attendants of Ares out on the battlefield, along with the rest of his entourage: Phobos and Deimos (his sons); Eris/Discordia, with the Androktasiai, Makhai, Hysminai, and the Phonoi (Eris' children); the Spartoi, and the Keres.

In Italy the war-cry (modified as Eja Eja Alalà) was invented by Gabriele D'Annunzio in August 1917, using the Greek cry preceded by a Sardinian shout, in place of what he considered the barbaric 'Hip! Hip! Hurrah!'.^[5] It was used by the aviation corps soon afterwards before setting out on a dangerous flight during World War 1.^[6] In 1919 it was associated with the corps that captured Fiume and was then adopted by the Fascist movement. Later a young Polish sympathiser, Artur Maria Swinarski (1900–65), used the cry as the title of a collection of his poems in 1926.^[7]

Quote

"Harken! O Alala, daughter of Polemos! Prelude of spears! To whom soldiers are sacrificed for their city’s sake in the holy sacrifice of death." - Pindar. Dithyrambs, Frag. 78.

In popular culture

• Throughout the Xena: Warrior Princess franchise, the series protagonist, Xena, often utilized the signature war cry, "Alalaes". Her cry was an alternate writing for "Alale" (or "Alala"), who in Greek mythology was the female personification of the war cry.^[8]

See also

• Ululation
• War-cry
• Battle cry

References