Foetor judaicus : archéologie d’un préjugé

Abstract

The prejudice of Jewish smell was widespread in the Middle-Ages, but we find it already in a poem by Venantius Fortunatus (ca. 530-ca. 600). In this article I try to identify the sources of this theme by studying the foetor judaicus in Christian and pagan late-antique traditions. This prejudice has to be connected with the growing importance that olfactory dimension plays in the Christian liturgy, theology and polemics in Late Antiquity.

Keywords

• Foetor Judaicus
• anti-Judaism
• Venantius Fortunatus
• olfactory dimension
• religious polemics