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{{Short description|Personification of the war cry in Greek mythology}}
{{for multi|the song by Brazilian band Cansei de Ser Sexy|Alala (song)|the sacred raven of Hawai{{okina}}i, ''{{okina}}alalā''|ʻAlala}}
{{Wiktionary|Alala}}

'''Alala''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|l|ə|l|ə}} ([[Ancient Greek]]: {{lang|grc|Ἀλαλά}} (alalá); "battle-cry" or "war-cry") was the [[Anthropomorphic personification|personification]] of the [[battle cry|war cry]] in [[Greek mythology]].<ref>''[[Pauly encyclopedias|RE]]'', s.v. Alala.</ref>  Her name derives from the [[onomatopoeia|onomatopoeic]] Greek word {{lang|grc|ἀλαλή}} (alalḗ),<ref>[[LSJ]] entry [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da)lalh%2F ἀλαλή]</ref>  hence the verb {{lang|grc|ἀλαλάζω}} (alalázō), "to raise the war-cry". Greek soldiers attacked the enemy with this cry in order to cause panic in their lines and it was asserted that Athenians adopted it to emulate the cry of the owl, the bird of their patron goddess [[Athena]].<ref>Łukasz Różycki, ''Battlefield Emotions in Late Antiquity: A Study of Fear and Motivation in Roman Military Treatises'', Brill 2021, [https://books.google.com/books?id=RLY0EAAAQBAJ&dq=Hesiod+Alala&pg=PA135 p.135]</ref>

[[File:Eja! Eja! Alala!.JPG|thumb|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 to spears, to whom men offer a holy sacrifice of death on behalf of their city".<ref>[[Pindar]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-fragments/1997/pb_LCL485.323.xml fr. 78 Race, pp. 322, 323] [= [[Plutarch]], ''On the Fame of the Athenians'' 7.349C].</ref> A poetic [[epithet]] of the war god [[Ares]] is ''Alaláxios'' ({{lang|grc|Ἀλαλάξιος}}). Alala is one of the attendants of Ares out on the [[battle]]field,{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} along with the rest of his entourage: [[Phobos (mythology)|Phobos]] and [[Deimos (mythology)|Deimos]] (his sons); [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]]/[[Discordia]], with the [[Androktasiai]], [[Makhai]], [[Hysminai]], and the [[Phonoi]] (Eris' children); the [[Spartoi]], and the [[Keres (mythology)|Keres]].

In Italy the war-cry (modified as ''Eja Eja Alalà'') /e.jɑ e.jɑ ɑ.lɑ.'lɑ/ 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!'.<ref>Giovani Bonomo, [http://www.villasantostefano.com/villass/giovanni_bonomo/storia_fascismo/01_origini/index.htm ''Storia del Fascismo'']</ref> It was used by the aviation corps soon afterwards before setting out on a dangerous flight during [[World War I]].<ref>According to an illustration for ''La Domenica Del Corriere'', [http://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/M278612/Eja-Eja-Eja-Alala?img=2&search=Eja&bool=phrase 21-28 October 1917]</ref> In 1919 it was associated with the corps that captured [[Italian Regency of Carnaro|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.<ref>Isabelle Vonlanthen, ''Dichten für das Vaterland'', Zürich, 2012, [https://books.google.com/books?id=aXz7ITRhdSoC&dq=%22Eja%21+Eja%21+Alala%21%22&pg=PA229 p. 229]</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Biography}}
* [[Battle cry]]
* [[Ululation]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* [[Pindar]], ''Nemean Odes. Isthmian Odes. Fragments'', edited and translated by William H. Race, [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 485, Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]], 1997. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99534-5}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL485/1997/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* ''[[Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft]]'', Band I, Halbband 1, Stuttgart, J. B. Metzler, 1893. [https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Paulys_Realencyclop%C3%A4die_der_classischen_Altertumswissenschaft Wikisource].

[[Category:War goddesses]]
[[Category:Greek goddesses]]
[[Category:Battle cries]]
[[Category:Greek war deities]]
[[Category:Personifications in Greek mythology]]