In fact, research backs this idea up: one study showed that athletes who scream when exerting themselves show an 11% increase in power output! Moving back into that raw barbarism via a mighty yell may be a way for us humans to tap into our animal strength. As historian Dean Miller notes in his book The Epic Hero, “If the human voice…carries the proof of intelligence and therefore of a living vitality specific to humanity, the warrior’s shout announces a retrograde act, moving back or down into animality or even into the inanimate (a drumbeat, the sound of the sea).” There’s something very visceral about the aggressive shout that taps into the animal within us. You even see battle cries on football and rugby fields.

Bands of warriors would often cry out in unison to frighten their enemies and fill themselves with thumos.Įven today, soldiers and fighters continue to yell and shout when engaging with the enemy. Lone heroes weren’t the only ones known to give battle cries, either. The Georgian hero Tariel was able to drop opposing warriors using only the force of his mighty war cry.Īnd in Welsh mythology, the hero Culhwch was said to be able to give a battle cry so loud and violent that “all the women in the court that pregnant abort” and those women who were not pregnant would become sterile. The mighty warriors that populate the Shahnameh, an epic Persian epic poem from the tenth century, are all described as arming themselves with a virile war cry: Koshan rumbled “in a voice like a drumbeat” Rahham “roared out and began to boil like the sea” and the thick-bodied Rostam thundered “like an elephant enraged.”Ĭú Chulainn, a hero from Celtic mythology, used the “hero’s scream” to scare off devils and goblins. Diomedes is called “Diomedes of the loud war cry,” and both Menelaus and Odysseus are described as “utter a piercing shout.” In The Iliad, Homer often describes the story’s heroes in terms of their ability to let out a howl that could weaken the knees of their enemies. In the great epic poems of cultures in both the East and the West, a manly, fierce yell was a desirable trait for a warrior to have. These roars aren’t limited to the animal kingdom, though. If the roar doesn’t work to stave off the fight, well, hopefully it was fierce enough to instill some fear into one’s foe, leading him to struggle less fiercely and submit sooner, rather than later. If a male mammal can dominate his opponent into submission with just a roar, he eliminates the risk of getting killed or seriously injured and saves himself precious energy. The aim of this pre-fight auditory showdown is actually to avoid having the conflict escalate into a physical altercation. Yelling is inherently aggressive and often the prelude to actual physical violence.Īcross mammal species, males will frequently engage in posturing that includes roaring, snorting, or screeching. Throughout cultures and time, shouting and yelling have typically been categorized as masculine acts.

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.” –Walt Whitman “I too am not a bit tamed-I too am untranslatable

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