Alala/ˈælələ/ (Ancient Greek:Ἀλαλά (alalá); "battle-cry" or "war-cry") was thepersonification of thewar cry inGreek mythology.[1] Her name derives from theonomatopoeic Greek wordἀλαλή (alalḗ),[2] hence the verbἀλαλάζω (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 goddessAthena.[3]
According toPindar, Alala was the daughter ofPolemos, 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".[4] A poeticepithet of the war godAres isAlaláxios (Ἀλαλάξιος). Alala is one of the attendants of Ares out on thebattlefield,[citation needed] along with the rest of his entourage:Phobos andDeimos (his sons);Eris/Discordia, with theAndroktasiai,Makhai,Hysminai, and thePhonoi (Eris' children); theSpartoi, and theKeres.
In Italy the war-cry (modified asEja Eja Alalà) /e.jɑ e.jɑ ɑ.lɑ.'lɑ/ was invented byGabriele 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 duringWorld War I.[6] In 1919 it was associated with the corps that capturedFiume and was then adopted by theFascist 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]
