A battle cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same military unit. The content and nature of battle cries vary, depending on whether their intent is to threaten, to give courage, invoke a family name or family lands, or call on a god for assistance. These cries can serve many purposes, including inspiring those otherwise inclined to stay back, terrifying the enemy, promoting a sense of esprit de corps, as well as communicating to allies that they have support. During the Middle Ages, many cries appeared on standards and were adopted as mottoes, an example being the motto "Dieu et mon droit" ("God and my right") of the English kings. It is said that this was Edward III's rallying cry during the Battle of Crécy.
The word Slogan originally derives from sluagh-gairm or sluagh-ghairm (sluagh = "people", "army" and gairm = "call", "proclamation"), the Scottish Gaelic word for "gathering-cry" and — in times of war — for "battle-cry". The word changed later on to slughorn, sluggorne, and slogan.
The war cry is an aspect of epic battle in Homer: in the Iliad, Diomedes is conventionally called "Diomedes of the loud war cry." Hellenes and Akkadians alike uttered the cry "alala" in battle, a cry not far from "Alleluia" (Burkert 1992:39-40) and Ottoman Turkish Allah Allah.
