Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

SACRIFICIUMI. SACTRFICI IJ. 999)
also intended to induce the deity to bestow some That thel Romans al.so believed hltlntin sacric
favour upon the sacrificer, or upon those on whose flees to be pleasinll to the gods, might be inferred
behalf the sacrifice was offered. Sacrifices in a from the story of Curtits and fiom the sel - sacrificX
wider sense would also embrace the DON.ARIA; in of the Decii. The symbolic sacrifice of human
a narrower sense sacrificia were things offered to figures made of rushes at the Lemuralia [LESmSu -
the gods, which merely afforded momentary gra- aLIAJ] also shows that in the early history of
tification, which were burnt upon their altars, or Italy human sacrifices were not uncommon. For
were believed to be consumed by the gods. WVe manother proof of this practice, see the article VWrt
shall divide all sacrifices into two great divisions, SACRUMv. One awfiul installce also is known, which.
bloody sacrifices and unaloody sacrifices, and, belongs to the latest period of the Roman republic.
where it is necessary, consider Greek and Roman VWhen the soldiers of Juli;us Caesar attempted an
sacrifices separately. insurrecti-on at Rao-e, two of them were sacrificed
Bloody sac'ifices. As regards sacrifices in the to Mars in the Campus Martius by the pontifices
earliest times, the -ancients themselves sometimes and the flamen Martialis, and their heads were
imagined that inbloody sacrifices, chiefly offerings stuck ulp at the regia. (Dion Cass. xlii. 24.)
of fruit, had been customary long before bloody A second kind of bloody sacrifices were those of
sacrifices were introduced amron, them. (Plat. de animals of various kinds, according to the nature
Leg. vi. p. 782; Paus. viii. 2. ~ 1, i. 26. ~ 6; and character of the divinity. The sacrifices of
Macrob. Sat. i. 10, &c.) It cannot indeed be de- animals were the meat caninon among the Greeks
nied, that sacrifices of fi'uit, cakes, libations, and and Romans. The victim was called ifpEpov, and
the like existed in very early times; but bloody in Latin hostia or svictim7oa. In the early times it
sacrifices, and more than this, human sacrifices, are appears to have been the general custom to burnt
very frequently mentioned in early story; in fact the whole victiin (OAoscauTrei) -upon the altars of
the mythology of Greece is full of instances of hn- the gods, and the same was in some cases also ohman sacrifices being offered and: of their pleasing served ill later times (Xenoph. Aseaib. vii. 8. ~ 5),
the gods. Wachsmuth (Hell. Alt. ii. p. 549, &e. and more especially in sacrifices to the gods of the
2d edit.) has given a list of the most celebrated lower worild, and such as were offered to atone for
instances. It may be said that none of thelm has some crime that had been committed. (Apollon.
come down to us with any degree of historical evi- Rhod. iii. 1030, 1209.) But as early as the time
dence; but surely the spirit which gave origin to of Homer it was the almost general practice to
those legends is sufficient toprove that human sacri- burn only the legs (Clqpol, pjpiaa, Julpa) enclosed ill
fices had nothing repulsive to the ancients, and fat, and certain parts of the intestines, while the
must have existed to some extent. In the historical remaining parts of the victim were consumed by
times of Greece we find various customs in the wor- inen at a festive meal. The gods delighted chiefly
ship of several gods, and in several parts of Greece, in the smoke arising fromn the burning victims, antd
which can only be accounted for by supposing that the greater the nmnber. of victims, the more pleasthey were introduced as substitutes for human sacri- ing was tie- sacrifice. Hence it u-as not uncommon
fices. In other cases where civilisation had shown to offer a sacrifice of one hundred bulls (Eicao-/ud?j7)
less of its softening influences, human sacrifices re- at once, though it must not be supposed that a
mained customary throughout the historical periods hecatomnb always signifies a sacrifice of a hundred
of Greece, and down to the time of the emperors. bulls, for the name was used in a general way to
Thus in the worship of Zeus Lycaeus in Arcadia, designate any great sacrifice. Such great sacrifices
where human sacrifices weressaid to have been in- were not less pleasing to men than to the gods, for
troduced by Lycaon (Paus. viii. 2. ~ t), they ap- in regard to the former they were in reality a dopear to have continued till the time of the Roman nation of meat. Hence at Athens the partiality
emperors. (Theoplrast. ap. Porphy'. e Abstia2.ii. for such sacrifices rose to the highest degree.
27; Plut. 4uaest. G'. 39.) In Lencas a pelson (Athen. i. p. 3; comp. Biickh, Psbl. Ecos. p. 211,
was every year at the festival of Apollo thrown &c.) Sparta, on the other hand, wasless extravafrom a rock into the sea (Strab. x. p. 452); an<d gant in sacrifices, and while in other Greek states
Themistocles before the battle of Salaitlis is said to it was necessary that a victim should be healthy,
have sacrificed three Persians to Dionysius. (Plut. beautiful, and uninjured, the Spartans were not
Thsen. 13, Arist. 11, Pelop. 21.) Respecting an very scrupulous in this respect. (Piat, Alcib. ii.
annual sacrifice of hu:nan beingss at Athens, see p. 149.) The animals which were sacrificed were
THARGELIA. With these few exceptions however mostly of the domestic kind, as bulls, cows, sheep,
hurman sacrifices had ceased in the historical ages rams, lambs, goats, pigs dogs,- and horses; but
of Greece. Owving to the influelnces of civilisation, fishes are also mestioned as pleasing to certain
in many cases animals were substituted fior human gods. (Athen. vii. p.. 297.) Each god had his
beings, in others a few drops of human blood wele tiavourite animals which he liked best as sacrifices;
thought sufficient to propitiate the gods. (Pans, but it may be considered as a general rule, that
viii. 23. ~ 1, ix. 8. ~ 1.) The custom of sacrificing those aninmals which were sacred to a god were
human life to the gods arose undoubtedly from tile not sacrificed to him, though horses were sacrificed
belief, which tunder different florms ]las manifested to Poseidon notvwithstanding this usage. (Paus.
itself at all times and in all nations, that the noisier viii. 7. ~ 2.) The head of the victim before it
the sacrifice and the dearer to its possessor, the was killed was in most cases strewed with roasted
more pleasing it would be to the gods. Hence the barley meal (ovhAXueTz or obiuaXas0a) amixed wvithl
frequent instances in Grecian story of persons sn- salt (mzsola salsa). The Athenians used for this
crificing their own children, or of persons devoting purpase only barley grownv in the Rharian plailn.
themselves to the gods of tle lower wolld. Is (Pans. i. 38. ~ 6.) The -persons who offered the
later times, however, persons sacrificed to the gods sacrifice wore generally garlands round their heads
were generally criminals -whlo lsad been condemned and sometimes also carried them in their hands.
to death, or such as hlad been taken pi4sonler, in wcar. anmd before they touched anything belonging to the
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