Sacrificial and Sacred

Did the Greeks sacrifice all the animals they ate? Gunnel Ekroth (“Meat in ancient Greece”) says No, though he also says that most of the meat they ate was “sacred,” even if not “sacrificial.” The distinction of the two is crucial.Drawing mainly from osteological . . . . Continue Reading »

Equality and Privilege

Was sacrificial meat distributed equally or hierarchically in ancient Greece? Some have resolved the question diachronically: Archaic Greece had a more democratic sacrificial distribution that democratic classical Athens.Gunnel Ekroth concludes that the two systems lived side-by-side. Choice pieces . . . . Continue Reading »

Sacrificing Herakles

Herodotus thought it a silly story: “how Herakles came to Egypt and was taken away by the Egyptians to be sacrificed to Zeus , with all due pomp and the sacrificial wreath upon his head; and how he quietly submitted until the moment came for the beginning of the actual . . . . Continue Reading »

Fireless Sacrifice

Drawing from Pindar’s seventh Olympian Ode, Barbara Kowalzig (Singing for the Gods, 230-1) argues that the poem provides an etiology for the fireless sacrifice established for Athena at Rhodes. Why a sacrifice without fire, given that “as is nowhere clearer than in Aristophanes’ . . . . Continue Reading »

Greek and Roman Sacrifice

Greek and Roman Animal Sacrifice, edited by Christopher Faraone and F.S. Naiden, is divided into four sections: modern treatments of sacrifice, Greek and Roman sacrificial practice, representations in visual arts, and sacrifice in Greek comedy and tragedy.Bruce Lincoln opens with an informative . . . . Continue Reading »

Living Sacrifice

Psalm 26 is a chiastic text:A. I have walked with integrity and truth, vv 1-3 (Yahweh 3x)B. I don’t sit with the deceifful or wicked, vv 4-5C. I wash in innocence, process around the altar, love Yahweh’s house, vv 6-8 (Yahweh 2x)B’. Do not take me away with wicked, vv 9-10A’. . . . . Continue Reading »

Examining Hearts

Ancient worshipers inspected entrails to see if their sacrifices had been accepted. Israel apparently never did so. There was nothing visible to tell them that Yahweh received them. Only His word: “that he may be accepted.” In this as in other ways, sacrifice was a pedagogy in faith . . . . Continue Reading »