by various authors

“ As the practice of substitution was extended, it came to be applied to such cases, and thus we find not only the sacrifice of human beings by no means uncommon both in Greece and Italy, but survivals of it in the form of substitutes, either of animals or of some kind of puppet, or of symbolic actions which indicate an originally real sacrifice. Further, piacular sacrifices for lesser offences, usually a part of a ritual of lustration, are found in later times, especially in Italy. ”

“ In this festival of the Diipolia we notice another feature which suggests a totemistic origin, and of which there are one or two other examples in Greek and Roman ritual. Among totemistic peoples it is the deadliest crime to kill the totemistic animal. Where this animal is sacred, the slayer would pay for its death with his life. Thus not the priest indeed, but the axe which slew the bull at the Athenian Zeusfeast, was solemnly tried and condemned (Paus. 1.24, 4) . ”

“ In the Roman religion proper we have no trace of a regularly recurring human sacrifice without substitution, which is doubtless partly owing to the practical sense of the people, to the value attached to human life, and to the bargaining character of their religion, so well illustrated in the story of Numa in Plutarch, Numa, 15. It may probably be traced, however, in the ver sacrum, in which the first-born of a tribe were devoted to a god, and sent forth from the city (Nissen, Tempt. 154; Fest. 379) ; in the rite of devotio (Liv. 22.57; Marquardt, 3.279 and reff.) ”

“ Thus, in the elaborate and genuinely Italian ritual of the Fratres Atiedii, at Iguvium, we meet with the phrase “tases persnimu” – tacitus precator (Bücheler, Umbrica, p. 60, note) ; which is to be explained as a direction to the priest to murmur below his breath. (See reff. in Marquardt, 178, note 4, and Bücheler, l.c.) The more strictly religious, if not spiritual, character of the worship in Italy is also shown by the absence of revelry after sacrifice; or at least of the development of the rite into a matter of public feasting, as at Athens. ”

“ Anthropological research does not seem to show that the sacrifice of animals is of later origin; and all we can fairly assume is that in Greece and Italy, as wealth increased and bloody sacrifices became more and more synonymous with feasts, these tended to increase both in number and variety. ”

“ Sometimes an animal was substituted for the human victim, as at Potniae, where a goat was substituted for a boy in the bloom of youth (Paus. 9.8, 1; cf. 7.19, 2 and 3) . Occasionally we meet with the rite surviving only in a symbolic act, as in the well-known case of the whipping of Spartan boys at the altar of Artemis Orthia till the blood was drawn. With this may be compared the striking passage, in Eur. Iph. T. 1458, where Athene orders the human sacrifice in expiation for the death of Iphigeneia to be commuted for the drawing of blood by a sword. ”

“ The tendency of temple–worship and priestly influence was to create a number of artificial requirements in respect of the colour, sex, purity and perfectness of victims, especially on great public occasions. This is most singularly illustrated in an inscription from Cos, lately discovered, and edited by Mr. Hicks (Journ. Hell. Stud. vol. ix. No. 2, p. 334 foll.) . The selection of the ox for sacrifice to Zeus Polieus, on the 19th day of the Coan month Batromius, was a matter of the utmost solemnity and difficulty. ”

“ Turning to sacrifices in the restricted sense of the word, we find it difficult to arrange them systematically, so as to give the student a clear view at once of their various objects and details. The old division into bloody and unbloody sacrifices is clearly insufficient, since it leaves the object out of view; and it should be noted that in the last few years much progress has been made towards a right understanding of the inner meaning of sacrificial ritual. ”

“ Another mystical totemistic feature, already alluded to, is the wearing of the skin of the sacred animal. This, which is a very common feature among totemistic peoples, has also left its traces in Greece, e. g. in the Bacchic rites, and in Rome at the Lupercalia at least. As in Mexico, the priest frequently also wore the attributes of the god: examples will be found collected in Back, De Graecorum caerimoniis in quibus homines deorum vice fungebantur, Berlin, 1883.
Ritual Greek The ordinary ritual of honorific sacrifice must now be more exactly described. ”

“ Examples of the substitution of puppets are not wanting, especially at Rome, where the rush-puppets cast into the Tiber in May [Argei] are described by Dionys. as resembling men tied hand and foot, and were generally believed to be substitutes for old men (see especially Mannhardt, Antike Wald-u. Feldkülte, 265 foll.) ; and according to Macrob. 1.7, 34, the oscilla or “effigies maniae suspensae” were substitutes for the sacrifice of boys [Oscilla] . The meaning of these Roman rites is not, however, fully ascertained. ”

“ In Thebes apples with wooden feet and horns to imitate sheep were used in the cult of Apollo (Pollux, 1.30) , and a like practice is recorded of the Locrians (Schömann, 219) . Such substitution was also known at Rome, and is enunciated clearly by Serv. ad Aen. 2.116, “Sciendum est in sacris simulata pro veris accipi; unde cum de animalibus quae difficile inveniuntur est sacrificium, de pane vel cera fiunt, et pro veris accipiuntur:” cf. Tylor, 2.367. But these substitutes are more common as survivals of human piacular sacrifice (see below) . ”

“ Incense offerings.--Originally, as we saw, the gods were thought to be pleased by the sweet savour of the sacrifice; and this notion was acted on as early as the Homeric age in Greece, by employing sweet-smelling wood (θύον, Od. 5.59: a species of cedar wood, cf. Il. 6.269, 9.495; Hesiod, Op. 338) for the fire, and at Rome by the burning of sweet-smelling garden herbs (Verg. Ecl. 8.65, and especially Ov. Fast. 1.339) . The real incense offering was both rare and costly. ”

“ The local customs as to the choice of animals were of endless variety, and are hard to explain: it was a complete science to learn the predilections of the gods, which varied even at particular periods of the year. ”

“ On the other hand, such elaborate selection must have been well-nigh impossible in the case of the great hecatombs at Athens: there the chief function of the officials seems to have been rather the procuring than the selection of victims. (For the duties of βοῦναι and ἱεροποιοὶ at Athens, see Dittenb. 388; Martha, pp. 70 and 71; [Boonae; Hieropoei.] ) In the case of private sacrifices, as distinguished from those undertaken by the state, it was no doubt the business of the priest of the temple where the sacrifice was to take place to examine the victim ”

“ Honorific sacrifices might be either occasional or regularly recurring. In Homer, where the undisturbed life of family or city is not represented, the sacrifices are occasional and with a definite temporary object. ”

“ Il. 1.446 foll.) the rite is as follows. The victim, for the choice of which there seems to have been no precise rule, though it must be in a general sense τέλειος (Il. 1.66; i. e. free from blemish) , and of a kind appropriate to the god, was led to the altar, where, if an ox, its horns were or might be gilded, to gratify the eyes of the deity. ”