366 



RELIGION. HUMAN SACRIFICES. 



Several instances are mentioned in which powerful kings were 

 sacrificed or offered their children on the altars of the gods. 



" There was a great crowd of men who left Sweden because 

 of King Ivar's rule. They heard that Olaf Tretelgja 1 had 

 good lands in Vermaland, and so many went thither that 

 the country could not support them. There then came a 

 very bad season and a great famine. They attributed this 

 to their king, as the Swedes are wont to hold him account- 

 able for both good and bad seasons. King Olaf was not a 

 zealous sacrificer, and this the Swedes did not like, thinking 

 that therefore arose the bad years. They then gathered a host, 

 went against the king, surrounded his house, and burned him, 

 giving him to Odin as a sacrifice for good years. This was at 

 Voenir (Venern) " (Ynglinga Saga, c. 47). 



The custom of sacrificing a beloved child of a chief was 

 considered, as it well might be, the highest atonement that 

 could be offered, and is one of such antiquity that its birth 

 is lost in the dim light of past ages. We have remarkable 

 instances of this custom mentioned in the Bible ; the story of 

 Abraham and Isaac, and of Jephthah's vow show the existence 

 of the practice in very early times. In Lev. xx. 2-4, the 

 practice is mentioned as taking place among the heathen; 

 and we see that, as in the North, the father had absolute power 

 over the life of his child, otherwise he could not sacrifice him. 



The most thrilling accounts of sacrifice of children are 

 those of the sacrifice by Hakon Jarl of his own son, and by 

 King Aun of nine sons. 2 



1 Olaf, son of Ingjald Illradi . . . 

 fled to a forest district of Vermaland, 

 where he cleared the land of its woods ; 

 therefore he was called Tretelgja (tree- 

 cutter). 



2 "The scene of most interest, and at 

 the same time of most horrors, taken 

 from the mythical or poetical history of 

 Greece is one which represents the sacri- 

 fice of Trojan captives to the manes of 

 Patroclus. Achilles himself is the priest 

 or butcher, for he occupies the centre of 

 the scene, clad in brazen cuirass and 

 greaves, his long yellow locks uncovered 

 by a helmet, and seizing by the hair the 

 wretched Trojan captive who is seated 

 naked at his feet imploring mercy, he 

 thrusts his sword into his neck, just as 

 the ' swift-footed son of Peleus ' is repre- 



sented to have treated Lycaon, the first 

 victim he sacrificed to his friend Patro- 

 clus. Above the Trojan stands Charon, 

 in red jacket and blue chiton, wearing a 

 cap or helmet, and bearing his mallet on 

 his shoulder ready to strike. The right 

 half of the scene is occupied by the two 

 Ajaces, each bringing forward a victim. 

 naked and wounded, whose hands are 

 bound behind their backs. Ajax Tela- 

 mouius, the more prominent of the two, 

 is fully armed ; and Ajax Oileus is simi- 

 larly armed, but without a helmet. The 

 funeral pyre on which the corpse of 

 Patroclus was already laid before the 

 sacrifices of captives, horses, and dogs 

 were made to his manes is not shown. 

 This episode forms the subject of the 

 first wall paintings found in Etruria 



