430 DR DONALDSON ON THE EXPIATORY AND SUBSTITUTIONARY 
I—First PEr1Iop—THE HoMERIC SACRIFICES, 
1. The great majority of the Homeric sacrifices had nothing to do with sin. 
According to the Homeric conception, the gods bestowed all good and evil on 
man.* They were the causes of all things ; and, accordingly, the Homeric man 
was bound to acknowledge his gratitude to the gods by offering the first-fruits 
of everything to them. They therefore offered to the gods a portion of every 
animal slain and of all the wine drunk. And they conceived that in this way 
they ate and drank along with the gods. The Homeric poems contain express 
statements of this belief. ‘For my altar,” says Zeus, “never was without the 
equally apportioned banquet, the libation, and the steam of fat; for this is the 
special honour which fell to our lot, 76 yap hayopev yépas juets.”+ Of course, all 
men did not thus honour the gods; but they who did were loved by them, and 
the offering up of the sacrifices was a special claim to mercy and pity. One 
instance will suffice. Atneas comes into conflict with Achilles, and is on the 
point of being killed by him when Poseidon interferes, and among other things 
says, “Why, I pray, does this man, though innocent, suffer sorrows without deserv- 
ing them, because of another man’s woes, though he always gives delightful gifts to 
the gods who inhabit broad heaven? Let us therefore rescue him from death, 
lest perchance the son of Kronos be angry.”{ And so much was this the case, that 
a prayer is almost never offered up without a vow to sacrifice, or without an 
appeal to the sacrifices that had been offered. These sacrifices are accordingly 
offered on every possible occasion, without the slightest reference to any sin 
committed. The Homeric Greeks sacrifice before going to bed, before setting 
sail, before entering on a deliberation, while praying for a return, for obtaining 
a victory, for coming safely out of danger. 
The notices of sacrifice in Hesiod are few; but all that occurs is in harmony 
with the Homeric practice. A fragment of Hesiod, quoted by OricEn, 
says,—“ For at that time there were banquets and there were meetings 
common to immortal gods and mortal men.”§ No doubt, Hesiod referred here 
to a period anterior to his own ; but it proves that he believed that the gods had 
banquets. In the “ Works and Days” (v. 336), the injunction is given “to offer 
up sacrifices to the immortal gods, chastely and purely, according to one’s power, 
and to burn splendid thighs, and to propitiate them with libations and incense 
on other occasions, both when you go to bed, and when the sacred light comes, 
that they may have a heart and soul merciful to you.” || 
2. There cannot be a doubt that the Homeric poems represent the gods as 
* Nicrrspacu, “ Homerische Theologie,” p, 61, section 34; Professor Buackrz, “ Hore 
Hellenicz,” p. 10. 
t I. iv. 48. IL xxiv. 69, 70. {Ui exte 200! 
§ “ Contra Celsum,” iv. p. 216, Spzncer. || See also fr. 209, clxxviii. in GorTTLiNe. 

