SACRIFICES OF THE GREEKS, 431 
partaking of the offerings presented to them. The gods are continually 
described as eating and drinking. NHephestus urges Here to cease quarrelling 
with Zeus; for if she does not, “there will,” he says, “be no pleasure in the 
noble banquet.”* And a little farther on, the poet says of the gods,—“ Thus. 
then they feasted the whole day, till the setting of the sun; nor did their souls 
fail to enjoy the well-apportioned banquet.”t Accordingly, Poseidon is 
described as having gone to the Ethiopians “to partake of the hecatomb of 
bulls and rams.” { Zeus and the other gods spend eleven days with the Ethio- 
pians at a banquet.§ On another occasion Iris goes to the winds, who are feast- 
ing together, and being asked to sit down, says she cannot, as she wishes to 
go to the Ethiopians, to share in a feast that the gods are enjoying there. | 
And in perhaps the most elaborate description of a sacrifice occurring in 
Homer, the poet, after detailing the preparations, says,—‘‘ Athene came to 
partake of the sacrifices; and a line after this, we are told that the horns of 
the ox were gilt, “that the goddess might rejoice, seeing the ornament.” So, in 
the Iliad, Apollo, it is hoped, “will partake of the fat of lambs and of goats,”** 
and be appeased. In another part it is said that Artemis was exceedingly 
offended because she did not get her share. ‘The other gods feasted on 
hecatombs ; but to her alone, the daughter of mighty Zeus, he [ Oineus] did not 
offer sacrifice.”"tt And accordingly Artemis punished him severely for his 
neglect of her. So Hermes goes to the island of Calypso, enjoys the repast 
she sets before him,-and tells her that the gods generally do not go to places 
where there are no cities, and therefore no sacrifices and hecatombs. tt 
It will be noticed that the gods came personally to receive the sacrifices. 
The smoke of the fat ascended to them. “The fat went swirling up, wrapt in 
smoke, to heaven,” are the words of one passage;§§ and in another, commonly 
regarded as an interpolation, but allowed to represent the general Homeric 
sentiment, it is said, “They offered up perfect hecatombs to the immortals, and 
_ the winds carried the delightful fat from the plain into heaven; but the blessed 
gods did not divide it among them, nor did they wish to do so; because sacred 
Ilium was exceedingly hateful to them.” |||| 
It is through fire, then, that the sacrifices went up to the gods; and accord- 
ingly the word @¥, which afterwards signified to slay for sacrifice, always 
signifies in Homer to offer up through fire. The slaughter was not essential to 
the sacrifice: it was the burning of the portions set apart for the gods which is 
the principal feature. And accordingly, in the Homeric poems, no notice is 
taken of the blood. The weak and pithless spirits of the departed require 
blood to give them vigour ; but the gods are never said to partake of the blood. 
* TL 1 575. Te Llae GO: tiOder 2, SIL i 424. 
|| Il. xxiii. 206. @ Od. iii. 435. ** T). i. 65. +t Il. ix. 535. 
7 Od, v. 101, §§ IL i 317. {||| Il. viii. 547. 
VOL. XXVII. PART IV. DY 
