432 DR DONALDSON ON THE EXPIATORY AND SUBSTITUTIONARY 
3. The sacrifices in Homer which can be imagined to have any connection 
with the ideas propounded in the second theory, are the propitiatory. These 
have to be divided into two classes, the first of which has nothing to do with 
the idea of sin. The gods, I have said, bestow good and evilon man. Their 
attitude towards man is therefore neutral; they neither wish well nor ill to him, 
except for special reasons; and man did not know whether he was to expect 
good or evil from any particular god. It was therefore natural for him to 
assume that the god might be planning evil against him, and accordingly he 
felt a desire to propitiate the god. He knew that if he did wrong, or injured 
the property or interests of the god, the god would dislike him; but he did not 
know that if he did well the god would like him and take care of him; and 
therefore he offered presents to the god, that he might be kind and merciful to 
him. The man had committed no sin; he was not conscious of any wrong ; 
but still he deemed it the wisest course to try to get the god on his side. One 
instance of this nature will suffice. Athene has visibly appeared to Nestor 
and Telemachus, and aided them by her counsel. At length, however, she 
vanishes like an osprey. Astonishment seizes hold of them, and Nestor prays 
_—‘ Be merciful to me, O queen, and grant me great glory..... and I will 
sacrifice to thee a cow.” * 
Take away propitiatory sacrifices of this kind, and there remain only a few 
sacrifices which can in any way be supposed to be connected with the idea of 
sin. In the propitiatory sacrifices of this second class, a sin has been 
committed, some insult has been offered to the god, or there has been neglect 
in offering him the proper sacrifices: the god shows his anger by sending evils: 
and the man or men afflicted try to propitiate him. 
To understand the nature of these sacrifices, it is essential that we should 
understand the ideas of Homeric men as to the nature of punishment. Their 
only notion of punishment was that of compensation in one shape or another. 
When a man did an injury to another, the other had a right to exact ample 
compensation for it ; and if the injuring man wished to gain over the injured 
man to be his friend, he would give very handsome compensation, and flatter 
and soothe him by gifts and banquets. The Homeric men thought of their 
gods as they thought of men; and so here we have the entire explanation of 
the second class of propitiatory sacrifices. 
In the first book of the Iliad Apollo is offended because his priest Chryses 
is treated with insolence. ‘May the Greeks pay for my tears by thy shafts,” 
prays the priest. The god fulfils the prayer of the priest. The Greeks are at 
length brought to a right state of mind; and accordingly they send a sacred 
hecatomb to Apollo; they give back to the priest his daughter without 
* Od. iii. 371-382. 

