
SACRIFICES OF THE GREEKS. 439 
blood was used the animal was taken away and not used for food, and was 
therefore equally unfit for being offered to the gods. We know very little 
about the matter, however, as, though the authors of this period occasionally 
mention this peculiar method of purification, it is not till the time of Apollonius 
Rhodius (196 B.c.)* that we get a description of the ceremony.t 
Besides the purification, the sinner had to pay for the damage he had done. 
This compensation often becomes blended with the propitiatory offerings and 
sacrifices which the offender presents. Thus Croesus, because he had disbelieved 
Apollo, and thereby offered an insult to the god, sent to Delphi many gold and 
silver presents (dva0yjuara), and offered up very many sacrifices.t 
It is especially in cases of homicide, however, that all the peculiarities of 
propitiatory sacrifices make their appearance ; and here it is essential to notice 
that the Greeks believed that, in the case of certain crimes, no sacrifices were 
of any avail in propitiating the gods. For instance, if the murder of one of 
kindred blood were committed voluntarily, the only possible issue was the death 
of the murderer ; and, if he was not killed, the curse fell upon his children, 
until at length a violent death fulfilled the demand of justice. In this case 
substitution is impossible. Plato’s words§ in regard to this matter are—“ For 
the tale or tradition, whether under this or some other name, has been plainly 
set forth by priests of old; they have pronounced that the justice which 
inspects and avenges the blood of kindred, follows the law of retaliation, and 
ordains that he who has done any murderous act should of necessity suffer 
that which he has done. He who has slain a father shall himself be slain at 
some time or other by his children; and, if he have slain his mother, he shall of 
necessity take a woman’s nature, and lose his life at the hands of his offspring 
in after ages; for where a family is polluted with blood there is no other puri- 
* Argon. iv. 702-715. 
t We give here a literal translation of the passage in the Argonautica :— But immediately Circe 
recognised the doom that entailed flight and the crime of murder.* Wherefore, revering the law of 
suppliant Zeus, who is mightily angry, but mightily aids the slayers of men, she offered up a sacrifice 
such as that by which guilty suppliants purify themselves when they come to the hearth. First of 
all, stretching above as a purification of unalterable murder, the offspring of a sow whose breasts still 
flowed from the productive womb, she moistened her hands with blood, cutting its neck; and, on the 
other hand, she soothed the god with other libations, calling on purifying Zeus, the helper of murderous 
supplications (7.c., supplications made on account of murder), And the attendant Naiads, who procured 
each thing for her, carried away all the pollutions in a mass out of the house, and she within, beside 
the hearth, burned cakes and soothing foods, offering up vows of dry sacrifices, in order that she might 
make the dreadful Erinyes cease from their anger, and he himself might become propitious and gentle 
to both, whether they come with their hands polluted by a stranger’s blood or by that of a kins- 
man.”—iv. 698-717. 
The scholiast says, on v. 704, “ AvTypsov is the purifying portion (7d kaSapovov), namely, a little 
pig, which is sacrificed by those who purify, and then they moisten with its blood the hands of the 
person who is being purified.” 
{ Xen. Cyrop. vii. 2, 19. § Legg. ix. 872, D. 
* She knew that Jason had committed murder. 
VOL. XXVII. PART IV. 6A 
