SACRIFICES OF THE GREEKS. 445 
sacrificed, covered completely with garlands, and led out with a procession. 
This is what the descendants of Cytissorus, the son of Phrixus, suffer, because 
when the Achzeans, according to an oracle, were making Athamas, the son of 
/Holus, a purification of the country, and were about to sacrifice him, this 
Cytissorus, coming from Aia in Colchis, rescued him, and by so doing brought 
the wrath of the god upon his descendants.” The passage in Herodotus is 
difficult of interpretation in some parts ; but I think that we can clearly gather 
from it that there were no real human sacrifices at Alus. There was a peculiar 
rite, as STEIN has well pointed out. The eldest of the family had to find his 
way into the prytaneum, to make good his claim on the community. But the 
other members watched him as he did this; and if they caught him, and could 
detain him in the prytaneum, they kept him there till the time of some annual 
festival, when he would be led forth to sacrifice. They gave him, in the mean- 
time, ample opportunity to escape, and, of course, he would take advantage of 
it, and travel for some time. The guides speak as if sometimes the young man 
was actually sacrificed; but the tale bears its purpose on the face of it. They 
give it to inspire Xerxes with reverential awe and dread. Accordingly they 
pass from the past to the present when they describe the sacrifice. The tale had 
the desired effect, and Xerxes kept away from the temple and its enclosure. 
That a good deal of the narrative of the guides was dictated by a special 
motive, is to be inferred from the difference which exists between their version 
of the story and the common one handled by the poets. Sophocles had a play 
on this subject, a few lines of which are parodied by Aristophanes in the 
“Clouds.” The scholiast on Aristophanes* gives us the version which Sophocles 
followed, and Apollodorus gives us another, slightly different.t These writers 
at once place us in the region of myth. The account of Apollodorus is as 
follows:—Athamas, the son of AZolus [and therefore connected with the winds] 
was ruler of Bceotia, and had two children by Nephele [Cloud], Phryxos [the 
Roaster] and Helle | Brightness]. Afterwards he married Ino | earth goddess ], 
and Ino, the stepmother, plotting against Phryxos and Helle, persuaded the 
women to roast (ppvyew) the corn-seed, so that when the harvest-time came 
there were no crops. Athamas sent to Delphi to inquire what ought to be 
done ; but Ino persuaded the messengers to say that the dearth would cease if 
Phryxos were sacrificed to Zeus [ Laphystius]. Athamas resolved to obey, and 
had already led Phryxos to the altar when Nephele carried her son off, and a 
golden fleeced ram, supplied by Hermes, conveyed Phryxos and Helle through 
the sky, until Helle fell into a sea, called after her the Hellespont, and Phryxos 
reached Colchis. The names in this myth may be explained in different ways ;t{ 
= Nub. 257..." ° + Apoll. Bibl. i. ¢. ix. 1--5. 
{ The father of Athamas, according to Lauer, olus, is the variegated sky (des bunten Himmels) 
“System der Griech. Mythologie,” p. 219. 
VOL. XXVII. PART IV. 6B 
