
SACRIFICES OF THE GREEKS. 455 
feeling of vengeance is roused in the god, and the original culprits, or some fair 
victim, must satisfy this thirst for blood. Sometimes the god is animated by 
purely personal liking in this matter. Pausanias tells us that there was at one 
time an image of Dionysus in Calydon, and that Coresus was one of the priests 
of the god. Coresus, as was the custom in these early times, fell in love with a 
beautiful maiden. Her name was Callirrhoe. But Coresus was unfortunate, 
for the more he showed his love, the more she hated him. Coresus believed 
that the god whose priest he was would sympathise with him in his distress, 
and he made strong supplication to him. Dionysus heard his prayers, and 
inflicted upon the Calydonians a kind of insanity, as if they were all continually 
intoxicated. They had still sense enough remaining to send to the oracle at 
Dodona. The god replied that the madness would not cease until either Coresus 
sacrificed Callirrhoe to Dionysus, or some one who should have the courage to 
die instead of her. No one offered to die for her. So with much reluctance 
she was led to the altar, and Coresus stood ready to offer her up. But he 
plunged the sacrificial knife into himself and not into the maiden. Whereupon 
the maiden changed her mind, and pitied Coresus exceedingly, and slew herself, 
letting her blood flow into a fountain ‘‘ which, from her,” says Pausanias, ‘“ sub- 
sequent generations call the fountain of Callirrhoe” (0. vii. cap. xxi. 1). All these 
tales are purely mythical, and belong to mythical times. Pausanias gives us 
other instances, which seem to belong to times that are almost historical. He 
explains the Spartan custom of scourging boys thus:—The Lacedemonians had 
an image of Artemis Orthia which they believed was the very image of the 
goddess brought by Orestes and Iphigenia from Taurica. The Limnatze of the 
Spartans and the Cynosurians, when sacrificing to this Artemis, began to 
quarrel, and the quarrel ended in slaughter, whereupon a plague attacked the 
people ; and then an oracle came to them that they must imbue the altar with. 
the blood of men. Accordingly a human victim was chosen by lot, and the 
practice continued until Lycurgus changed it into the scourging of the youths, 
thinking that the oracle was fully carried out by this course (0, ill..cap. xvi. 
6,7). Pausanias thinks that the scourging of women, which took place in Alea 
in Arcadia in honour of Dionysus, had a similar origin (2b. vill. cap. xxiii. 1). 
Another instance of human sacrifice is given by Pausanias when relating the 
wars between the Messenians and Spartans. The oracle of Delphi declared 
that a pure virgin must be sacrificed to the gods below (veprépo.1 Saipoor). 
Difficulties were raised. to the accomplishment of this injunction; but at length 
Aristodemus was ready to offer up his own daughter. But his daughter had a 
lover, and the lover affirmed that, as they had been betrothed, the daughter was 
no longer in the power of the father. The argument failed to make an impres- 
sion on Aristodemus; but the lover was ready for everything, and affirmed that 
VOL. XXVII. PART IV. 6 E 
