
456 DR DONALDSON ON THE EXPIATORY AND SUBSTITUTIONARY 
he had had intercourse with her, and that she was with child. On this, Aristo- 
demus flew into a rage, slew his child, and, cutting her open, demonstrated to 
the eye that the lover’s assertion was false. ‘The diviner affirmed that this was 
not a sacrifice, but a murder, and that another must offer up his daughter. 
The Messenians were not inclined to follow the diviner’s suggestion, and so they 
held to the opinion that Aristodemus had really sacrificed his daughter (/b. iv. 
cap. ix.) I think it likely that Lycurgus and Aristodemus were really historical 
personages ; but there can be no doubt that we cannot now separate the 
mythical details of their history from the real, and that in these particular cases 
there is not the shadow of historical evidence that the sacrifices took place. 
Pausanias throws some light on the human sacrifices said to be offered up 
to Lyceean Zeus. He asserts (2d. viii. cap. 1. 1.) that Cecrops,and Lycaon the son of 
Pelasgus, belonged to the same age, but acted very differently to the gods. 
Cecrops did not think it right to offer up what possessed life, but only cakes 
made in the country. Lycaon, on the other hand, offered on the altar of 
Lyczean Zeus the child of a man, and poured out the blood on the altar, whereupon 
“they say that he immediately became a wolf instead of a man; and I myself am 
convinced by this statement.” Further on he says (dd. viii. cap. xxxviii. 5), ‘There 
is, on the highest peak of Mount Lyczus, a mound of earth, which serves as an 
altar of Lycean Zeus... .. On this altar they sacrifice to Lyceean Zeus in 
secret; but it was not pleasant for me to examine minutely into all that con- 
cerns the sacrifice, but let it be as it is, and as it was from the beginning.” 
The secret character of this sacrifice, as in the case of the meetings of the Chris- 
tians, would give rise to the story that human beings were sacrificed ; but the 
story is as likely to have been true as the many other stories which were told of 
this wonderful and awful place. We give two instances. In Mount Lyczeus there 
was a portion of ground (réuevos) set apart to Lyczean Zeus, and no man must 
enter it; and if any one transgressed the law, he was sure to die within a year. 
Nothing, whether man or beast or lifeless object, within the precincts ever casts 
any shadow, and this is the case at all times of the year (0. vill. cap. xxxviii. 5). 
In Plutarch we have the only instance of a definite human sacrifice which 
is said to have taken place among genuine Greeks in historical times. In his 
Life of Themistocles (c. 13) he asserts that as the Greek statesman was sacri- 
ficmg beside the admiral’s ship, three prisoners were brought to him, most 
beautiful in appearance, and magnificently apparelled and decked with gold. 
They were said to be the sons of the king’s sister. On seeing them, the sooth- 
_ sayer, Euphrantides, urged Themistocles to sacrifice them to Dionysus Omestes. 
The crowd favoured the suggestion, the omens were propitious, and the youths 
were sacrificed. “These circumstances,” says Plutarch, “have been narrated 
by Phanias the Lesbian, a man who was a philosopher, and not unacquainted with 
historical studies.” Phanias, a pupil of Aristotle and a friend of Theophrastus, 



















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