464 DR DONALDSON ON THE EXPIATORY AND SUBSTITUTIONARY 
in some way or other be pleasing to them; that the common people continued 
to offer up sacrifices with this belief till the end of Paganism; but that as the 
more cultivated classes came to believe that the gods did not stand in need of 
food, drink, or of gifts from them, substitutions became more and more general 
with them. 
2. That certain sacrifices were intended to appease the anger or overcome 
the dislike of the gods, not because any sin had been committed, but because 
the Greek worshipper was not sure of the disposition of the special god towards 
him, and believed that the wisest course was to conciliate him. 
3. That no expiatory sacrifices were offered up simply to express repentance 
for sin in general, but they were always occasioned by some offence against 
some individual god or gods; that in these cases care must be taken to dis- 
tinguish between the purification and the sacrifice; that in the case of deliberate 
murder no expiatory sacrifice was permissible, but the murderer or his descend- 
ants must suffer death; and in the case of involuntary murder, the sacrifice was 
of the nature of a payment of damages. 
4. That there is no instance of a human sacrifice in Homeric times. That 
in the classical times the one or two allusions really refer to mythical times, and 
that there is only one instance of human sacrifice for which there is the shadow 
of historical evidence; that the evidence for this human sacrifice breaks down 
completely on close examination, and thus we have the fact that there is no 
clear proof that one human sacrifice was ever offered up in Greece during the 
historical period. We have, on the contrary, abhorrence of such sacrifices 
frequently expressed. Herodotus denounces human sacrifices as an unholy 
deed (apjypa ov« oovov). Aischylus and Euripides* employ language of utmost 
detestation against it. The Delphic oracle calls it a foreign practice. Pausanias 
and Porphyry deem it barbarous. And Sextus Empiricus, contrasting the 
different feelings of mankind in regard to the same acts, says of the Greeks,— 
“But we think that the temples are polluted by human blood.”t The same 
Greek detestation of human sacrifices is embodied in the tradition that Heracles 
gained renown by doing away with human sacrifice in various parts of the 
world.{ 
5. That there is no satisfactory proof that the Greeks at any time or in any 
place were in the habit of offering up human sacrifices. Certain rites may find 
an explanation in the supposition that human sacrifices were at an early period 
offered up; but there is no historical testimony to show that the practice ever 
existed. And even in the cases where the practice may by some be regarded 
as the best explanation of the rite, we have not a genuine Greek race. The 
* Wexcker thinks that human sacrifices were attacked by Sophocles in his Athamas, by Achzus 
n his Azanes, and possibly by Xenocles in ue Lycaou.—Die Griechischen Tragodien, vol. ii. p. 969. 
T Hyp. ii. 24, p. 209. t Wetcxer, “ Griechische Gotterlehre,” ii. p. 769. 



