of Edinburgh, Session 1874-75. 
585 
Monday , 17 th May 1875. 
Professor KELLAND, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
The following Communications were read : — 
1. On the Expiatory and Substitutionary Sacrifices of the 
Greeks. By Dr Donaldson. 
The author gives the results of his examination of the subject in 
the following propositions : — 
1. That the sacrifices of the Greeks were offered to the gods with 
the idea that the food and drink would gratify them, and that the 
other offerings would 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 distinguish between the purification 
and the sacrifice ; that in the case of deliberate murder no expia- 
tory sacrifice was permissible, but the murderer or his descendants 
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 
