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The sacrificial calendar of Athens is an Ancient Greek religious document inscribed on stone as part of the Athenian law revisions from 410/9–405/4 and 403/2–400/399 BC. It provides a detailed record of sacrificial practices , listing festivals , types of offerings (both animal and non-animal), and payments to priests and officials.
Pharmakos refers to the ritualistic sacrifice of a human scapegoat. This practice was used especially during times of disaster in order to appease the gods and to purify the community. However, it was also practiced on a regular basis, such as on the first day of the Thargelia in Athens.
In Greek mythology, the people of Athens were at one point compelled by King Minos of Crete to choose fourteen young noble citizens (seven young men and seven young women) to be offered as sacrificial victims to the half-human, half-taurine monster Minotaur to be killed in retribution for the death of Minos' son Androgeos.
Hughes, Dennis, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, London 1991, pp. 139–165. Litwa, M David, 'The Pharmakos,' chapter 11 in How the Gospels became history: Jesus and Mediterranean myths, Synkrisis. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019; pp.156-68. Nagy, Gregory. The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry.
Sacrifice of a lamb on a Pitsa Panel, Corinth, 540–530 BCE The evidence of the existence of such practices is clear in some ancient Greek literature, especially Homer 's epics. Throughout the poems, the use of the ritual is apparent at banquets where meat is served, in times of danger or before some important endeavor to gain the gods' favor.
1024: Human sacrifice by volkhvy reported in Suzdal in Russia. [24] 1066: John Scotus (bishop of Mecklenburg) was sacrificed to Radegast, the god of hospitality. [25] 1071: Human sacrifice of women by volkhvy was reported in a Rostov village in Rus. [26] 11th century: Al-Bakri mentions sacrifice of servants during royal burial in Ghana. [20]
The consequence of Athens losing the war was the regular sacrifice of several of their youths and maidens. Pausanias ' account of the myth said that Minos had led a fleet against Athens and simply harassed the Athenians until they had agreed to send children as sacrifices. [ 19 ]
Jan Bremmer, "Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 87 (1983): 299-320. Bremmer, J.N. (2008). Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible, and the Ancient Near East. Jerusalem studies in religion and culture, v. 8. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-16473-4.