HKB
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Often appears with: sacrifice and ritual · prayer and worship · justice as a virtue · hospitality and the guest · the problem of evil and theodicy · the fear of death · spirit propitiation · slavery and bondage · sin, guilt, and repentance · sacred burial locations · ritual prayer for odysseus’ return · ritual food portioning
Usually: narrative (4) · detachment (2) · reverence (2) · description (1) · speech or oration (1) · betrayal (1) · confronting death (1) · crisis of belief (1) · grief and loss (1) · the test or trial (1)
“Then they say: “We pray thee to pardon him, and to take of his blood or of his goods what thou wilt in consideration of thus restoring him to health.” Marco Polo (translated by Sir Henry Yule, revised by Henri Cordier), The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 2 · insight
Eumaeus and Ulysses prepare a pig sacrifice for the gods, portion the meat according to ritual shares including one for Mercury and nymphs, and eat together as hospitality becomes an enacted religious duty.
him for this stranger, and we will take toll of him ourselves. We have had trouble enough this long time feeding pigs, while others reap the fruit of our labour.” On this he began chopping firewood, while the others brought in a fine fat five year old boar pig, and set it at the altar. Eumaeus did not forget the gods, for he was a man of good principles, so the first thing he did was to cut bristles from the pig’s f…
Eumaeus prepares a sacrificial meal for the guest, burns offerings to Hermes and the gods, gives Odysseus an honored portion of boar, and settles into supper and rest as Zeus rains all night.
the swine they shut up to sleep in their lairs, and a mighty din arose as the swine were being stalled. Then the goodly swineherd called to his fellows, saying: “Bring the best of the swine, that I may sacrifice it for a guest of mine from a far land: and we too will have good cheer therewith, for we have long suffered and toiled by reason of the white-tusked swine, while others devour the fruit of our labour withou…
Dido stages a secret pyre with Trojan spoils and a bridal bed, while the priestess performs rites to Hecate and infernal powers, sprinkling tainted substances and sacrificing a foal to summon death and destroy Aeneas’ chances.
the bridal bed be plac’d, Where I my ruin in his arms embrac’d: All relics of the wretch are doom’d to fire; For so the priestess and her charms require.” Thus far she said, and farther speech forbears; A mortal paleness in her face appears: Yet the mistrustless Anna could not find The secret fun’ral in these rites design’d; Nor thought so dire a rage possess’d her mind. Unknowing of a …
Polo continues with Zardandan and neighboring provinces, describing devil-conjuring curing rites: a spirit is blamed, then sacrifices and dances are performed until the patient is healed.
half. And on either half they cut two or three notches. And when the account is settled the debtor receives back the other half of the stick from the creditor.{8} And let me tell you that in all those three provinces that I have been speaking of, to wit Carajan, Vochan, and Yachi, there is never a leech. But when any one is ill they send for their magicians, that is to say the Devil-conjurors and those who are the k…
Pythagoras contrasts a peaceful, meatless “Golden Age” with later cruelty that justifies slaughter, and condemns killing animals and attributing it to divine approval.
given the name of ‘Golden,’ was blest in the produce of the trees, and in the herbs which the earth produces, and it did not pollute the mouth with blood. “Then, both did the birds move their wings in safety in the air, and the hare without fear wander in the midst of the fields; then its own credulity had not suspended the fish from the hook; every place was without treachery, and in dread of no injury, and was ful…
The passage describes Egyptian mourning and a feast after sacrifices, then explains burial rules for sacred oxen: females are thrown into the river, males are buried in each town with a horn marker, and bones are later retrieved from Prosopitis/Atarbechis.
are being burnt, they all beat themselves for mourning, and when they have finished beating themselves they set forth as a feast that which they left unburnt of the sacrifice. 41. The clean males then of the ox kind, both full-grown animals and calves, are sacrificed by all the Egyptians; the females however they may not sacrifice, but these are sacred to Isis; for the figure of Isis is in the form of a woman with c…