{"id":494,"date":"2005-08-21T22:29:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-21T22:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=494"},"modified":"2005-08-21T22:29:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-21T22:29:00","slug":"494","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=494","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The logistics of sacrifice (1)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Looking at an artist’s rendition of the Roman temple of Minerva Sulis at Bath, UK<\/a>, you will see a thin plume of smoke arising from the altar outside the temple. There appears to be no fuel, just smoke.<\/p>\n

I got to thinking about animal sacrifice, not the whys<\/a> and wherefores<\/a> but the logistics. <\/p>\n

My frame of reference here is the ancient Mediterranean, thus ruling out contemporary Santeristas<\/a>, etc., contemporary extreme Kali worshippers<\/a>, or even the 16th-century Aztecs, known for their (dis)assembly-line approach to human sacrifice.<\/p>\n

For all that, go read Ren\u00e9 Girard’s Violence and the Sacred<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

First of all, the altar. One you have graduated from a pile of unhewn stones to a nice block of marble, are you going to build a fire on it? The heat will lead to cracking, spalling, etc. Even if you have just a small fire into which you sprinkle wine, tufts of hair clipped from the victim, handfuls of barley, or whatever, it would be destructive. So do you line the top of the altar with disposable bricks or set a brazier on it? What do the archaeologists say? Has anyone looked at altar stones for signs of fire damage?<\/p>\n

One friend suggests looking at Book 23 of the Iliad<\/a> for suggestions: the sacrifices at the funeral games of Patroklos. I tend not to trust Homer on these matters, though: he was telling An Amazing Tale of Long Ago, with larger-than-life characters who did things in a larger-than-life way.<\/p>\n

According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary, some chthonic deities got their sacrifices burned in pits. That makes sense.<\/p>\n

As a hunter, I have cut up animals ranging in size from squirrels to elk. I know about blood and guts. After the haruspex has looked at the liver, what then? Is it burned? It won’t burn fast! (Lots of fuel needed–who supplies it?) Intestines if fatty would burn better than an ox’s stomach, for example. Or all those parts disposed of elsewhere? You don’t just burn blood, unless you have a monster bonfire going.<\/p>\n

In most cases, the worshippers ate the muscle meat. Fat was often burned: the smell was pleasing the gods and definitely increased the worshipers’ appetites. In Fishcakes and Courtesans<\/em> James Davidson discusses how to the classical Athenians, red meat-eating was all mixed up with religious taboos and sacred violence, whereas fish was “secular,” and they could eat all they wanted, when they wanted.<\/p>\n

Who gets the hide? The priests (for sale to the tanners, presumably)? If bones are burned, what about horns? The smell! The flies! The ashes! <\/em><\/p>\n

If you wanted a constant fire going, olive oil would be a better fuel than wood. I suppose you would not want to be downwind either way.<\/p>\n

Lots of questions. More later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The logistics of sacrifice (1) Looking at an artist’s rendition of the Roman temple of Minerva Sulis at Bath, UK, you will see a thin plume of smoke arising from the altar outside the temple. There appears to be no fuel, just smoke. I got to thinking about animal sacrifice, not the whys and wherefores […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-494","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":814,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=814","url_meta":{"origin":494,"position":0},"title":"Animal Sacrifice and Authenticity","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month Classics scholar Mary Beard suggested that contemporary Hellenic Pagans were not quite authentic because they omitted the centerpiece of ancient Paganism: animal sacrifice. (I discussed her critique here, and she responded.)Orthodox Christian blogger Rod Dreher's recent post--and especially the comments--pretty well illustrate just how squeamish today's population--even omnivores--are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":497,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=497","url_meta":{"origin":494,"position":1},"title":"The logistics of sacrifice (2)Part\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 26, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The logistics of sacrifice (2)Part 1Bard College is known for its Classics program. Somewhere on the Web there is a video clip transferred from film of 1930s students in ancient Greek costumes having an Olympic-style competition on the fieldhouse.This graphic series from Bard attempts to show the stages of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":830,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=830","url_meta":{"origin":494,"position":2},"title":"Sacrificing sheep in Jerusalem","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Cambridge University classics professor Mary Beard recently suggested that today's Hellenic Pagans were inauthentic because they did not sacrifice animals.Set aside the Pagans for a moment. What about Jews?A small but controversial movement in Israel wants to revive Temple-based religion, including sacrifice.The present-day Sanhedrin Court decided Tuesday to purchase a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Islam\"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=islam"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6893,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6893","url_meta":{"origin":494,"position":3},"title":"Animal Sacrifice and ‘Hard’ Polytheism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There was some discussion last week at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting as to whether the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group should sponsor or co-sponsor a session devoted to issues surrounding animal sacrifice. Some voices in the Pagan world suggest that you are not really a \"hard\" polytheist (truly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Hinduism\"","block_context":{"text":"Hinduism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=hinduism"},"img":{"alt_text":"imrs.php","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/imrs.php_-300x204.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8705,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8705","url_meta":{"origin":494,"position":4},"title":"New Issue of The Pomegranate Published","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Issue\u00a0 19.1 Table of Contents Articles \"Discourses of Paganism in the British and Irish Press during the Early Pagan Revival\" G.J. Wheeler \"Pagan Leaders and Clergy: A Quantitative Exploration\" Gwendolyn Reece \"From Folklore to Esotericism and Back: Neo-Paganism in Serbia\" Nemanja Radulovic \"Contemporary Germanic\/Norse Paganism and Recent Survey Data\" Joshua\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/pomegranate-cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3913,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3913","url_meta":{"origin":494,"position":5},"title":"One Week Left for AAR Paper Proposals","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The deadline for proposals for the 2012 American Academy of Religion annual meeting is Tuesday, March 13. Here are the suggested topics for the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group: For a possible cosponsored session with the Indigenous Religious Traditions Group, we invite papers on the intersection of contemporary indigenous traditions and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}