SACRIFICE
310
SACRIFICE
whose kingdom is the good. This ethically very
elevated religion promotes especially a life of purity,
the conscientious fulfilment of all liturgical and
moral precepts, and the positive renunciation of the
Devil and all demoniacal powers. If the ancient
Indian religion was essentially a religion of sacrifice,
this religion of the ancient Persians maj- be described
as a religion of observance. Inasmuch as, in the
old Avesta (q. v.), the sacred book of the Persians,
the war between the good god Ormuzd and the
Devil ends eschatologically with the complete victory
of the good god, we ma}- designate the earliest Par-
seeism as Monotheism. However, the theological
Dualism taught in the later Avesta, where the wicked
anti-god Ahriman is opposed to the good god Ormuzd
as an absolute principle, is already foreshadowed and
prepared for in manj^ didactic poems (gdlhas) of the
old Avesta. Sacrifice and prayer are intended to
paralyze the diabolical machinations of Ahriman and
liis demons. The central feature of the Avestic
divine ser\nce was the worship of fire, a worship,
however, unconnected with special fire-temples.
Like the modern Mobeds in India, the priests car-
ried portable altars with them, and could thus offer
sacrifice everywhere. Special fire-tempIes were, how-
ever, early erected, in which five times daily the
priests entered the sacred fire-chamber to tend the
fire in a metal vessel, usually fed with odoriferous
wood. In a roomy antechamber the intoxicating
haoma (the counterpart of the Indian soma drink)
was brewed, the holy water prepared, and the sacri-
fice of flesh {myazda) and cakes (darun) ofTered to the
gods. The precious haoma, the drink of immor-
tality, not only conduced in the case of mankind to
eternal Ufe, but was likewise a drink for the gods
themselves. In the later Avesta this drink, origi-
nally onh- a medium of cult, was formally deified,
and identified with the divinity; nay even the very
vessels used in the fabrication of this drink from the
liaoma branches were celebrated and adored in
hj-mns of praise. Worthy of mention also are the
sacrificial twigs {baresman, later barsom), which were
used as praying twigs or magical wands and solemnly
stretched out in the hand. After the reduction of
the kingdom of the Sassanids by the Arabians (a. d.
642) the Persian religion was doomed to decay,
and the vast majority of its followers fell away into
Islamism. Besides some small remnants in modern
Persia, large communities still exist on the west coast
of India, in Guzerat and Bombay, whither many Par-
sees then immigrated.
(3 J Among the Greeks. — The universal religion of ancient Greece was a gla<l and joyous Polytheism most closely connected with civic life. Even the ancient Amphictyonic Council was a confederacy of statf« with the object of maintaining in common a certain shrine. The object of the religious functions, whir."h consisted in prayer, sacrifice, and votive offer- ings, was the winning of the favour and assistance of the gods, which were always received with feel- ings of awe and gratitude. The sacrificial offerings, bloody and unbloody, were generally taken from articles of human food; to the gods above pastry, Ba<^-rificial cakes, pap, fruits, and wine were offered, but to the nether gods, cakes of honey and, as a drink, a mixture of milk, honey, and water. The sacrifi- cial consficration often consisted merely in th(! exyw- sition of the foods in fKjts on the roadsides or on the funeral mounfls with the idea of entertaining the gods or the dea^l. I'sually a jMjrtion was retained wherewith to solemnize a sacrificial feast in union with the gods; of the sacrifices to the nether gods in Ha/les, however, nothing was retained. Great banquets of the gods (Otok^vLa) were well known to the Greeks as were the Leotislernia to the Ilomans. As a rule, however, the 8a/Tificc« were burned on the altar, at times as holocausts. Idccdsc was added as
a subsidiary offering with most sacrifices, although
there were also special offerings of incense. The
offerer of sacrifice wore clean clothes and chaplets
around his head, sprinkled his hands and the altar
with holy water, and strewed with solemn prayers
sacrificial meal over the heads of the victims (pigs,
goats, and cocks). Flutes were played while the
victim was being slain, and the blood w;is allowed
to drop through holes into the sacrificial trenches.
The meritoriousness of the sacrifice was regarded as
to a great extent dependent on its costliness. The
horns of the victims were gilded, and on great festi-
vals whole hecatombs were slain; sacrifices of twelve,
and especially of three victims {rpiTTijes) were the most
usual. In times of great affliction human sacrifices
were offered even down to the historical era. The
sacrifice was the centre of the Greek cult, and no
meal was partaken of until a libation of the wine
about to be consumed was poured out to the gods.
Among the characteristic peculiarities of the Greek
religion may be mentioned the votive offerings
(dvaOriuaTa), which (besides firstlings, tithes, votive
tablets, and objects of value) consisted chiefly of chap-
lets, cauldrons, and the popular tripods {Tpiir65es).
The number of the votive offerings, which were fre-
quently hung up on the sacred oaks, grew in time
so immeasurabl}' that various states erected their
special treasuries at Olympia and Delphi.
(4) Among the Romans. — To a still greater extent than among the Greeks was religion and the whole sacrificial system a business of the state among the ancient Romans. Furthermore, no other people of antiquity developed Polytheism to such extremes. Peopling the world with gods, genii, and lares, they placed almost every action and condition under a speciallj'-conceived deity (god or goddess). The calendar prepared by the pontifices gave the Romans detailed information as to how they should conduct themselves with respect to the gods throughout the year. The object of sacrifice was to win the favour of the gods and to ward off their sinister influence. Sacrifices of atonement (piacida) for perpetrated crimes and past errors were also scheduled. In the earliest times the ancient Indo-Germanic sacrifice of the horse, and also sacrifices of sheep, pigs, and oxen were known. That human sacrifices must have been once usual may be concluded from certain customs of a later period (e. g. from the projection of straw puppets into the Tiber and the hanging of woollen puppets at the crossways and on the doors of the houses). Under the empire various foreign cults were introduced, such as the veneration of the Egyp- tian deities Isis and Osiris, the Syrian Astarte, the Phrygian goddess Cybele, etc. The; Roman Pan- theon united in peace the most incongruous deities from every land. Finally, however, no cult was so popular as that of the Indo-lranian Light-god Mithra, to whom especially the soldiers and officials of the empire, even in such distant i)laces as the Danube and the Rhine, offered their sacrifices. In honour of the steer-killing Mithra the so-called taurobolia were introduced from the East; by laurobolium is meant the loathsome ceremony wherein the wor- shippers of Mithra let the warm blood of a just- slaughtered steer flow over their naked backs as they lay in a trench with the idea of attaining thereby not only physical strength, but also mental renewal and regeneration.
(.5) Among the Chinese. — The religion of the Chinese, a peculiar mixture of nature and ancestor- worship, is indi.ssolubly connected with the consti- tution of the state. The oldest Sinism was a perfect Moriotlx'ism. However, we arc best acquainted with th(; Chincise sacrificial system in the form which was giv(;n it by the great reformer, Confucius (sixth century before Christ), and which it has retained practically unaltered after more than two thousand
