Potter, John; Anthon, Charles [Editor]: Archaeologia Graeca or the antiquities of Greece (New York, 1825)

OF• THE RELIGION OF GREECL,

■upon the ground, after the fall kicked and stamped, was restless as though
it expired with pain and difficulty, did not bleed freely, and was a long
time of dying, it was thought unacceptable to the gods ; all these being
unlucky omens, as their contraries were tokens of divine favour, and
good-will. The K^vxsi did not then belp to flay the beast, light the
wood, and do other inferior offices, while the priest, or soothsayer with
a long knife, turned over the bowels to observe, and make predictions
from them (it being unlawful to touch them with his hands). The blood
was reserved in a vessel called S^a^nov, Afxvt'ov, or, according to Lyco-
phron, noifAavJ^'a, and offered on the altar to the celestial gods ; if the
sacrifice belonged to the gods of the sea it was poured into salt water ;
but if they were by the sea-side, they slew not the victim over the
yslbv, but over the water, into which they sometimes threw the victim,
whereof this instance occurs in Apollonius Rhodius(l) ;

H p' a,/u* if' tv%a>xyi<riv u btf*T« Xcti/moTCfAHC-nc,
Hjcs actrd 7rpu/uv»s--

Then praying1 to the blue-ey'd deity,

O'er the curl'd surface stabb'd the sacrifice,

And heav'd it over deck.--- k. h.

In the sacrifices of the infernal gods, the beast was either slain over a
ditch, or the blood poured out of the ZQxyeTov into it. This done, they
poured wine, together with frankincense, into the fire, to increase the
flame ; then they laid the sacrifice upon the altar, which, in the pri~
mitive times, was burned whole to the gods, and thence called 'oXmav-
rov, or oAaxaura^K. Prometheus, as the poets feign, was the first that laid
aside this custom ; for considering that the poorer sort had not where-
with to defray the expences of a whole burnt-offering, he obtained leave
from Jupiter, that one part only might be offered to the gods and the
remainder reserved for themselves. The parts belonging to the gods,
were the Mjj£o< ; these they covered with fat, called in Greek Kv/tftfss, to
the end they might consume altogether in a flame : for except all was
burned, they thought they did not xaXKiEgetv, or litare, i. e. that their sa-
crifice was not accepted by the gods. Upon the Mvgoi, were cast small
pieces of flesh, cut from every part of the beast, as the Atfa^ai,-first
fruits of the whole ; the doing this they called coLt&SsTeTv, either because
they first cut the shoulder, which is in Greek called £2,u.os, or because
they did Sl^x rWstfflai, put these raw pieces of flesh upon the other parts,
Thus we find done in Homer (2) :

A/TTTt/^a ws/nVavTK; abrav tT' uf/toBiryivitv

---they, their retracted necks

First piree'd, then fiav'd them; the disjointed thighs
They, next, invested with the double cavvl

Which with crude slices thin they overspread, Cowpeii.

The Mȣw, thighs, were appropriated to the gods, because of the honour
due to these parts, Six to Xurfirs^v 701; Qaotg s}( /3a<?itfii> <re xai y'tvttfn, be-
cause of their service to animals in walking and generating (3). And here-

(1) Argon, iv. v. 1601.
(2$ Iliad. 0. ver. 459.

(3)Eustathius in Iliad. &.