Analyses that attempts to locate the roots of evil often set out with short sighted assumptions, as though the failure of our upbringing or the faulty development of a particular national tradition or economic system were to blame. More can be said for the thesis that all orders and forms of authority in human society are founded on institutionalized violence.
Blood lurks at the very heart of religion.
Modern perceptions of Greek religion appear to some as bright and harmlessly cheerful. Yet, those who overlook the barbarity or the crucifixion, may overlook the deeper dimension that accompanies the easy life of the gods, as portrayed by Homer. This is an act of piety, bloodshed, slaughter and eating. It makes no difference if there is a temple or a cult-statue present. The god is present at his place of sacrifice, a place distinguished by the heap of ashes left from sacred offerings burnt there over long periods of time, or by the horns and skulls of slaughtered rams and bulls, or by the altar-stone where the blood must be sprinkled.