page_title: Ceremonies of ancient Greece
section_title: Animal sacrifice
hierarchical_section_title: Ceremonies of ancient Greece / Offerings / Animal sacrifice
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail from the Ricci Hydria, Etrurian Black-figure Hydria by the Painter of the Louvre E739, ca. 530 BCE, depicting the slaughtering of a sacrificial pig. The original photo was taken at the Villa Giulia (Rome) and uploaded by user:Sailko This version of the image has been cropped to remove the lower grey band, resized for deeper dpi, and has been white balanced.
context_page_description: Ceremonies of Ancient Greece encompasses those practices of a formal religious nature celebrating particular moments in the life of the community or individual in Greece from the period of the Greek dark ages to the middle ages. Ancient Greek religion was not standardised and had no formalised canon of religious texts, nor single priestly hierarchy, and practices varied greatly. However, ceremonial life in pre-Christian Greece generally involved offerings of a variety of forms towards gods and heroes, as well as a plethora of public celebrations such as weddings, burial rites, and festivals.
context_section_description: A key aspect of ceremonial life involved the sacrificing of domestic animals. This was performed at an altar usually located outside of temples. Animal sacrifices were also accompanied with singing and with prayer. The animal was chosen, and should be of good stock and in good health, and bulls were preferred over other animals, though sacrifices could involve cows, sheep, goats, pigs and birds, however sheep were the most common animal that was sacrificed. The animal was adorned with garlands and led by a girl towards the altar. This girl concealed the sacrificial knife in a basket that she held over her head. Libations would also be poured over the animal. Various hymns were sung and prayers said as the animal was killed, and once the animal is slain, women were supposed to cry out loudly. The animal was butchered and its components were used for different purposes. The hide was usually bequeathed to the temple to sell, while the blood was poured over the altar. The meat is prepared to be consumed by the celebrants while all the remaining inedible parts are gathered together and burned as an offering to the gods. Libations might also be poured on the fire at this time. When honouring the gods of the underworld however, animal sacrifices were quite different, and the whole of the animal was burned as in a holocaust.   
  Animal sacrifices were practised at feasts in relation to the slaughtering of animals and the consumption of their meat. However, animal sacrifices were also used in order to win the favour of the gods, and so were used in times of disaster or before setting out upon some important mission, such as a military conflict.
caption: A scene depicting men sacrificing a pig on Ricci Hydria
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