Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece

Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece PDF Author: Dennis D. Hughes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134966385
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Numerous ancient texts describe human sacrifices and other forms of ritual killing: in 480 BC Themistocles sacrifices three Persian captives to Dionysus; human scapegoats called pharmakoi are expelled yearly from Greek cities, and according to some authors they are killed; Locrin girls are hunted down and slain by the Trojans; on Mt Lykaion children are sacrificed and consumed by the worshippers; and many other texts report human sacrifices performed regularly in the cult of the gods or during emergencies such as war and plague. Archaeologists have frequently proposed human sacrifice as an explanation for their discoveries: from Minoan Crete children's bones with knife-cut marks, the skeleton of a youth lying on a platform with a bronze blade resting on his chest, skeletons, sometimes bound, in the dromoi of Mycenaean and Cypriot chamber tombs; and dual man-woman burials, where it is suggested that the woman was slain or took her own life at the man's funeral. If the archaeologists' interpretations and the claims in the ancient sources are accepted, they present a bloody and violent picture of the religious life of the ancient Greeks, from the Bronze Age well into historical times. But the author expresses caution. In many cases alternative, if less sensational, explanations of the archaeological are possible; and it can often be shown that human sacrifices in the literary texts are mythical or that late authors confused mythical details with actual practices.Whether the evidence is accepted or not, this study offers a fascinating glimpse into the religious thought of the ancient Greeks and into changing modern conceptions of their religious behaviour.

Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece

Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece PDF Author: Dennis D. Hughes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134966385
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book Here

Book Description
Numerous ancient texts describe human sacrifices and other forms of ritual killing: in 480 BC Themistocles sacrifices three Persian captives to Dionysus; human scapegoats called pharmakoi are expelled yearly from Greek cities, and according to some authors they are killed; Locrin girls are hunted down and slain by the Trojans; on Mt Lykaion children are sacrificed and consumed by the worshippers; and many other texts report human sacrifices performed regularly in the cult of the gods or during emergencies such as war and plague. Archaeologists have frequently proposed human sacrifice as an explanation for their discoveries: from Minoan Crete children's bones with knife-cut marks, the skeleton of a youth lying on a platform with a bronze blade resting on his chest, skeletons, sometimes bound, in the dromoi of Mycenaean and Cypriot chamber tombs; and dual man-woman burials, where it is suggested that the woman was slain or took her own life at the man's funeral. If the archaeologists' interpretations and the claims in the ancient sources are accepted, they present a bloody and violent picture of the religious life of the ancient Greeks, from the Bronze Age well into historical times. But the author expresses caution. In many cases alternative, if less sensational, explanations of the archaeological are possible; and it can often be shown that human sacrifices in the literary texts are mythical or that late authors confused mythical details with actual practices.Whether the evidence is accepted or not, this study offers a fascinating glimpse into the religious thought of the ancient Greeks and into changing modern conceptions of their religious behaviour.

Human Sacrifice

Human Sacrifice PDF Author: James P. Moore
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
story of the murder of Sarah Cherry and what the author believes to be the wrongful conviction of Dennis Dechaine, as told by a retired ATF agent and private investigator.

Human Sacrifice, Militarism, and Rulership

Human Sacrifice, Militarism, and Rulership PDF Author: Saburo Sugiyama
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521780568
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
An archaeological examination of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid as a symbol of power in Teotihuacan.

Human Sacrifice in Jewish and Christian Tradition

Human Sacrifice in Jewish and Christian Tradition PDF Author: Karin Finsterbusch
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 904740940X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
This volume asks to which extent ancient practices and traditions of human sacrifice are reflected in medieval and modern Judeo-Christian times. The first part of the volume, on antiquity, focuses on rituals of human sacrifice and polemics against it, as well as on transformations of human sacrifice in the Israelite-Jewish and Christian cultures, while the Ancient Near East and ancient Greece are not excluded. The second part of the volume, on medieval and modern times, discusses human sacrifice in Jewish and Christian traditions as well as the debates about euthanasia and death penalty in the Western world.

Sacred Killing

Sacred Killing PDF Author: Anne Porter
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1575066769
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
What is sacrifice? How can we identify it in the archaeological record? And what does it tell us about the societies that practice it? Sacred Killing: The Archaeology of Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East investigates these and other questions through the evidence for human and animal sacrifice in the Near East from the Neolithic to the Hellenistic periods. Drawing on sociocultural anthropology and history in addition to archaeology, the book also includes evidence from ancient China and a riveting eyewitness account and analysis of sacrifice in contemporary India, which engage some of the key issues at stake. Sacred Killing vividly presents a variety of methods and theories in the study of one of the most profound and disturbing ritual activities humans have ever practiced.

Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel

Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel PDF Author: Heath D. Dewrell
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1646022017
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Among the many religious acts condemned in the Hebrew Bible, child sacrifice stands out as particularly horrifying. The idea that any group of people would willingly sacrifice their own children to their god(s) is so contrary to modern moral sensibilities that it is difficult to imagine that such a practice could have ever existed. Nonetheless, the existence of biblical condemnation of these rites attests to the fact that some ancient Israelites in fact did sacrifice their children. Indeed, a close reading of the evidence—biblical, archaeological, epigraphic, etc.—indicates that there are at least three different types of Israelite child sacrifice, each with its own history, purpose, and function. In addition to examining the historical reality of Israelite child sacrifice, Dewrell’s study also explores the biblical rhetoric condemning the practice. While nearly every tradition preserved in the Hebrew Bible rejects child sacrifice as abominable to Yahweh, the rhetorical strategies employed by the biblical writers vary to a surprising degree. Thus, even in arguing against the practice of child sacrifice, the biblical writers themselves often disagreed concerning why Yahweh condemned the rites and why they came to exist in the first place.

The Value of a Human Life

The Value of a Human Life PDF Author: Karel Innemée
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789464260571
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Experts from different disciplines present new insights into the subject of ritual homicide in various regions of the ancient world.

Sacrifice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Sacrifice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam PDF Author: David L. Weddle
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814762816
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
An examination of the practice and philosophy of sacrifice in three religious traditions In the book of Genesis, God tests the faith of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham by demanding that he sacrifice the life of his beloved son, Isaac. Bound by common admiration for Abraham, the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam also promote the practice of giving up human and natural goods to attain religious ideals. Each tradition negotiates the moral dilemmas posed by Abraham’s story in different ways, while retaining the willingness to perform sacrifice as an identifying mark of religious commitment. This book considers the way in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims refer to “sacrifice”—not only as ritual offerings, but also as the donation of goods, discipline, suffering, and martyrdom. Weddle highlights objections to sacrifice within these traditions as well, presenting voices of dissent and protest in the name of ethical duty. Sacrifice forfeits concrete goods for abstract benefits, a utopian vision of human community, thereby sparking conflict with those who do not share the same ideals. Weddle places sacrifice in the larger context of the worldviews of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, using this nearly universal religious act as a means of examining similarities of practice and differences of meaning among these important world religions. This book takes the concept of sacrifice across these three religions, and offers a cross-cultural approach to understanding its place in history and deep-rooted traditions.

Human Sacrifice

Human Sacrifice PDF Author: Jimmy Lee Shreeve
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1629149985
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Welcome to the terrifying world of ritual sacrifice. Around the world, humans are being trafficked, kidnapped, sold, and enslaved for the specific purpose of sacrifice. Mass-scale migration has seen these gruesome techniques exported from the land of the Aztecs and finding their way to the United States, Britain, and many other locations worldwide. Voodoo priests in London have been linked to ritual murders, and not long ago a Palo Mayombe priestess’s New York City apartment yielded its grisly secrets. One New Jersey investigator says that sacrificial rites are not only going on today, but can be traced back ninety years in the States alone. Jimmy Lee Shreeve takes us on a nightmare journey, following the initial investigations of Scotland Yard into the murder of a five-year-old boy whose torso was found floating in the Thames in 2001, and traveling to Africa to unveil a grim trade of exporting humans for sacrifice. He uncovers the dark side of voodoo and muti magic, linked with a score of sacrifices and murders, and in Mexico, finds a devotee of Palo Mayombe responsible for torturing his victims and boiling them in a cauldron. Along the way, Shreeve brings his own brand of offbeat detective skills to the fore, providing startling conclusions to some of the world’s most horrific murders. Brutal and disturbing, Human Sacrifice takes us into the dark world of twenty-first-century ritual murder.

Ritualistic Human Sacrifice

Ritualistic Human Sacrifice PDF Author: C V Hunt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781941918784
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
Nick Graves is a miserable man. Every day he comes home from his dream job to a stale marriage. On the day he finally summons the courage to tell his wife, Eve, he wants a divorce she has exciting news for him - she's pregnant. Nick is a spiteful man. He purchases his dream home in an ideal location far away from family, friends, and coworkers. It's a life changing decision he's chosen to make without Eve's consultation. Nick is a terrified man. He quickly realizes the residents of his new hometown are a bit eccentric. After a trip to the local doctor's office Eve begins to behave strangely. And once Nick finds out what's really going on he'll never be able to look at Eve the same way.