In preparation for the sacrifice the offerers clothed themselves in fresh garments and put on wreaths as for a feast, and the animals were adorned with flowers and garlands. The proces sion brought the animals, together with the im plements of sacrifice, to the altar, barleycorns were scattered on the altar and on the animal, and a lock of the animal's hair was thrown into the flame. Meantime all present observed silence, while music of flutes accompanied the prayer hymns to the gods. The animal's throat was cut —in the case of oxen, after they had been.stunned by an axe or club—and the blood was either al lowed to flow on the altar, or collected in a ves sel and poured on the altar. Parts of the entrails were burned on the altar, with fat to help the flame; and after it was entirely cut up, the thigh bones, and in particular localities other parts also, were burned to the gods. All present joined in pouring libations of wine on the altar to the music of hymns and of flutes. The remainder of the flesh was roasted and eaten by priests and of ferers in sacrificial meal, with further libations to the gods. On great festal occasions large num bers of victims were slain, and thus the worship culminated in a general feast to the gods.
Other minor sacrifices may be briefly mentioned. Whenever men were eating or drinking, libations of wine mixed with water were poured out to the gods. In Homer we read many times of libation and prayer, especially before men set out on some important undertaking. Special libations also are offered to the dead and to the gods beneath the earth. In the simple worship of the house hold, flowers, fruits, and cakes are placed on al tars for the gods. In spite of the general prefer ence for animal victims, there were some shrines to which they would be a profanation, and at these men offered fruits or sacred cakes. Again, as the use of incense was introduced into Greece, and men enjoyed its fragrance in their own houses, it came to be used both at the feasts of the gods and in the regular temple ritual.
Votive offerings, anathemata, form a class by themselves, to which the name sacrifice is not strictly applicable. They were devoted to a god in memory of some distinct blessing that had been received. The sick man, on regaining health, would dedicate an image of the part that had been diseased—a foot or an ear, it might be—and many of these offerings have been recovered by excavation. After returning from a journey, of ferings were brought to the gods. Thus upon the successful return of the ten thousand. a sum of money was dedicated, a part of which Xeno phon later used to found a shrine in Elis for the Ephesian Artemis. Trophies won in the games were often devoted to the gods; c.g., the tripods received as prizes in the dramatic contests at Athens were set up as votive offerings. Slaves were
dedicated to a Divinity, to be his servants; later, this became a regular method for the manumission of slaves, in which cases they received the protec tion of the god, though no regular service was required of them. It was always customary to dedicate to a god small copies of his temple image, or of the animal that was his symbol. Itowever we may interpret this usAge. Finally, the analh mak, included religious taxes, or revenues which were dedicated by states to their patron di vinities.
It is not always easy to determine the religious intent of this worship. Votive offerings are the simplest to explain, for clearly they express the worshiper's desire to honor the god by a gift, just as a subject would honor his king by bringing him a gift of value. Libations, cakes, fruits, etc., were also gifts, not valuable in themselves, but nevertheless the correct offering when ancient cus tom declared that they were what the god wanted then and there of his servant. The last statement applies equally to all sacrifices; viz., they were the right way to express one's desire to honor the god, because they were the way prescribed by tra dition. Nevertheless we can analyze somewhat more closely the religious sentiment expressed in the sacrificial feast. The banquet still binds to gether those who share it, so that it is used by all sorts of associations to arouse a sentiment of union; and among many races this bond has in itself something sacred. Moreover. the banquet has a direct effect on the disposition, which we express by saying that it kindles "good feeling." The physical stimulus of meat and wine is very powerful on human nature. The sacrificial ban quet bound Greek worshipers together, and awak ened on each occasion a new feeling of union with one another and with the god they worshiped. It was the god who gave the banquet to entertain his worshipers; lie was himself present at the sacrifice, so that those who shared it gained a sense of communion with him. The very physical stimulus of the banquet was utilized to produce religious feeling. It was combined, however, with other stimuli, which prevented the sentiment from becoming gross or material.
The splendid procession, solemnly bearing the image or some symbol of the god. the nmsic on some theme consecrated by long use in worship, the artistic surroundings of the perfect temple and statue embodying religious ideals in form for the eye to see them—all these combined to stir the xsthetic nature of this people and to give fitting expression to the feelings which they aroused. The study of Greek worship indicates clearly that religion appealed to the artistic side of the Greek nature, and that it met any reaching toward God by the perfect forms of its manifold art.