Sacrifice

Question 1

When did sacrifice take place?

Answer 1

Festivals

Rites of passage

Question 2

Principal behind sacrifices

Answer 2

Giving up something valuable to you to the gods in exchange for help, or to thank for a be benefit received, or even just to celebrate and honour a god

People believed offerings bound them closer to the gods

Question 3

Describe food offerings

Answer 3

Grain, cheese, fruits, cakes

Left on altars or by cult statues

Question 4

Describe drink offerings

Answer 4

Libations

Wine, milk and honey poured to the gods

Question 5

Describe votive offerings

Answer 5

Left in temples
Men retiring from their trade might leave their tools, a soldier might dedicate his arms, a fisherman his net, a shepherd his flute, a poet his lyre
Way of thanking the gods for their support during their working lives

Question 6

How to organise a blood sacrifice

Answer 6

• arrange a date with the temple officials
• book a popa and cultrarius
• go to market an buy a domestic animal free of blemishes on the day

Question 7

Describe the rules for choosing which animal to sacrifice to which god

Answer 7

• Male animals sacrificed to gods
• female animals sacrificed to goddesses
• white animals to Jupiter and Juno
• black animals to gods or sounds of the Underworld
• goats and dog required for Lupercalia
• horse of winning team at chariot races at the October House in honour of Mars

Question 8

Immediately before sacrifice

Answer 8

• the ribbons to the animal’s tail (maybe gild?)
• procession where animal is led to the altar - good omen if they went willingly- if they struggles or tried to get away, the process would have to start the process again with another animal
• good be overseen by pontifices or the citizen himself
• friends invited, women forbidden from Hercules and Mars, slaves and foreigners banned from all but a few blood offerings
• all participants had to be clean, wearing their best togas- washed hands in holy water before ceremony began

Question 9

Sacrifice proper p

Answer 9

• call for silence, flute frowned out in unwanted noises (bad omens)
• the present covered his head with the folds of his toga, poured wine on citims’s head, sprinkled mola sansa on its back, passed the sacrificial knife over its spine
• prayer uttered - transferred the animal from human to divine ownership
• popa stunned the victim with a blow to the back of the heat, cultrarius cut its throat as it fell to the good

Question 10

What is done after the sacrifice?

Answer 10

• animal dismembered and entrails examines by haruspex
• if omen’s were acceptable, ceremony continued with cooking of the entrails- offered to deity by being burnt in a fire on the altar
• animal cooked and shared amongst the participants as a sacrificial banquet