Human Sacrifice: Myth & Reality

Mentions of sacrifice to the gods litter the entirety of the Iliad and Odyssey. We hear of rams, cattle, goats, sheep, etc. etc. all being killed to honor the gods, and sacrifices in wine are also mentioned (pouring libations). In one instance in Book 6 of the Iliad, Hecuba, Hector's mother, the Queen of Troy, led a procession of the noble Trojan women to the temple of Athena to sacrifice a robe at the statue of the goddess' feet. The gods consistently claim these sacrifices as their rights (though they are certainly not obligated to help or even not hinder those that sacrifice to them, not too bad of a deal is it?). But what about human sacrifice, as has so often been supposed?

There are two cases (that I am aware of) in the myths that seem to involve human sacrifice. One is perhaps somewhat vague. The other is seemingly written without any ambiguity, but it can lead to more questions than answers. It's best not to jump to conclusions (as I did, more on that later).

The first of these (and the most studied) is the sacrifice of Iphigenia.

The Sacrifice of Iphigenia by Francois Perrier

There is some ambiguity about this story. First, let's detail the facts. The Greek fleet, moored at Aulis due to bad wind, cannot sail to Troy. The soothsayer Chalcas declared that the goddess Artemis was responsible for holding the fleet back and that to appease her, Agamemnon himself would have to sacrifice his own daughter at the altar.

We here have a decision that can only be agonizing. Our first expectation is that as a father, Agamemnon would outright refuse such an obscene request. Doing anything else would make Agamemnon a monster. Even merely thinking about such a request for a moment is tantamount to an unspeakable crime to our eyes. Unfortunately, Agamemnon did indeed think about it, and even agreed to go through with the, uh, transaction. That much we know. It's then clear that Agamemnon has motives of greed upon undertaking this expedition. No rational father could care so much about his brother's honor and its restoration (by retrieving his brother's wife) that he'd sacrifice his own daughter to get the opportunity (the outcome is by no means clear at this point) to do so. What else could motivate Agamemnon other than the riches of Troy?

Now that we've gotten our answer that Agamemnon is, indeed, a horrible father, even by the standards of his own time, we can now only ponder about the fate of poor Iphigenia. Fortunately, here is where things get a bit murkier.

There are conflicting accounts as to what exactly happened on the altar. Some stories suggest that the sacrifice actually was carried out, others say that Iphigenia was simply whisked away by Artemis, the goddess satisfied that Agamemnon was willing to carry out the deed. For the answers, we'll need to look at the Cypria, which details the events of the Trojan War prior to the Iliad.

You can read some fragments from the Cypria here (I listed it on the External Sites page on the navigation bar as well). Of the sacrifice, this is what the Cypria has to say (and we are very fortunate enough these fragments survived):

"Artemis, however, snatched her away and transported her to the Tauri, making her immortal, and putting a stag in place of the girl upon the altar." (Cypria, Fragment #1)

This suggests that the latter was true. What about some of the secondary sources by ancient authors whose texts have in fact survived?

Proclus' summary of the Cypria says the exact same thing.

So it seems that Iphigenia managed to escape a ghastly fate. But what about the second instance? This happens in Book 23 of the Iliad. Hector is dead, and Achilles is preparing to lay Patroclus to rest. It is here where he takes twelve Trojan prisoners, cuts their throats, and puts them on Patroclus' bier along with the other animals that were sacrificed to his friend.

Notice that this wasn't even a sacrifice to the gods, but to a dead mortal man. It is one of the final acts of utterly barbaric rage that Achilles displays in the poem.

Is there any connection to reality in this? We do know of rare instances of human sacrifice in the classical world done by the Romans- most famously during the nadir of the city's fortunes during the Second Punic War after its disastrous defeat by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae. In this case, the Romans did it to reestablish favor with the gods, who had seemingly so obviously abandoned them.

Did Bronze or Dark Age people do similar things? The fact that there are similar stories centered around human sacrifice such as that of Isaac suggests that the phenomenon had a certain basis to it, but is there more concrete historical evidence?

One of the first things I found was the abstract of a scholarly paper by Dennis D. Hughes describing funerary killings in the literary record as "revenge killings" which certainly seems to fit the bill of Achilles' actions in Book 23 of the Iliad. He also describes the archaeological record as inconclusive, however describing a "funerary ritual killing" in a Mycenaean tomb.

Far from human sacrifice, the author concludes that there was none, not even in Homer. A preview of his book may go into further detail. In the archaeological chapter, he more or less elaborates on the same point.

Somewhat surprising, considering my initial predictions when first delving into the subject. Checking my translation of the Iliad again (Penguin Classics, Fagles translation of 1990), Achilles says on page 560:

"I'll cut the throats of a dozen sons of Troy in all their shining glory, venting my rage on them for your destruction." (Fagles, 560)

Note my emphasis by the underline on the word rage. This would seem to match Hughes' description of historical revenge killings.

Then when Achilles actually does it:

"And then a dozen brave sons of the proud Trojans he hacked to pieces with his bronze...Achilles' mighty heart was erupting now with slaughter- he loosed the iron rage of fire to consume them all." (Fagles, 565)

Thus far we seem to have relatively robust literal and archaeological evidence for Hughes' assertions that evidence human sacrifice as it is commonly understood was inconclusive at best in this period. The two prominent examples outlined show an aborted human sacrifice (though one with full intent) and one that can be misconstrued when it is more akin to a revenge killing than an actual sacrifice- an act of submission to the gods.

The scholarly literature in this area seems to be somewhat scarce, so if  any reader finds further information about human sacrifice in Bronze or Dark Age Greece, I'd be glad if you shared it. From what we've seen both in its treatment in myth and in the scholarly literature (at least as far as scratching the surface goes), it seems to have been of peripheral or misunderstood importance.

Sources Cited:


1. Cypria (fragments), (The Online Medieval and Classical Library) http://omacl.org/Hesiod/cypria.html 
2. Dennis D. Hughes, “Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece,” Bryn Mawr Classical Review (1991): Abstract
3. Robert Fagles trans, The Iliad (New York: Penguin Books), 560, 565