Continuing our reading of the work organized by Marcel Detiene and Jean Pierre Vernant — The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks, there is a way of thinking about sacrifice in Hellenistic antiquity that does not come from societies that have settled in urban areas, but in nomadic ones.
François Hartog writes an interesting text, based on Herodotus’ reading, about what sacrifice was supposed to be for the Scythians, a tribe that lived in an extension that went from present-day Russia, going south to Iran and bordering with the Balkans.
Perhaps the best way to understand is to put it in parallel with the official Greek religion, especially because the Scythian religion shares a portion of the Greek pantheon.
While the Greeks built temples, statues and altars, the Scythians performed their sacrifices anywhere.
The Greeks had a series of initial preparations for sacrifice, such as the libation of bodies, the preparation of fire and fruit, all absent from the Scythians.
Although the Greek sacrifice was marked by being a blood practice, death was faster, unlike the Scythian, where the animal’s death occurred via strangulation.
As a pre-cooking stage, the official Greek religion used a series of utensils, such as knives, skewers and cauldrons, while the Scythian used the animals’ own organs as utensils for cooking and eating. The consumption of the murdered animal by the Greeks was marked by the allocation of a portion of the meat to the gods and the other was distributed throughout the city. The Scythian, in turn, did not make any separation, that is, all meat was destined for earthly beings.
Proximity to the divine was found in every act of the Greek, whereas, for the Scythians, intimacy with the divine was limited to the performance of the act of slaughter.
There was a difference in the way the Scythians sacrificed for Ares. To the god of war, wooden temples were built by the provinces, and the practice of libation was carried out exclusively on another distinct element: the sacrifice of human prisoners.
Does this mean that the Scythians were less sophisticated than the Greeks? Perhaps. But if we think about the dimension of the belief at stake, perhaps they were less cynical. Perhaps not, it is difficult to conclude with the few elements. In any case, it remains an issue.
Ref. Hartog, F. (1989). Self-cooking Beef and the Drinks of Ares. The cuisine of sacrifice among the Greeks, 172–82.
