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punishment has ceafe'd: allthough the abfti nence from fish lafted down to the times of Menander the comedian.*

"Formerly, when men (as we have fay'd) facrifice'd fruit to the gods, but not animals, nor ufe'd them for food, it is reported, that a publick facrifice being celebrateëd at Athens, one Diomus or Sopater, not a native, but a cultivator, in Attica, when allready the cakes and other things which were to be offer'd, were place'd upon a table in the open air, that he might facrifice them to the gods, these, a certain ox entering the city after his labour, partly devour'd, and partly trample'd under-foot, that which had hapen'd bearing in il wil, haveing snatch'd up a certain fharp ax, which lay at hand, kil'd the ox. Therefor, the ox, being dead, and the anger of Diomus now appeafe'd, he bethought himself what an action he had perpetrateëd. He bury'd the ox and takeing spontaneous flight as one guilty of impiety betook himself into Crete. But a drought and prodigious fterility of grain and fruit haveing arifeën, to those who, with common confent, enquire'd of the god, the priestess answer'd, The exile at Crete is to expiate thefe things: and if they would inflict

Porphyry, Of abftinence, B. 4, § 15.

:

punishment on the kiler, and erect a ftatue of the flain in the place where he fel, this would profit as wel those who had tafteëd, as those who had not touch'd him whence an enquiry being made, and Sopater afterward found, he, thinking, as one who was allready in a state of expiation, to drive off punishment from himself, if all in common would do this, told them who had come to him, that it behove'd to flay an ox from the city. Now those who stood around [asking] who fhould kil the ox, he promife'd them to do this office, upon condition he should be made free of the city, and they with himself be accompliceës in the flaughter: which being granted, they return'd to the city, where they fo 'order'd the matter, as it even remains among them to this day. They felected the virgins who carry'd water: now these bring the water to fharpen the hatchet and the fword: which when they had fharpen'd, one deliver'd the hatchet, another kil'd the ox, a third cut his throat; and, afterward, flaying him, all ate him. These things being transacted, they, fewing the fkin of the ox, and stufing it with hay, fet him up, in the like form which he had when alive, and tye a plough to him as if he were to labour in the mil. Now a court of justice being instituteëd concerning the flaughter, the partakeërs in it

were call'd into judgement, that they might apologise for themselves. When the bearers of water caft the blame upon those who had fharpen'd the ax, thofe allfo who had sharpen'd the ax, upon him who deliver'd it, but he, him who cut the oxes throat, and he, who had done this, accufe'd the weapon, the weapon, because it could not fpeak, they found guilty of the murder, and threw it into the fea."*

This fpecies of barbarity prevail'd before the fiege of Troy, at which we find that human victims were offer'd by Achilles at the funeral of Patroclus:

"High on the top the manly corfe they lay,
And wel-fed fheep and fable oxen flay.
Four fprightly courfeërs, with a deadly groan,
Pour forth their lives, and on the pyre are thrown,
Of nine large dogs, domeftick at his board,

Fall two, felected to attend their lord.

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* Idem, ibi, B. 2, § 29, 30. The bear, as we learn from Aftleys Voyagees, is treated in a fimilar manner by a hord of Tartars: "As foon as they have kil'd the beaft, they pul off its skin, and hang it, in prefence of their idol, on a very high tree, and, afterward, revere it, and amuse themselves with doleful lamentations; as if they repented of the impious deed. They, ridiculously, plead that it was the arrow, not they, that gave the lethal wound, and that the feather aded wings to its unhapy flight, &c." (III, 355.) 4

Then laft of all, and horrible to tel!

Sad facrifice! twelve Trojan captives fel:
On these the rage of fire victorious preys,

Involves and joins them in one common blaze."*

Menelaus, being arrive'd at Memphis, in fearch of Helen, was entertain'd by the Aegyptian monarch with great affection, and had his wife, and all his treasures restore'd to him: favours to which he made the most ungrateful return; for, being long detain'd in the country, by contrary winds, he perpetrateëd a most impious action; takeing two children, natives of the country, and opening their bodys, in order to confult their entrails concerning his departure.†

In the remoteër ageës the blood of animals was not shed to propitiate the gods; odours and perfumes were alone ufe'd in facrificees. The firft Athenians, following the injunction of Triptolemus, to regale the gods with fruits, offer'd them onely the produce of the earth.

Af

*Homers Iliad, B. 23. The pious Aeneas performs a

fimilar ceremony at the funeral of Pallas:

"Four youths, by Sulmo, four by Ufens bred,

Unhapy victims! destine'd to the dead,

He seize'd alive, to offer on the pyre,

And fprinkle with their blood the funeral fire."

Herodotus, Euterpe.

Virgils Aeneis, B. 10.

terward they offer'd animals, and the word Juola, which originally fignify'd to burn perθυσιαι, fumes, was now apply'd to the fheding of the blood of victims. The animals which they facrifice'd were the ox, the hog, the fheep, the kid, the cock, and the goofe :† but these were not the onely ones-they allfo offer'd up men.‡

* Once in the year the under-facrificeër, or rather the facred butcher, ready to immolate an ox, fled as feize'd with horrour; to make men remember, that, in times the most wife and moft hapy, the gods were onely presented with flowers and fruits, and that the barbarity of immolateing animals, innocent and useful, was not introduced, til there were priests who wish'd to feed upon their blood, and live at the expence of the people. Voltaire, Diction. philofo. (Bourbon.)

Boses Antiquities of Greece.

+ "As Themistocles was facrificeing on the deck of the admiral galley, three captives were brought to him of uncommon beauty, elegantly attire'd, and fet off with golden. ornaments. They were fay'd to be the fons of Autavetus and Sandace, fister to Xerxes. Euphrantides, the foothsayer, cafting his eye upon them, and at the fame time obferveing that a bright flame blaze'd out from the victims, while a fneezeing was hear'd from the right [both fortunate omens], took Themistocles by the hand, and order'd that the three youths fhould be confecrateëd and facrifice'd to Bacchus Omestes; for, by this means, the Greeks might be asfured not onely of fafety, but victory. Themistocles was astonish'd at the ftrangeness and cruelty of the order; but the multitude, who, in great and presfing difficultys, truft rather to absurd,

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