Humanitext Reader

Herodotus · Histories §4.60.1-4.60.2

Scythian Method of Sacrificing Animals by Strangling

Passage 624 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

Describes the uniform method of sacrifice among the Scythians, detailing how the victim is bound and strangled to death without fire or preparatory rites.

§4.60.1θυσίη δὲ ἡ αὐτὴ πᾶσι κατέστηκε περὶ πάντα τὰ ἱρὰ ὁμοίως, ἐρδομένη ὧδε· τὸ μὲν ἱρήιον αὐτὸ ἐμπεποδισμένον τοὺς ἐμπροσθίους πόδας ἔστηκε, ὁ δὲ θύων ὄπισθε τοῦ κτήνεος ἑστεὼς σπάσας τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῦ στρόφου καταβάλλει μιν, §4.60.2πίπτοντος δὲ τοῦ ἱρηίου ἐπικαλέει τὸν θεὸν τῷ ἂν θύῃ, καὶ ἔπειτα βρόχῳ περὶ ὦν ἔβαλε τὸν αὐχένα, σκυταλίδα δὲ ἐμβαλὼν περιάγει καὶ ἀποπνίγει, οὔτε πῦρ ἀνακαύσας οὔτε καταρξάμενος οὔτʼ ἐπισπείσας·
\nBut the same manner of sacrifice is established among them all for all the gods alike, being performed as follows: first, the victim itself stands with its forefeet bound, and the sacrificer, standing behind the beast, pulls the end of the rope and casts it down.\n\nAs the victim falls, he calls upon the god to whom he is sacrificing, and then, having cast a noose around its neck, he inserts a small stick, twists it, and strangles the beast, neither lighting a fire, nor performing the preparatory rites, nor pouring a libation.
ἀποπνίξας δὲ καὶ ἀποδείρας τρέπεται πρὸς ἕψησιν.
Having strangled and flayed it, he turns to boiling it.

Notes

  1. 4.60.1τοὺς ἐμπροσθίους πόδας — An accusative of specification (respect) modifying the perfect passive participle ἐμπεποδισμένον ("bound"), meaning "bound with respect to its forefeet."
  2. 4.60.2περὶ ὦν ἔβαλε — An instance of tmesis, where the preposition περί and the verb ἔβαλε are separated, equivalent to the compound verb περιέβαλε ("cast around"). The intervening ὦν is the Ionic dialect form of the particle οὖν ("then, therefore").
  3. 4.60.2τῷ ἂν θύῃ — The relative pronoun τῷ (dative) combined with the particle ἂν and the subjunctive θύῃ forms a conditional relative clause of general present time ("to whichever [god] he may be sacrificing").

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §4.60.1-4.60.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:4.60.1-4.60.2

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