The sacrificial rituals of Greek hero cults in the Archaic to the early ...

Blood rituals 257
and the later activities at the tomb, just as the Keos law, do not mention any
similar kind of ritual. 204
2.5. Blood rituals in hero­cults
The association between many of the blood rituals and sudden, violent death
is apparent. Blood was emphasized in the sacrifices just before the armies
were to begin the killing and blood was used to wash away the guilt caused
by bloodshed. The spilling of blood is also prominent in the descriptions
of human sacrifice. The representations of blood flowing in Greek art are
limited to human sacrifice and war sphagia, situations far removed from the
regular thysia and not followed by any consumption of the meat. 205 As a
contrast, the killing and the bleeding at regular sacrifices are hardly ever
shown in art and, apart from the splashing of some of the blood on the altar,
blood did not occupy a prominent place in a thysia. 206
The blood rituals known from hero-cults should be considered against
this background. On the general level, the rare use of blood rituals in
hero-cults is in accordance with the infrequency of these kinds of rituals
in Greek religion on the whole. The heroes are interesting, however, since
they could be direct recipients of blood rituals, which was rarely the case
with gods, apart from rivers, the sea and the winds.
If the cases of blood rituals documented in hero-cults are compared with
the contexts outlined above, in which the blood of the sacrificial animal was
particularly important, there are three contexts that may be relevant to the
understanding of blood rituals in hero-cults: war, purification and the sphere
of the dead and the underworld.
Most of the heroes for whom blood rituals are documented have a connection
with war. 207 The cult of Brasidas at Amphipolis consisted of a thysia sacrifice
at which the blood of the victim was of particular importance, as indicated
by the term entemnein, probably referring to a complete renunciation of the
204 See, for example, LS 77 C (= Rougemont 1977, no. 9 C and discussion pp. 51–57),
the funerary law of the phratry Labyadai, Delphi, c. 400 BC; LSA 16, Gamberion, Mysia,
3rd century BC; LS 124, Eresos, Samos, 2nd century BC; cf. Seaford 1994, 74–78; Toher 1991,
159–175.
205 Peirce 1993, 253–254; Jameson 1991, 219; Durand 1989a, 91. Human sacrifice: London
BM 97.7–27.2, black-figure, “Tyrrhenian” amphora showing the death of Polyxena, van Straten
1995, V422, fig. 118; see also Durand & Lissarrague 1999, 83–106, esp. 91–102. On human
sacrifices in general, see Hughes 1991; Bonnechere 1994. War sphagia: Cleveland 26.242,
Athenian red-figure kylix (my Fig. 11, p. 272), van Straten 1995, V144, fig. 112.
206 Durand 1986, 10–11; Durand 1989a, 91–92; Peirce 1993, 220.
207 Cf. Ekroth 2000, 277–279.