Homer: The Iliad, c. 800 BCE
And they did sacrifice each man to one of the everlasting gods, praying for escape from
death and the tumult of battle. But Agamemnon, king of men, slew a fat bull of five
years to most mighty Kronion, and called the elders, the princes of the Achaian
host...Then they stood around the bull and took the barley meal, and Agamemnon made his
prayer in their midst and said: "Zeus most glorious, most great god of the storm
cloud, that lives in the heavens, make not the sun set upon us, nor the darkness come
near, until I have laid low upon the earth Priam's palace smirched with smoke and burned
the doorways thereof with consuming fire, and rent on Hector's breast his doublet, cleft
with the blade; and about him may full many of his comrades, prone in the dust, bite the
earth." Now, when they had prayed and scattered the barley meal, they first drew back
the bull's head and cut his throat and flayed him, and cut slices from the thighs and
wrapped them in fat, making a double fold, and laid raw collops thereon. And these they
burnt on cleft wood stripped of leaves, and spitted the vitals and held them over
Hephaistos' flame. Now when the thighs were burnt and they had tasted the vitals, then
sliced they all the rest and pierced it through with spits and roasted it carefully and
drew all off again. So when they had rest from the task and had made ready the banquet,
they feasted, nor was their heart stinted of the fair banquet....
Lysias: Against Nichomachos, c. 400 BCE
I am informed that he alleges that I am guilty of impiety in seeking to abolish the
sacrifices. But if it were I who were law-making over this transcription of our code, I
should take it to be open to Nichomachos to make such a statement about me. But in fact I
am merely claiming that he should obey the code established and patent to all and I am
surprised at his not observing that, when he taxes me with impiety for saying that we
ought to perform the sacrifices named in the tablets and pillars as directed in the
regulations, he is accusing the city as well: for they are what you have decreed. And
then, sir, if you feel these to be hard words, surely you must attribute grievous guilt to
those citizens who used to sacrifice solely in accordance with the tablets. But of course,
gentlemen of the jury, we are not to be instructed in piety by Nichomachos, but are rather
to be guided by the ways of the past.
Now our ancestors, by sacrificing in accordance with the tablets, have handed down to
us a city superior in greatness and prosperity to any other in Hellas; so that it behooves
us to perform the same sacrifices as they did, if for no other reason than that of the
success which has resulted from those rites. And how could a man show greater piety than
mine, when I demand, first that our sacrifices be performed according to our ancestral
rules, and second that they be those which tend to promote the interests of the city, and
finally those which the people have decreed and which we shall be able to afford out of
the public revenue? But you, Nichomachos, have done the opposite of this: by entering in
your copy a greater number than had been ordained you have caused the public revenue to be
expended on these, and hence to be deficient for our ancestral offerings.
Apollonius of Rhodes: Argonautica, c. 200 BCE
After this, fierce tempests arose for twelve days and nights together and kept
them there from sailing. And above the golden head of Aison's son there hovered a halkyon
prophesying with shrill voice the ceasing of the stormy winds; and Mopsus heard and
understood the cry of the bird of the shore, fraught with good omen. And some god made it
turn aside, and flying aloft it settled upon the stern-ornament of the ship. And the seer
touched Jason as he lay wrapped in soft sheepskins and woke him at once, and thus
spoke:"Son of Aison, you must climb to this temple on rugged Dindymos and propitiate
the Mother of all the blessed Gods on her fair throne, and the stormy blasts shall cease.
For such was the voice I heard but now from the halkyon, bird of the sea, which, as it
flew above thee in thy slumber, told me all. For by her power the winds and the sea and
all the earth below and the snowy seat of Olympus are complete; and to her, when from the
mountains she ascends the mighty heaven, Zeus himself, the son of Cronos, gives place. In
like manner the rest of the immortal blessed ones reverence the dread goddess."
Thus he spoke, and his words were welcome to Jason's ear. And he arose from his bed
with joy and woke all his comrades hurriedly and told them the prophecy of Mopsus the son
of Ampycus. And quickly the younger men drove oxen from their stalls and began to lead
them to the mountain's lofty summit. And they loosed the hawsers from the sacred rock and
rowed to the Thrakian harbor; and the heroes climbed the mountain, leaving a few of their
comrades in the ship. Now there was a sturdy stump of vine that grew in the forest, a tree
exceeding old; this they cut down, to be the sacred image of the mountain goddess; and
Argos smoothed it skillfully, and they set it upon that rugged hill beneath a canopy of
lofty oaks, which of all trees have their roots deepest. And near it they heaped an altar
of small stones and wreathed their brows with oak leaves and paid heed invoking the mother
of Dindymos, most venerable, dweller in Phrygia...And with many prayers did Aison's son
beseech the goddess to turn aside the stormy blasts as he poured libations on the blazing
sacrifice; and at the same time by command of Orpheos the youths trod a measure dancing in
full armor, and dashed with their swords on their shields, so that the ill-omened cry
might be lost in the air---the wail which the people were still sending up in grief for
their king.
Hence from that time forward the Phrygians propitiate the Great Mother with the wheel
and the drum. The trees shed abundant fruit, and round their feet the earth of its own
accord put forth flowers from the tender grass. And the beasts of the wild wood left their
lairs and thickets and came up fawning on them with their tails. And she caused yet
another marvel; for hitherto there was no flow of water on Dindymos, but then for them an
unceasing stream gushed forth from the thirsty peak just as it was, and the dwellers
around in after times called that stream, the spring of Jason....
Plutarch: The Life of Theseus, c. 110 CE
The feast called Oschophoria, or the feast of boughs, which to this day the Athenians
celebrate, was then first instituted by Theseos. For he took not with him the full number
of virgins which by lot were to be carried away [to the Labyrinth], but selected two
youths of his acquaintance, of fair and womanish faces, but of a manly and forward spirit,
and having, by frequent baths, and avoiding the heat and scorching of the sun, with a
constant use of all the ointments and washes and dresses that serve to the adorning of the
head or smoothing the skin or improving the complexion, in a manner changed them from what
they were before, and having taught them farther to counterfeit the very voice and
carriage and gait of virgins so that there could not be the least difference perceived,
he, undiscovered by any, put them into the number of the Athenian virgins designated for
Crete. At his return, he and these two youths led up a solemn procession, in the same
habit that is now worn by those who carry the vine-branches. Those branches they carry in
honor of Dionysos and Ariadne, for the sake of their story before related; or rather
because they happened to return in autumn, the time of gathering the grapes.
The women, whom they call Deipnopherai, or supper-carriers, are taken into these
ceremonies, and assist at the sacrifice, in remembrance and imitation of the mothers of
the young men and virgins upon whom the lot fell, for thus they ran about bringing bread
and meat to their children; and because the women then told their sons and daughters many
tales and stories, to comfort and encourage them under the danger they were going upon, it
has still continued a custom that at this feast old fables and tales should be told. There
was then a place chosen out, and a temple erected in it to Theseos, and those families out
of whom the tribute of the youth was gathered were appointed to pay tax to the temple for
sacrifices to him. And the house of the Phytalidai had the overseeing of these sacrifices,
Theseos doing them that honor in recompense of their former hospitality.
Plutarch: Life of Aristides, c. 110 CE
21.1: And the Plataeans undertook to make funeral offerings annually for the
Hellenes who had fallen in battle and lay buried there. And this they do yet unto this
day, after the following manner. On the sixteenth of the month Maimacterion (which is the
Boiotian Alakomenius), they celebrate a procession. This is led forth at break of day by a
trumpeter sounding the signal for battle; wagons follow filled with myrtle-wreaths, then
comes a black bull, then free-born youths carrying libations of wine and milk in jars, and
pitchers of oil and myrrh (no slave may put hand to any part of that ministration, because
the men thus honored died for freedom); and following all, the chief magistrate of
Plataea, who may not at other times touch iron or put on any other raiment than white, at
this time is robed in a purple tunic, carries on high a water-jar from the city's archive
chamber, and proceeds, sword in hand, through the midst of the city to the graves; there
he takes water from the sacred spring, washes off with his own hands the gravestones, and
anoints them with myrrh; then he slaughters the bull at the funeral pyre, and, with
prayers to Zeus and Hermes Terrestrial, summons the brave men who died for Hellas to come
to the banquet and its copious drafts of blood; next he mixes a mixer of wine, drinks, and
then pours a libation from it, saying these words: "I drink to the men who died for
the freedom of the Hellenes."
Plutarch: Life of Alcibiades, c. 110 CE
After the people had adopted this motion and all things were made ready for the
departure of the fleet, there were some unpropitious signs and portents, especially in
connection with the festival, namely, the Adonia. This fell at that time, and little
images like dead folk carried forth to burial were in many places exposed to view by the
women, who mimicked burial rites, beat their breasts, and sang dirges. Moreover, the
mutilation of the Hermai, most of which, in a single night, had their faces and
phalli disfigured, confounded the hearts of many, even among those who usually set small
store by such things. They looked on the occurrence with wrath and fear, thinking it the
sign of a bold and dangerous conspiracy. They therefore scrutinized keenly every
suspicious circumstance, the council and the assembly convening for this purpose many
times within a few days.
