Civic Nature of Sacrifices

Ancient Greek Mythology, Religion, Art

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Technically the entire animal was used in the sacrificial rituals of the ancient Greeks became the property of the god and, therefore, had to be eaten in his presence. Consuming particular pieces that had been cooked over the same fire delivering the gods' share would entail consuming a bit of the divine power, but this was typically reserved for those who actually performed the ritual.

For most of those participating, the fact that they ate a separate portion from the gods emphasized the distance between them even as it established lines of communication and communion. They were brought together, but in a way that reinforced the fact that they were fundamentally different.

It was however the intrinsically communal and civic nature of the sacrificial ritual that was its most powerful aspect. The Greeks believed that any group of people who broke bread and ate together were therefore linked by a sacred bond. This meant that the sacrificial rituals performed for the gods were also performed for the sake of building community bonds - not only civic bonds amongst the mortals but also sacred bonds between mortals and immortals.

In a sense, the gods were being made a part of the local community and the mortals were being made a part of the divine community. Thus the Greek sacrificial ritual was simultaneously a religious ceremony, a ritualized feast, and a social event reinforcing bonds of social, familial, and political community.

This interdependence of social and religious life points to the interdependence of the religious and social orders of Greek city-states. Participating in the ritual sacrifices was what it meant to participate in the community at all - one simply couldn't be a part of the community without also being a part of these religious ceremonies. They served to teach patterns of behavior, to shape interpersonal relationships, and to reinforce the structure of social order.

Readers familiar with the New Testament debate over whether Christians should abstain from meat used in ritual sacrifices (like Jews insisted) or could participate in such community meals should now have a new insight into that discussion. In light of the above it is more understandable why someone who doesn't believe in the Greek or Roman gods might find participating in the community meal to be problematic: it signals that one is part of a religious community, whether those gods exist or not, and isn't simply a polite meal shared among neighbors.

Allowing for such religious bonds to be established would have been completely unacceptable to Jews, a religious community always trying to maintain its distinct and separate character. Christians, however, were faced with a new option. They wanted to convert people and make them a part of this new religious community, one that transcended normal political and geographic boundaries. Thus, participating in ritual meals that had religious significance in Greek polytheism was a potential option even if it did transgress traditional Jewish laws.

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