Hecatomb

A hecatomb ( ancient Greek ἑκατόμβη hekatómbê ) was a great sacrifice of 100 cattle in ancient Greece . The term developed from the originally general term for any richer animal sacrifice. The number and nature of the sacrifices were determined according to the circumstances of the offering, the deity to which it was consecrated and the place or festival at which it was offered.

The word hekatombe is derived in ancient folk etymology from ancient Greek ἑκατ Einν hekatón ("one hundred "). Hesychios of Alexandria knew three types of the hecatomb: the one hundred cattle sacrifice , the three sacrifice and a sacrifice made up of different animal species. The so-called Molpoi inscription from Miletus in the 5th century BC also knows for an unspecified triple sacrifice . The term. Eustathios of Thessalonike traced the term back to the epithet of Apollo Hekatos .

Homer has already named a victim of twelve bulls, lambs, sheep and goats - Pindar even of donkeys - a hecatomb. Larger cattle sacrifices were especially common in the cults of Zeus and Hera and at large festivals also served as meat donations to the people. The month in which the hecatombs were preferably offered was the first month of the Attic year (from July 16 to August 13) and was called Hecatombaion .

The emperor Julian , who distinguished himself through animal sacrifice, was no longer satisfied with the simple hecatomb, but counted among other things 100 lions and 100 eagles as an "imperial sacrifice" and called this a hecatomb. It was customary to erect lawn altars in the open air and slaughter an animal on each one.

In a figurative sense, in modern times one speaks of a hecatomb even with a staggering number of people who have fallen victim to an accident, a massacre or the like.

literature

• Steffen Diefenbach : Hecatomb. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01470-3 , Sp. 994-1003.
• Dolores Hegyi: Hecatomb. In: Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. Volume 43, 2003, pp. 307-309 ( PDF ).
• Paul Stengel : Ἑκατόμβη. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII, 2, Stuttgart 1912, Col. 2786 f.

Web links

Wiktionary: Hekatombe  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Scholion to Aristophanes , Der Reichtum 819.
2. ↑ Hesychios sv ἑκατόμβη .
3. ↑ SEG 36.1050.
4. ↑ Eustathios, Commentary on Iliad 1.79.
5. ^ Hekatombe in the digital dictionary of the German language .