Human sacrifice

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Human sacrifices were the greatest possible sacrifices in which people were killed in the context of a religious or other cult because society believed it had to meet the requirements of a deity or magical power in order to ensure its own well-being or continued existence. Ritual killings followed the requirements of the cult with a social routine, while ritual murders in this context were spontaneous reactions to extraordinary tragic events that had occurred or violent actions of one's own with the aim of restoring the original normal state.

Human sacrifices are already documented in prehistoric times and occur in ancient cultures , whereby their meaning was justified in different ways: They can serve a deity as food, meet their demands, react to their "anger", i.e. an emergency, in order to ward off further disaster , ask for a blessing from her or thank the gift with a gift in return.

In a broader sense, killings in other contexts are also occasionally referred to as human sacrifices: for example, loss of life in the course of technical progress . Even pogroms and genocides in secular, not dominated by a religious societies be interpreted as a modern form of human sacrifice.

Types and purposes

The oldest finds of ritually killed people point to coping with an emergency: their sacrifice served other people directly for nourishment ( cannibalism ) or indirectly to restore the attention of a deity from whom one expected remedy of a deficiency. However, it is scientifically controversial whether ritually killed people were also consumed, which would be logical in the sense of the concept of sacrifice.

Human sacrifices were also used to sanctify, deprofanize or consecrate a cult site and / or building. A foundation sacrifice buried at the foot of a wall or under a door threshold (documented in Geser , Megiddo and Taanak) was supposed to protect a previously vacant place from the evil spirits whose domicile was assumed there, to satisfy and resign. The buried family member is said to be a guardian spirit of the house for constant resistance against the demons.

Disasters such as droughts , earthquakes , floods , volcanic eruptions etc. were seen as signs of the anger of the gods. Human sacrifice should allay anger. The Cretans tried to stop the destruction of their island.

Sacrifices at the burial of a ruler or high priest came up with the advanced civilizations. Those killed should be of service to the dead in the hereafter . Mongolian , Scythian, and Central American leaders took most of their housework, including servants and concubines, with them to the afterlife.

Some human sacrifices were used by priests for prophecies of the future from body parts of slain prisoners or slaves. According to Strabo , the Celts killed the victim with the sword and prophesied from the convulsions of death.

People were sacrificed as a ritual fighting game in an allegedly fair fight against a soldier to demonstrate power and superiority.

Prisoners were offered to the people, tribal or war gods as thanksgiving offerings, for example by the Teutons after the Varus Battle .

Origin and Distribution

Ritual human sacrifices are presumably already documented by Paleolithic finds, for example in the form of worked skulls in the context of cultic anthropophagy (eating the (sacrificed) body) during ritual meals. A theoretical, psychoanalytic attempt to explain the occurrence of the first human sacrifice goes hand in hand with the ability of early people to remember traumatic events and to want to process them through ritual repetition and postponement.

In the Neolithic , human sacrifices occurred with a synchronous development of material and spiritual culture, presumably in the context of settlement victims, but they were an exception. The acceptance or rejection of certain finds as explicit evidence of human sacrifice is subject to the respective professional interpretation. Above all, it is certain that bloody human sacrifices cannot be verified until the Bronze Age in the anterior Eurasian region.

Human sacrifice is a frequent motif in Greco-Roman ancient literature. Myths such as the Minotaur , the sacrifice of Iphigenia and the Prometheus myth contain representations such as the bondage, which show references or reflections of archaic models of specific practices in the context of sacrifice.

People were sacrificed by Celts such as Teutons, Slavs and Punic . Since most of the information about this comes from other peoples who replaced the religion of their opponents or forerunners ( Greeks and Romans reported on Celts and Punians, Christians later on Teutons and the Scandinavians), the representations can be polemically exaggerated. One such case is the children's cemetery in Carthage, which was interpreted as a sacrificial cemetery because of the allegations made by Roman authors of human sacrifices. However, this has recently been refuted as a false assumption. This is one of the reasons why reports from strangers about human sacrifices should be viewed critically.

China

It is known for ancient China that young men and women were sacrificed to the river gods there. In the Shang dynasty (1766-1080 BC) dozens of servants and concubines had to follow the kings to the grave. In the late Zhou Dynasty , these customs are no longer documented.

Old Egypt

In ancient Egypt human sacrifice was probably common in the 1st and 2nd Dynasties (approx. 3032–2707 BC). Around the tombs of high officials and kings of that time in Abydos, for example in the necropolis Umm el-Qaab and Saqqara , there were rows of small graves that were built as a unit and probably occupied at the same time. It is assumed that this is the court of the kings and high officials who were buried with them; therefore one speaks of secondary burials . Most of the buried are young men. This custom died out in the middle of the 2nd dynasty at the latest with the burial of King Peribsen (around 2760 BC), whose tomb had no side graves.

Mesopotamia

In Mesopotamia , human sacrifices are attested in the so-called royal tombs of Ur (approx. 2500 BC). In addition to the main tomb, which could belong to a local king, queen or high person, numerous other corpses were found, often arranged in rows and richly decorated with jewelry. They were probably killed by poison. There was a mug with each of them.

Nubia

In Nubia , human sacrifices at burials have been documented with certainty in two periods. In the Kerma culture (until about 1550 BC) a large number of followers were buried with their ruler, hundreds of corpses were found in the royal graves in Kerma . This custom disappeared with the fall of this culture. It is documented again in Ballana and Qustul , in the 4th to 6th centuries AD. Large burial mounds were found in these places, some of which belonged to sub-Nubian kings. Here, too, there was the custom of co-burying followers.

Europe

Prehistory and early history

There are references to human sacrifices in various cult buildings in Europe. In the Goseck district ditch , human bones with meat scraped off were found, and there were also finds in Stonehenge that indicate human sacrifices. In his book “Menschenopfer” Michael M. Rind lists sites from all prehistoric periods in Europe, to which he refers through archaeological evidence.

Greco-Roman antiquity

The ancient Greeks practiced human sacrifice; there are references to sacrifices on the occasion of Kronia (harvest celebrations of Kronos ) and of virgins for Artemis . A form of human sacrifice that was widespread in the whole of Greece was also the pharmakòs . A prominent victim in Greek mythology was Iphigenia , the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra , who was saved by Artemis. Another such myth is about Polyxena , who was sacrificed by Neoptolemus , whereupon the Greek fleet received a favorable wind from the gods after the conquest and destruction of Troy.

According to Roman sources, the Phoenicians and Carthaginians sacrificed children to their gods. The Romans practiced various forms of human sacrifice in the first few centuries; from the Etruscans (according to other sources the Sabellians ) the form of the gladiator fight is handed down, whereby the victims were slain in a ritual fight. During the early republic, criminals, perjurers or deceivers were solemnly "left to the gods" (literally the later curse formula " anathema "), that is, executed as human victims. Prisoners of war and Vestals were sacrificed to the Manen and buried alive for the Dei Inferi (the gods of the underworld) . Archaeologists have found the remains of human sacrifices in the foundations. Until the 2nd century AD, the Romans mainly cremated their dead.

However, the Romans changed their religious practice over time. According to Pliny , human sacrifices were made by a senate resolution in 97 BC. Abolished. Most of the rituals were transformed into animal sacrifices such as the taurobolium or only performed symbolically. Later, a Roman had the opportunity to bury a similar statue in his place to thank the gods for a victory. Cicero describes a sacrifice of statuettes of gods in the vestal ritual, which could originally have been a sacrifice by old men. As the Roman Empire expanded, the Romans stopped human sacrifice and declared it barbaric.

In the Princely days , human sacrifices were forbidden under Roman law, but there are indications that they continued to be practiced in secret. Lukian of Samosata reported in the 2nd century AD in Hierapolis , the Syrian cult center of the goddess Atargatis , about cases of child sacrifice. These were obviously illegal, as the sacrificed children were put in sacks, given out for oxen and then transported away. At the same time, Philo of Byblos told us that it was the custom among the ancients to hand over the ruler's most beloved child as a sacrifice in the event of a great emergency before an impending war. At least the tradition of human sacrifice was still alive in the consciousness of the population.

Celts

According to Roman sources, the custom of human sacrifice was widespread among the Celts . Gaius Iulius Caesar reports that the Gauls filled baskets with living people in order to burn them in them ( wicker man ). How much of it is propaganda by a general against the enemy of the war can no longer be judged today. The druids had to supervise the sacrifice. During the uprising against the Roman occupation, the Queen of the Iceni Boudicca had Roman prisoners nailed to stakes as sacrifices for the gods.

Different gods made different sacrifices. The sacrifices for Esus were hanged, those burned for Taranis , and those for Teutates drowned. Celts and Teutons sometimes chose a moor as a place of sacrifice. Examples of this are bog bodies like the Lindow man in Great Britain or the Grauballe man in Denmark. In the case of the former, voluntary acceptance of the sacrifice is presumed. There is evidence in Irish mythology that killing an individual could conform to these rules in several ways.

Germanic peoples

Human sacrifices have been documented in writing for the Germanic peoples and cultures since historical times (early imperial and late antique historians), such as the sacrifice of a slave in the Nerthus cult , as described by Tacitus. The archaeological findings show that, statistically speaking, human sacrifice was very rarely practiced. For the bog corpses found in northern Germany and Denmark , which are associated with human sacrifice, only a small part of the approximately 500 finds definitely point to the cultic background. In most cases, research sees a magical, apotropaic background in these body finds from moors . In connection with human sacrifice, a conditional cultic cannibalism has been proven, which also shows the animistic traits of the Germanic religion.

Old America

Some of the most well-known forms of human sacrifice are believed to have been practiced during various pre-Columbian cultures of Central America and South America . These sacrifices are not only documented in the contemporary chronicles of the Spaniards, but also in countless pictorial representations of the individual cultures, in which the sacrificial practices are sometimes shown in detail.

There are no scientific doubts about the authenticity of these representations and the human sacrifices themselves, especially since they have now been confirmed by archaeological findings. Their manner and function are, however, controversial in research.

Central America

Codex Tudela, sacrifice of prisoners to the gods.

According to contemporary reports, human sacrifice developed into an unusually richly developed ritual in the Aztecs' cult of sacrifice, which has now largely been archaeologically proven . Every year 10,000 to 20,000 prisoners are said to have been sacrificed by the Aztecs . Huitzilopochtli is said to have made a human sacrifice every day to support the sun when it rose. According to the Aztec belief, if Huitzilopochtli was not sacrificed, the world would be destroyed.

Offerings for Huitzilopochtli are said to have taken place as follows: The sacrifice was stretched out by four priests on a high stone block. A fifth priest opened the victim's chest with a quick cut of a stone knife below the ribs. The beating heart was torn out, held up to the sun and then burned in the eagle's shell . The images of the gods were then soaked in the blood. The consecration of the Great Temple in Tenochtitlán is said to have been accompanied by the sacrifice of thousands of people. The victims for Xipe Totec are said to have been tied to a pole and pierced with arrows. Then the skin is said to have been removed from them, which was then worn by the priest for 20 days. The mother earth Teteoinann demanded the molting of female victims.

According to Spanish sources, the original form of the Aztec game ulama included the subsequent sacrifice of the entire losing team, according to another reading of the winning team. The Aztecs waged so-called flower wars to take prisoners who served as material for human sacrifices. It has also been reported several times that captured conquistadores were sacrificed during the Spanish Wars of Conquest in Mexico . This has since been confirmed archaeologically. The remains of around 400 people were found in Zultepec . Most of them originally belonged to the Pánfilo de Narváez train and had come to Mexico with him. Around 550 people were captured by the warriors from Texcoco , taken to Zultepec, sacrificed there over several months and some of them eaten.

The Aztecs are said to have killed noble victims at times in ritual combat: the victim, who only wore a loincloth and was chained to the ground, was given a weapon and a shield and then had to fight an armored jaguar warrior until his death . In the ancient Totonac -Stätte El Tajin games should also have been organized in which the leader of the losing team was beheaded.

The Maya sacrificed human beings before wars, droughts and famine. These sacrifices are also documented by corresponding skeletal finds in so-called cenotes (sacrificial wells) and in traditions. According to Indian legends, when a Mayan temple was consecrated, several thousand people were tied into a "ball" and pushed down the temple stairs.

South America

In South America, especially in the former Inca domain , tied bundles with human remains (often children) are found in caves and in glacier regions that can be interpreted as human sacrifices. One of the best preserved human sacrifices is the mummy called " Juanita " of a girl, which was found near Arequipa , Peru . Human sacrifice has also been proven for the Moche culture .

North America

The Skidi-Pawnee occasionally sacrificed a girl from another tribe to ensure the fertility of their fields.

In Cahokia , the main center of the Mississippi culture , around 280 corpses were found in a burial mound, which probably died at the same time, i.e. were probably sacrificed.

Oceania

In large areas of the Pacific region ( Melanesia , Micronesia and Polynesia ) human sacrifice used to be widespread.

Polynesia

For Hawaii , human sacrifice has been proven. The victims were mostly killed in ceremonial places ( marae ), where their meat was left to rot on altars. Some of the victims were killed outside the temple beforehand. Before they were killed, their eyes were torn out and their penis might have been cut off.

Ancient Judaism

In contrast to the surrounding ancient oriental religions, human sacrifices were forbidden in the Tanach in earlier times. The sacrifice of Jephtha's daughter is recorded in Judges 11. The sacrifice of the firstborn had to be triggered by an animal sacrifice. This is behind the originally independent narrative of the near sacrifice of Isaac (Gen. 22). In terms of religious history, the Jewish religion has abolished human sacrifice and replaced it with a pars-pro-toto sacrifice, circumcision . This was the result of a lengthy theological debate with older Canaanite and early Israelite human sacrifice cults.

Construction or foundation sacrifices

1 Kings 16:34  EU : ... at the price of his firstborn Abiram he laid the foundations, and at the price of his youngest son Segub he set up the gates. The sacrifice of his own sons, which a Hiel from Bethel paidhereas a price for the rebuilding of the Canaanite city of Jericho , was presumably intended to please the gods who previously lived there. It is also possible that he turned this secular place into a sacred place of worship. Because Bethel was an old northern Israeli, probably previously Canaanite sanctuary: the name means house Els , and this theophoric name denotedthe highest godin the Ugaritic pantheon .

Jericho's reconstruction was considered a return to Canaanite conditions and was therefore subject to a severe curse of YHWH in the book of Joshua ( Jos 6:26  EU ). The sacrifice of Hiel's sons was not interpreted as God's very own will, but rather as a just punishment for breaking his prohibition. In the context, Hiel's deed appears as an unmatched increase in idolatry, because it follows the summary criticism of King Ahab's syncretistic religious policy and precedes the story of Elijah , who radically fought against the mixing of belief in YHWH with the cult of the Canaanite god of fertility, Baal ( 1 Kings 17ff  EU ).

Firstborn sacrifice

The Torah several times (Ex 13.2.12f; 22.28f; 34.19f; Num 3.1ff; 18.15; Dtn 15.19) calls for the first birth of humans and animals as a gift for YHWH . The commandments make it unmistakably clear that, unlike the animals, the first sons were not allowed to be sacrificed, but had to be replaced (triggered) by an animal sacrifice. The firstborn must be released by Pidjon ha-Ben ("release of the son") against a descendant of a priest ( Kohen ). Anyone who sacrificed people nonetheless was threatened with the death penalty (Lev 20.2; Dtn 18.10 and others). If kings like Ahaz (2 Kings 16: 3) and Manasseh (2 Kings 21: 6) continued to follow the old cults, they violated this commandment and drew the wrath of YHWH communicated through the prophets . They saw human sacrifice as a typical sign of the worship of foreign gods such as Moloch and Baal :

Jer 3:24  EU : But since our youth the Baal ate everything that our fathers acquired, their sheep and cattle, their sons and daughters.
Ps 106,37ff  EU : They brought their sons and daughters as sacrifices for the demons. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.

According to biblical history, the sacrifice of the first sons was common around Israel:

2 Kings 3:27  EU : So he [the king of Moab ] took his firstborn son, who was to become king after him, and offered him a burnt offering on the wall.
2 Sam 21,9  EU : He delivered them up to the Gibeonites , who executed them on the mountain before the face of the Lord.

The following story shows that these customs also influenced individual tribes of the Israelites in pre-state times:

Ri 11.30  EU : Jephthah put the Lord a vow and said, you give the Ammonites into my hand, so should anything towards me going out of my front door when I return in peace from the Ammonites, YHWH belong, and I want it to offer as a burnt offering.

After the victory, his daughter, the only child, came towards him, so that he sacrificed her after two months of grace she had requested. That is why the “daughters of Israel” go to the mountains for four days every year to mourn Jephtah's daughter. The passage suggests that a human sacrifice in thanks for victory and redemption of a vow was possible in Israel's early days. However, it does not say in the text that YHWH demanded this vow, only therefore gave the victory and therefore had a right to its redemption. Rather, there is apparently a special tradition of the Gileadites - Jephtah's place of origin - who explain a custom that is nowhere else proven to be all-Israelite.

Jeremiah fought the sacrifice of the firstborn, which some Jerusalemites had apparently taken over from the Canaanites who previously lived there, as idolatry and a serious violation of God's commandments:

Jer 7,31  EU : They also built the cult height of the Tofet in the Ben-Hinnom valley to burn their sons and daughters in fire, which I never commanded and which never crossed my mind.

In contrast to the first book of the Kings, the prophet Baal does not name Moloch as the god demanding such sacrifices (Jer 19,5; 32,35), Ez 16,20, on the other hand, speaks generally of idols. It is therefore uncertain to whom God such sacrifices were made and whether this was still practiced in Jeremiah's time (cf. Isa 57: 5).

Christianity

Sacrifice of Isaac

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is interpreted in many ways in the New Testament. Juridic language, which comes from the prophecy of Israel, which is critical of cults, is on an equal footing with cultic language based on the Israelite temple cult . Some examples:

  • Includes an interpretation of the death of Jesus in the tradition of human sacrifice
Mk 10.45  EU : For the Son of Man did not come to be served either, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
  • Early Creed formulas in Paul's letters and Jesus' oral speech in the Gospels speak of the giving of Jesus through God, which he voluntarily adopted.
  • Johannine theology describes Jesus as the Passover lamb , whose blood saved all people from the Last Judgment .
  • The letter to the Hebrews describes Jesus as the high priest, who, following the example of Melchizedek, is holy and blameless, so that his self-sacrifice could redeem the world once and for all.

Christians believe, following the New Testament , that the self-sacrifice of the Son of God has made all human and animal sacrifices superfluous for God. Since Anselm von Canterbury's doctrine of satisfaction, Christian theology has tried to bring New Testament diversity into a common system. In modern theology, however, notions of atonement , which God needs to satisfy His anger, are mostly rejected.

The Reformed theologian Karl Barth replaced the concept of atonement with the concept of reconciliation . Jesus' substitute assumption of guilt is interpreted as the deepest justification of human rights and the beginning of the eschatological liberation from nothingness (Barth's term for sin ). The universal reconciliation is considered as a possibility.

Modern times and the present

Reports of human sacrifice

Human sacrifice is no longer officially tolerated in any country; rather, they are punished as murder . There remain reports and narratives that are difficult to verify about isolated human sacrifices by some mostly traditional religious communities:

Substitute acts

Burning Judas in the Easter fire with a human-sized straw doll

There is no longer any religious human sacrifice in western cultures. Today's occultists do not consider human sacrifice necessary or at best practice it symbolically. This circumvention of the human sacrifice is part of the humanization in many religions. Their rites can be interpreted as substitute acts for former cannibalism or sacrifice of the firstborn and are still practiced today:

See also

literature

  • Miranda Aldhouse Green: Human Sacrifice - Ritual Murder from the Iron Age to the End of Antiquity Magnus Essen 2003 ISBN = 3-88400-009-8
  • Hans Bonnet: Human Sacrifice. In: Lexikon der Ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte , Hamburg 2000 ISBN 3-937872-08-6 pp. 452–455.
  • Walter Burkert : Homo necans: Interpretations of ancient Greek sacrificial rites and myths , de Gruyter, 2nd edition 1997, ISBN 3-11-015098-0 .
  • Nigel Davies: Sacrificial Death and Human Sacrifice . Ullstein TB, 1986, ISBN 3-548-32059-7 .
  • Miranda Aldhouse Green: Human Sacrifice . Ritual murder from the Iron Age to the end of antiquity 2003. Magnus, Essen 2003, ISBN 3-88400-009-8 .
  • Gunnar Heinsohn : The creation of the gods - The sacrifice as the origin of religion. Rowohlt 1997, ISBN 3-498-02937-1 .
  • Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto : Human sacrifice. In: Small Lexicon of Egyptology. Harrassowitz Verlag Wiesbaden, 1999 ISBN 3-447-04027-0 p. 186 f.
  • Garry Hogg: Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice. Robert Hale Ltd, 1990, ISBN 0-7090-4243-4 (English).
  • Michael Ley: Holocaust as human sacrifice. 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6408-1 .
  • Hyam Maccoby : The Holy Executioner. The human sacrifice as a legacy of guilt. Thorbeke 1999, ISBN 3-7995-0096-0 .
  • Mark Pizzato: Theaters of Human Sacrifice. From Ancient Ritual to Screen Violence. State University of New York Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7914-6259-5 (English).
  • Michael Rind : human sacrifice. From the cult of cruelty. University Press Regensburg. 2nd edition 1998, ISBN 3-930480-64-6 (small overview).
  • Dirk Steueragel : Human sacrifice and murder at the altar. Greek myths in Etruscan tombs. Reichert, 1998, ISBN 3-89500-051-5 .
  • Patrick Tierney: In honor of the gods. Human sacrifice in the Andes. Dromer Knaur, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-426-26440-4 .
  • Katja Triplett: Human sacrifice and self-sacrifice in Japanese legends. The Frankfurt manuscript of the Matsura Sayohime legend. Lit, 2005, ISBN 3-8258-7990-9 .
  • Paul Volz: The biblical antiquities , Komet Verlag Cologne 1914, ISBN 3-89836-316-3 .
  • Franz Wegener: Celts, Witches, Holocaust. Human sacrifice in Germany. Kulturförderverlag Ruhrgebiet, 2004, ISBN 3-931300-14-5 .
  • Peter Hassler: Human sacrifice among the Aztecs? A source and ideology critical study. Bern: Lang, 1992, ISBN 3-261-04587-6 .

Web links

Commons : Human Sacrifice  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Human sacrifice  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Single receipts

  1. ^ Donald G. Kyle: Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome. Routledge, London 1998, p. 36.
  2. ↑ in Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno: Dialektik der Aufklerung. Philosophical Fragments. Querido, Amsterdam (1st edition 1947), p. 199/201.
  3. ↑ Ina Wunn: The religions in prehistoric times. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-17-016726-X . Pp. 87, 162.
  4. ↑ Christian Türcke: Philosophy of Dream. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57637-9 .
  5. ^ Wunn: pp. 325, 326, 328f.
  6. ↑ Zeiten.de
  7. ^ JH Schwartz, F. Houghton, R. Macchiarelli, L. Bondioli, Skeletal Remains from Punic Carthage Do Not Support Systematic Sacrifice of Infants. In: PLOS ONE 5, No. 2, 2010, p. E9177. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0009177 .
  8. ^ Robert L. Thorp: China in the Early Bronze Age: Shang Civilization (Encounters with Asia), University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8122-3910-5 .
  9. ↑ D. Wengrow: The Archeology of Early Egypt. Cambridge 2006, pp. 246-47, ISBN 0-521-54374-6 .
  10. ↑ Thomas Kühn: The royal tombs of the 1st and 2nd dynasties in Abydos. In: Kemet. Issue 1, 2008.
  11. ^ R. Fischer: The black pharaohs , Bergisch Gladbach 1986, pp. 23-24, ISBN 3-88199-303-7 .
  12. ↑ R. Fischer: The black pharaohs. Bergisch Gladbach 1986, p. 235, ISBN 3-88199-303-7 .
  13. ^ Human sacrifices in Europe's oldest solar observatory FAZ from August 8, 2003.
  14. ↑ Rodney Castleden: The Stonehenge people: an exploration of life in neolithic Britain, 4700 - 2000 BC 1987 pp. 204, 235 f.
  15. ↑ Porphyrios , De abstinentia 2.53, after Dennis D. Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece , Routledge, London - New York 1991, p. 123.
  16. ↑ a b Michael Grant, John Harel; Lexicon of ancient myths and figures , CH Beck, Nördlingen 1973, ISBN 3-423-03181-6 .
  17. ↑ Andreas Feldtkeller : In the realm of the Syrian goddess. A religiously plural culture as the environment of early Christianity. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 1994, pp. 189, 245.
  18. ↑ Günter Behm-Blancke : Cult and Ideology. In: B. Krüger: The Germanic peoples. Volume 1. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1983. P. 363ff. Rudolf Simek: Religion and Mythology of the Teutons. P. 42 ff.
  19. ↑ Der Spiegel 22/26. May 2003: Cult of the dead on the Feuerberg. Why did the Aztecs skinned people and sacrificed children?
  20. ↑ Bernal Díaz del Castillo: True History of the Conquest of Mexico. 1988, p. 261.
  21. ↑ America's mysterious megacity, part 2 . Der Spiegel , May 6, 2008
  22. ↑ Ina Wunn: Naturreligionen , in Peter Antes (Ed.): We believe in it - diversity of religions. Completely revised new edition, Lutherisches Verlagshaus, Hanover 2012, ISBN 978-3-7859-1087-0 . P. 281.
  23. ↑ Werner H. Schmidt: Old Testament Faith in its History . Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982, p. 136
  24. ↑ Gunnar Heinsohn : The creation of the gods. The sacrifice as the origin of religion. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1997, p. 150f.
  25. ↑ Wolfgang Palaver : René Girard's mimetic theory in the context of cultural-theoretical and socio-political questions . In: Contributions to the mimetic theory . 3. Edition. tape 6 . Lit-Verlag, Vienna / Berlin / Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-3451-7 , p. 230 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed August 8, 2011]).
  26. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung ( Memento of the original from April 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sueddeutsche.de