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Blood sacrifice, the ritual slaughter of animals, has been basic to religion through history, so that it survives in spiritualized form even in Christianity. How did this violent phenomenon achieve the status of the sacred? This question is examined in Walter Burkert's famous study.

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Only homo necans can become Homo sapiens        Rating:

Walter Burkert analyzes human behaviour, religion, rituals, sacrifices and myths from a fundamental biological viewpoint of intraspecies aggression and violence.

Human behaviour
Man's biological evolution was accomplished during the age of the hunter. His terrifying violence is a derivation of the behaviour of the predatory animal. `A male community is biologically analogous to a pack of wolves.' The only groups able to assert themselves were those held together by collective killing in the hunt and by an inviolable social order.
Human aggression and violence have marked the progress of our civilization. One can even say that `all orders and forms of authority in human society are founded on institutional violence.'

Religion
Religion is a stabilizing factor of the first order in society. But, blood and violence lurk fascinatingly at its very heart. Christianity is confronted with murder at its very core.
In ancient times, the sacred act done at the sacred place by the consecrating actor consisted in slaughtering sacrificial animals. The act of piety is `bloodshed, slaughter and eating.'

Rituals
Sacrificial rituals were all about encountering death and affirmed life (food). `The gruesome evil at work in the rituals fulfilled a function, i.e., to preserve a social structure over the course of generations.' The bull to be slaughtered reflects the ancestral king or the universal father; a young animal, a child or a maiden.

Myths
Myths frequently explain and justify social orders and establishments. Their most exciting themes come from the realm of sexuality and aggression, the perils of death and destruction. They have their counterpart in sacrificial killings.

Eleusis
The Korè myth describes the sacrifice of a maiden transformed in agrarian terms. It is a description of the agricultural cycle. The Korè is the grain that must go under earth so that, from this seeming death, the new fruit can appear. `Hunger threatens when the Korè disappears, but to the delight of gods and men, she returns, and with her blessing of grain from Demeter.'

Based on an enormous amount of bibliographical material, Walter Burkert delved deeply into and exposes the hidden meaning and functions of ancient, sometimes secret, rites. He unmasks the dark side of man and human civilization.
This book is a must read for all Greek scholars and for all those interested in the history of mankind.

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