Is there now proof the ancient Greeks DID practice human sacrifice?
Posted On: Sep 28th, 2016 at 12:47
Greece
It’s been long debated whether the ancient Greeks practiced human sacrifice or not. The later Romans certainly did, and so did many others, including the ancient Israelites and Mesoamerican cultures in central and south America.
No proof, however, has ever come forward about the ancient Greeks and sacrificial rituals involving humans. Sure, animal sacrifice was a given, and despite many writers stating it occurred, including Plato, there has never been any evidence of human sacrifice.
Now there could be a smoking gun.
On the slopes of Mount Lykaoin in the Peloponnese, south-west Greece – the birthplace of the earliest Greek cultures, like the Mycenaeans – a body of a teenage boy has been found, exactly where the ancient writers said the sacrifices took place. Animals were sacrificed on the mountain to appease the prominent Greek god Zeus, and the writers also said that human sacrifice took place there.
Despite the cautious – and rightly so – scepticism by many, the fact a body of a teenager has been found exactly near a sacrificial altar could finally be the proof of human sacrifice. Hopefully tests will prove one way or the other.
Personally, I would not be surprised to find human sacrifice among the ancient Greeks, especially since their gods could be considered the most “powerful” of all ancient deities. It’s also rather strange that so many unconnected cultures on different continents practised human sacrifice. It does beg the question of whether or not all of these cultures had a common origin, or at least had contact with one another. I do not doubt either of those propositions, and I think in this case it is likely that the Romans were influenced by Greek culture in more ways than we might imagine.
