Iliad XV – Book XXIII - Human Sacrifices in Honor of Patroclos.

            Achilles cuts the throat of a young Trojan prisoner with his knife. One of the earliest incidents of human sacrifice in Greek literature appears in the Iliad, in the famous passages on the sacrifice of the twelve young Trojans whom Achilles captured at the river Xanthos. This dramatic event takes place near the pyre prepared by Achilles for the funeral rites in honor of Patroclos whose floating shadow appears above the scene of the sacrifice.

ἐννέα τῷ γε ἄνακτι τραπεζῆες κύνες ἦσαν,
καὶ μὲν τῶν ἐνέβαλλε πυρῇ δύο δειροτομήσας,
δώδεκα δὲ Τρώων μεγαθύμων υἱέας ἐσθλοὺς       175
χαλκῷ δηϊόων: κακὰ δὲ φρεσὶ μήδετο ἔργα:
ἐν δὲ πυρὸς μένος ἧκε σιδήρεον ὄφρα νέμοιτο.
(XXIII, 173 – 177)

“Nine dogs had the prince, that fed beneath his table, and of these did Achilles cut the throats of twain, and cast them upon the pyre. And twelve valiant sons of the great-souled Trojans slew he with the bronze—and grim was the work he purposed in his heart and thereto he set the iron might of fire, to range at large.” (Translation, Samuel Butler @ Perseus.edu)

The twenty-third book of the Iliad is a bloody and tearful book.

δεύοντο ψάμαθοι, δεύοντο δὲ τεύχεα φωτῶν       15
δάκρυσι: τοῖον γὰρ πόθεον μήστωρα φόβοιο.
(XXIII, 15 -16)

“The sands of the seashore and the men's armor were wet with their weeping, so great a minister of fear was he whom they had lost.” (Translation, Samuel Butler  @ Perseus.edu)

The first verse of the book introduces the weeping of the Trojans for Hector's death, but the attention shifts immediately to the mourning of the Mirmidonians to whom the goddess Thetis inspires emotion in memory of Patroclos.
“Thus did they make their moan throughout the city, while the Achaeans when they reached the Hellespont went back every man to his own ship. But Achilles would not let the Myrmidons go, and spoke to his brave comrades saying, "Myrmidons, famed horsemen and my own trusted friends, not yet, I say, let us unyoke, but with horse and chariot draw near to the body and mourn Patroklos, in due honor to the dead. When we have had full comfort of lamentation we will unyoke our horses and take supper all of us here." On this they all joined in a cry of wailing and Achilles led them in their lament. Thrice did they drive their chariots all sorrowing round the body, and Thetis stirred within them a still deeper yearning.”
But near the corpse of the dead hero, the blood of the funerary sacrifices in honor of Patroclos flows, including that of twelve noble Trojan prisoners.

Faliscan red figure stamnos
Height 37,8 cm
4th century BC
From Sovana, Grosseto, Italy
Berlin, Altes Museum – V.I. 5925

   

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Taken on: March 2, 2016

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