Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Hecatomb
Homer, Iliad Book One. Edited with an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary by Simon Pulleyn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 143 (on line 65):
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ἑκατόμβη Has been the subject of much discussion. It is normally assumed that it referred to a sacrifice of 100 oxen (ἑκατὸν βοῦς) but then lost its specificity with regard both to number and to species. At 1.315-16, it denotes sheep and goats, and elsewhere in the poem it can refer to fifty animals (23.146-8) or even just twelve (6.93 vs. 6.115). Thieme has argued (SBLeipzig 98:5 (1952), 62-76) that the word originally meant an act designed to win the favour of the gods so as to bring in 100 oxen. Whilst this might seem outlandish, there are persuasive parallels in Indic sources, to say nothing of the fact that a sacrifice of 100 oxen in an archaic farming community would probably have spelled economic ruin.See Paul Thieme, Studien zur indogermanischen Wortkunde und Religionsgeschichte (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1952), pp. 62-76 ("Hekatombe"), and Jaan Puhvel, "The Meaning of Greek Βουκάτιος," Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 79.1/2 (1964) 7-10 (at 8-9).
