KADLETZ, EDWARD, The Sacrifice of Eumaios the Pig Herder , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:2 (1984) p.99 The Sacrifice of Eumaios the Pig Herder Edward Kadletz SEVERAL FAMOUS SCENES of animal sacrifice are found in the Homeric poems. At II. 1.447-74 the Achaean nobles propitiate Apollo with the offering of a hecatomb. At II. 2.402-31 Aga­ memnon sacrifices an ox to Zeus. And at Od. 3.417-72 Nestor slaughters a cow in honor of Athena. These scenes have been care­ fully examined by several scholars and form the basis for the descrip­ tions of animal sacrifice found in general works on the subjecU There are, however, a few descriptions of seemingly anomalous offer­ ings which are often passed over too cursorily by scholars dealing with Homeric sacrifice. I propose in this paper to examine one such sacrifice, the offering made by Eumaios the pig herder at Od. 14.414- 56. It will become quite clear that Eumaios' offering is different in several important ways from the sacrifices just cited. In order to honor his guest, the beggar who is in reality the dis­ guised Odysseus, Eumaios sacrifices a fat five-year-old pig. Eumaios himself describes the pig as his best. The men bring in the pig and stand it near the hearth. Eumaios does not forget the immortals, for he has a noble spirit. He removes some hairs from the animal's forehead, tosses them into the fire, and prays to all the gods for Odysseus' return. The cutting of the hair is characterized with the word a:rrapX0!-'EvOC; (422). Eumaios then knocks the beast uncon­ scious with a piece of wood he had left lying by. They slit the pig's throat, singe off its bristles, and cut it into joints. The swineherd places pieces of raw meat into fat) taking a bit from every limb of the pig (1TavTCvv apX0!-'EvOC; !-'EAEWV, 428), and throws them into the fire while sprinkling ground barley over it all. The rest of the meat is cut up, spitted, and roasted. It is then removed from the spits and tossed onto a table. Eumaios divides the meat into seven portions, for he knows what is proper. He places a portion aside, with a prayer, for Hermes and the nymphs, and then gives each man his due portion. Odysseus gets the chine, a choice piece. He thanks Eumaios, who 1 Paul Stengel, Die griechischen Kultusaltertiimer3 (Munich 1920) 108-15; Jean Rud­ hardt, Notions fondamentales de la pensee religieuse et actes constitutifs du culte dans la Grece c1assique (Geneva 1958) 253-57. 99 KADLETZ, EDWARD, The Sacrifice of Eumaios the Pig Herder , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:2 (1984) p.99 100 THE SACRIFICE OF EUMAIOS answers that everything is in the hands of god. Eumaios then sacri­ fices the ap'Yf.WTa, whatever they might be, to the immortal gods and, having poured a libation, passes the wine to Odysseus. Everyone eats and finally retires to bed with hunger and thirst assuaged. There are a few points in this description that require closer exam­ ination. Eumaios dedicates the hairs of the victim and prays for Odys­ seus' return to all the gods (miO"t 9EO'iO"t, 423). He sacrifices the ap'Y­ f.WTa to the immortal gods (9Eo'ir; aiEt'YEveT{1O"t, 446). Yet he sets a special portion of the cooked meat aside for the nymphs and Hermes (435). The first question, then, is: to whom is this sacrifice dedicated, Hermes and the nymphs or the gods in general? But before this question can be answered, the exact meaning of three words must be determined: ap'Yf.WTa and 9VO"E in 446, o"1TElnar; in 447. The word ap'Yf.WTa derives from apxw and is generally equated with a1T(xP'Yf.WTa and a1Tapxai and translated as 'firstlings' or 'first fruits'.2 This is all very well, but it does not tell us with any precision what the ap'Yf.WTa are in this passage. At first glance it might seem best to identify them either with the hairs of the victim, because their removal is described with the similar word a1Tapx0j.tEvor; (422), or with the raw meat enveloped in fat which is also associated with a similar word apxoj.tEvor; (428). But neither identification is possible. The hairs are burned at line 422 and the meat at line 429. Yet line 446 clearly states that the ap'Yf.WTa are sacrificed after the conversa­ tion between Eumaios and Odysseus and therefore much after the burning of those other 'firstlings'. Modern commentators have not been very helpful in elucidating this passage. Stengel mentions it several times, but in a rather con­ fusing way. In his Op/erbriiuche, for example, he argues at several points that a1Tapxai and a1T(xp'Yf.WTa are first fruit offerings without referring to ap'Yf.WTa or the Eumaios passage.3 Twice (64f, 179) he discusses our passage, but in neither place does he consider the ap'Y­ f.WTa or what was done with them. In the third edition of his Kultus­ altertilmer he defines the ap'Yf.WTa as the pieces of the victim re­ served for the deity and seems to equate them with both the raw pieces of meat wrapped in fat and the portion set aside for the nymphs and Hermes.4 As I have just argued, the ap'Yf.WTa could not include the already burned pieces of meat wrapped in fat. 2 H. Frisk, Griechisches etymologisches Worterbuch I (Heidelberg 1960) s. v. apxw; E. Schwyzer, Griechische Grammatik I (Munich 1953) s. v. ap'YJ.W.. 3 P. Stengel, Opferbriiuche der Griechen (Leipzig/Berlin 1910) 26, 44 with n.2, 46 n.4, 57-58. 4 Supra n.1: 113 with n.4, 114. KADLETZ, EDWARD, The Sacrifice of Eumaios the Pig Herder , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:2 (1984) p.99 EDWARD KADLETZ 101 Nilsson's comments are also ambiguous (GGR J3 146): "Teile des Fleisches werden in der Fetthaut, einige mit Mehl bestreut ins Feuer gelegt, andere auf Spiessen gebraten. Darauf wird alles auf den Tisch gebreitet . .. " If he means to say that all the meat, that from the spits and that rolled in fat and placed on the fire, was laid on the table, he is clearly wrong. The words that Homer uses to describe the meat wrapped in fat (WJ.,W6ET€LTO, 7TClvTwv apXO/-LEVOC; /-LEAEWV) clearly refer to sacrifice, not to cooking.5 The only meat put on the table was that which had been cooked on spits. Beyond this, Nilsson says noth­ ing about ap'YI-W-Ta. Walter Arend has taken the ap'YI-W-Ta to be the portion of meat set aside for Hermes and the nymphs.6 He also, however, remarks on the singularity of making two offerings during one sacrifice, especially since one offering comprises cooked meat. I would further remark on the singularity of burning to the immortal gods as a group the portion previously reserved only for the nymphs and Hermes. If these singularities should lead us to doubt the identification of the ap'YI-W-Ta with this portion of cooked meat, what else could the ap'YI-W-Ta be? Before I suggest a new possibility, we must examine the verb at line 446, 6VCTE. According to LSJ s. V., 6Vw, in Homer, denotes the offering, by burning, of some food product to the gods. A further refinement is added to this definition by Jean Casabona in his study of words relating to sacrifice:7 "Chez Homere, 6vw ... s'agit toujours de nour­ riture solide, apte a combustion, mais de toute nature: viande, fro­ mage, farine, etc." My only argument with this definition is its limit­ ing of objects of 6vw to solid food. It seems to me that in book fif­ teen of the Odyssey, for example, 6vw is used with a liquid offering. Homer is describing the first meeting between Telemachos and Theoklymenos. Theoklymenos comes upon the son of Odysseus as he is praying and sacrificing to Athena. The sacrifice is characterized by Homer with the verb 6vw. Thus at 15.222 we read: ..q TOI. 0 /-LEV Ta 1TOVELTO Kai EVXETO, 6VE B' 'A6rJVYI' At 260 the same verb is used again: w cptA', e1TEL (J'E 6vovTa Kl,xaVW Tc!)B' ev" xwp~. At 258, how­ ever, a different verb is used to define Telemachos' action: (J'1TEV­ BOVT' EVXO/-LEVOV TE 60fj 1Tapa v,."i /-LEAaivYI' Homer here uses (J'1TEV­ Bw for the action described with 6vw in the two other lines. In the 5 Stengel (supra n.3) 74-75 (Wj.LOeeTel.To), 57-58 (apxo~evo~). 6 W. Arend, Die typischen Szenen bei Homer (Problemata 7 [1933]) 67; his reference in n.2 should read KA, not Opferbr. 7 J. Casabona, Recherches sur Ie vocabulaire des sacrifices en grec (Aix-en-Provence 1966) 72. KADLETZ, EDWARD, The Sacrifice of Eumaios the Pig Herder , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:2 (1984) p.99 102 THE SACRIFICE OF EUMAIOS . whole description of this scene there is nothing to make one think that Telemachos is making a sacrifice of solid food. It is true that (T7rEv&V is very rarely used by Homer to refer to libations poured over burning animal parts,8 but he almost always reserves (T'TT'EV&V to refer to independent libations.9 As Casabona himself says of the verb, "dans la pratique, il concerne la plupart du temps une offrande inde­ pendante." 10 There is therefore no reason to envision an offering of solid food here, and no reason to limit the verb f)vw to the burning of solid food. I I If we now accept the possibility that f)vw can be used in reference to liquid offerings, I think we have the answer to the identity of the apYI-'cua in the Eumaios episode. They are the 'firstlings' of the wine, the libation which Eumaios pours after the solid sacrifice has been made and the supper portions distributed, but before the wine is passed around the table. As Homer clearly says (446-48): .ry pa, Kai apy,."aTa f)VUE f)EO'in' aiHYEvETTlUt, U7TEfnac; B' at807Ta oZvov ·OBvuo-71i· 7TTOAt7("(Jpf)q} ., >If) EV XHPEUUtV E 'Y/KEV. I would translate this: "He spoke and poured the first fruits into the fire in honor of the immortal gods. Then, having poured this libation, he placed the gleaming wine into the hands of Odysseus, sacker of cities." 12 There are several parallels for this construction in Homer, where an aorist participle followed by BE at the beginning of a line summarizes the preceding line or lines. Thus, for example, at II. 23.256f we read: ... Eif)ap BE XVTT,V E'TT'i yatav EXEvav, XEvavTEC; BE TO u-r,,.,,a 7TaAtV KWV ... Similarly, in the Odyssey, we have a description at 2.422-26 of the companions of Telemachos raising the mast pole, making it fast, and pulling up the sails. Four lines later, after he has 8 II. 11.775, Od. 12.363. It is not clear whether the libations at Od. 3.334, 342, are poured over the burning tongues or not. 9 II. 6.259; 9.177, 657, 712; 16.227, 253; 23.196; 24.287. Od. 3.45, 47, 394, 395; 7.164, 181, 184, 228; 8.89; 13.39, 55; 18.151, 419, 427; 21.264, 273. This list does not include any examples that are so vague that it is not clear whether the libation is an independent offering or not. Such vague uses of (T7TEII&U are Od. 4.591; 7.137, 138; 8.432. 10 Casabona (supra n.7) 236. 11 Apart from the passages we are discussing, (Jvw appears only two times in the epics, at 1/. 9.219 and Od. 9.231. These two occurrences seem to describe the offering of solid food, but they do not at all require that the word be limited to such a use. It should also be pointed out that LSJ (s. v. (Jvw A. 1) regard both the ap'YJUXTa and this offering of T elemachos as drink offerings. 12 U1TEII&u is always used in Homer with religious connotations and means 'to pour a libation'; cf Casabona (supra n.7) 236. Thus the translation 'to pour wine', used here by Lattimore, is wrong. KADLETZ, EDWARD, The Sacrifice of Eumaios the Pig Herder , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:2 (1984) p.99 EDWARD KADLETZ 103 described how the ship flies through the water, Homer says (2.430): STjUcX/-l-EvOt S' apa 07rAa 807111 ava v71a /-l-EAatvav. Here again the par­ ticiple summarizes what has happened in the preceding lines. These examples, and others like them,13 show that this construction was common in epic poetry. Therefore the apYIJ.aTa in our passage are the first fruits of the wine, a (T7rov8~. Eumaios thus makes three first fruits offerings during his sacrifice: forehead hairs (a7rapX°/-l-EVO-;-) , bits of raw meat from all the limbs (apX°/-l-EVO-;-) , and wine (apy­ J.WTa). Now we are better prepared to answer our original question. Who are the recipients of Eumaios' sacrifice, Hermes and the nymphs or the gods in general? The forehead hairs of the victim are burned to the gods, thus dedicating the whole animal to them. Likewise the first drops of wine are offered to all the gods. It seems quite clear that Eumaios makes this sacrifice to the gods as a group. Others have pointed out before that heroes sacrifice and pray to specific deities, but that the common people tend to send their requests and offerings simply to the gods. The special portion of cooked meat set aside for Hermes and the nymphs makes no part of this sacrifice; it is never burned. This portion of food will be used to make a very different offering. Gill was on the right track when he mentioned the Eumaios episode in his paper on Tpa7rE~WlJ.aTa.l4 This offering of cooked meat to Her­ mes and the nymphs is similar to the classical custom of depositing meat, in addition to that burned on the altar, on a table in a god's sanctuary. But Gill makes no suggestion about what Eumaios did with the portion of meat he set aside. I would like to suggest a possi­ bility. Along country roads throughout ancient Greece a traveler found rustic markers or heaps of stones, called EpIJ.aTa. Hermes, the god who protected wayfarers, was associated with these markers. Any windfall which a traveler might find was called a EplJ.aLOV, a gift from Hermes. It was common practice among the rustic population to leave bits of food at these markers. Any wanderer who found these offer­ ings would indeed look upon them as a gift from Hermes. 15 A red­ figured skyphos shows the famous hunter Kephalos making just such 13 Cf. I/. 2.269; 8.85; 14.223; 20.62; 24.801; Od. 4.585; 8.6, 422; 9.218, 312; 16.408; 21.248. 14 D. Gill, "Trapezomata: A Neglected Aspect of Greek Sacrifice," HThR 67 (1974) 134. 15 M. P. Nilsson, GGR P 505 with n.4, and Greek Folk Religion (New York 1940) 8; Hesych. S.v. uVKO/J f.eb' 'Epf..tii; Eustathius 1572.57 on Od. 7.116. KADLETZ, EDWARD, The Sacrifice of Eumaios the Pig Herder , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:2 (1984) p.99 104 THE SACRIFICE OF EUMAIOS an offering before a herm.16 And there is another, similar scene which shows that this custom is actually much older than Homer. Two fragments of a stone rhyton, dated to MM III or LM I, show a man laying down an offering before a temple,l7 No herm is shown here, but that hardly matters: we see the deposition of an offering out under the sky, where any wanderer might find it. Surely Eumaios preserves one portion of food for this same purpose. He might be planning to leave it at a herm close to the nearby cave of the nymphs, described so beautifully at 13.102-12, or at the altar of the nymphs 07.210-11, 240-46) where "all wayfarers made sacrifice." At any rate, the portion set aside for Hermes and the nymphs is a separate offering destined for some such deposition and does not constitute part of the sacrifice made to the gods . • Thus the sacrifice made by Eumaios differs from the normal heroic offering in several ways. There is a decided lack of fanfare. Instead of a formal, public ceremony honoring the gods, we see a pious rustic herder sharing his simple meal with his gods. Eumaios burns a few hairs from the pig's forehead. This is a simple, uncomplicated way to dedicate the victim to the gods. Homer describes this action with the word a:rrapx.0IJ-€VOt;, 'making a first offering'. Next come the purely practical matters of stunning, slaughtering, singeing, and butchering the animal. Then the actual sacrifice is made by placing pieces of raw meat from all the limbs into fat and burning these on the hearth. Again Homer characterizes these ritual actions with the word apx.o­ IJ-€VOt;, 'making an offering of first fruits'. But now Eumaios does something unusual. He sprinkles ground barley over the burning offerings. In a more formal sacrifice, unground barley kernels are used in a preliminary act of the ritual.18 Eumaios, however, treats the offering to the gods just like a portion of food destined for human consumption; roasted meat was commonly cooked and served to mortals, sprinkled with ground barley (I/. 18.560, Od. 14.77). Then the rest of the meat is cooked and served up to the guests. Before Eumaios serves the wine to accompany the meal, he pours the apy­ IJ-aTa into the fire. If the interpretation offered here is correct, these apYIJ-aTa are the first fruits, the gods' portion of the wine, without which no meal could be complete. In addition to sharing the first fruits of his meal with the gods, Eumaios makes another offering which has no intrinsic relation to the 16 Tiibingen 1347: GGR J3 pI. 33.1, Nilsson (supra n.15) pI. 4. 17 HM 2397: S. Alexiou, KretChron 13 (1959) 346-52, pll. 34-35; P. Warren, Minoan Stone Vases (Cambridge 1969) 85, P476. 18 See Stengel (supra n.3) 13-16. KADLETZ, EDWARD, The Sacrifice of Eumaios the Pig Herder , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:2 (1984) p.99 EDWARD KADLETZ 105 first. He sets aside a portion of cooked food to honor Hermes and the nymphs, the companions and protectors of country travelers. This second, more rustic offering, together with the emphasis on sharing the sacrificial meal with the gods, is absent from the more formal offerings made by the nobles. But Eumaios' offering is a real sacri­ fice 19 and deserves a more central place in considerations of the meanings and origins of Homeric sacrifice than it has previously received. BALL STATE UNIVERSITY May, 1984 19 Pace Rudhardt (supra n.1) 255. -/