Sacrificing Life: Belief and Resort

It is fascinating just how ubiquitous the practice of sacrifice has been throughout all of human history, dating back as far as 4000 BCE and still alluded to or even practiced to this day. In fact, I do not even necessarily question the premise of sacrifice when I see it referenced or practiced in popular culture or forms of entertainment. After our readings and some research, I would say that there are various tiers of sacrifice, where sacrificing items / jewelry is of the lowest significance, topped by animal sacrifices (where larger / rarer / more expensive animals are more significant). It is believed that the first animal sacrifice took place in Upper Egypt, around 4400-4000 BCE. Following animals, the ultimate form of sacrifice to the gods or higher powers is almost certainly humans. After some research, I was not able to find a citation for the total number of humans that have been sacrificed in all of history, which is interesting because I figured there would at least be one estimate by a historian(s) somewhere online. However, I did find many, many articles that cited the volume and intensity of sacrifices made by the Aztec Empire. It is estimated that throughout the 15th century CE, up to 250,000 people were sacrificed each year by the Aztecs, many of whom were prisoners. According to A History of Magic, Witchcraft, & the Occult on page 38, “at the start of the Trojan War Iphigenia, daughter of King Agamemnon, was sacrificed to the goddess Artemis.” From the perspective of the 21st century, it really makes no sense to sacrifice a human and expect some indirect consequence. In fact, even if sacrifices did have an influence on the world, there would be literally infinite possible consequences, so how would anyone ever be able to connect the dots and pinpoint a certain sacrifice to a certain outcome; it would be impossible. On page 44, the text refers to the practice of tauroctony in Rome in the 1st century CE, where the cult of Mithras (influenced by Persian beliefs) would sacrifice bulls, on the basis that its blood represented purity and rebirth. Although still questionable / weird, I believe there is a large, large gap between animal sacrifices and human sacrifices. It seems like one of the common denominators with sacrifices is the meaning behind the blood that is spilled in the process. Page 59 describes how the Mayans believed they were repaying the gods for their own creation, and the most powerful offering of all was blood. Prisoners were decapitated, and sometimes Kings would cut their own skin to shed royal blood for the deities. In the Nordic region, sacrifices were made to keep Odin and the other Norse gods happy (page 66). Animals were sacrificed, and sometimes even young boys ages 4-7. Every nine years, nine males of every living creature including humans were slaughtered at a temple… sheesh! While these were only a few examples, it really is fascinating how pretty much every region across so many timelines engaged in the brutal practice of sacrifice one way or another. Today, sacrifices are still a popular concept in many forms of media. The first time I learned about the premise of sacrifice was in the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1994). In one of the final scenes, an Indian cult is holding a ceremony in a secret chamber, and the leader abnormally rips someone’s heart out of their body with his bare hands before throwing the corpse into a pit of fire. That really freaked me out as a kid, I think I was 8 or 9 lol. Most recently, I came across a TikTok where a group of individuals could not crack the code to an escape room, and in their desperation, they resorted to pretending to sacrifice one of the group members to gain freedom from the escape room. Without sufficient knowledge and in the midst of hardship or desperation, people are willing to do crazy things for answers or justification.

Indiana Jones clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0S8JZ6YO5c

TikTok video: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdVY391G/

 

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