Numerous ancient texts describe human sacrifices and other forms of
ritual killing: in 480 BC Themistocles sacrifices three Persian
captives to Dionysus; human scapegoats called "pharmakoi" are
expelled yearly from Greek cities and, according to some authors,
they are killed. Many texts speak of human sacrifices performed
regularly in the cult of the gods or during emergencies such as war
and plague. Archaeologists have also frequently proposed human
sacrifice as an explanation for their discoveries. If the
archaeologists' interpretations and the claims in the ancient
sources are accepted, they present a bloody and violent picture of
the religious life of the Ancient Greeks, from the Bronze Age well
into historical times. The author of this study, however, counsels
caution. Following an examination of the written and archaeological
evidence of ritual human killings, he argues that many of the
archaeological findings are uncertain, and in many cases
alternative explanations are possible.
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