This debate was in regards to animal sacrifice. My personal opinions on sacrificing animals to the Gods in the modern day are clearly stated in my short essay entitled “CONCERNING THE ANCIENT AND MODERN DAY PRACTISE OF ANIMAL SACRIFICE”. The person with whom I was debating questioned my stance, which he believed to be based on modernistic thinking, and questioned whether or not we had the right to change our views regarding the practice of sacrificing animals- for if the Gods, and not humans, actually instituted the practice of animal sacrifice, then he believed it would not be for men to change it, regardless of how the modern day and its trends led us to feel or think.
This correspondent wrote:
”If the (animal) sacrifice is indeed a part of the natural order and/or instituted by the gods, then we should seriously consider whether we ought to start doing it again. So a fairly serious question in this matter is whether or not sacrifice is a human institution, or whether it is a divine institution.”
To which I responded:
“…I'm glad you brought this up, my friend! Let us look at what The Sacred Mythology of our Greek forefathers has to say about the establishment of the Institution of Sacrifice- and what it consisted of, and why!
The story of the first sacrifice is based on the assumption that Gods and Men had not yet become differentiated from each other yet- that is, that they had not yet been totally separated by the "sundering power" as Pindar calls it. This "Kekrimena Dynamis" came about when on the plain of Mekone, the Gods and Mankind were engaged in a
dispute with each other- but the word used for "dispute", that is, "ekrinonto", means "dispute" in the sense of "separating" or "differentiating"- this is clearly intended to mean that at this point, BEFORE the actual full self-awareness of mankind (remember
that this is before the Divine Fire of the Gods- that thing which made mankind consequential to the possibility of true awareness within the chain of his Fate, was given to Man) mankind was gradually separating from its divine source and origin and becoming differentiated or aware of itself as a distinct entity- not unlike what a fetus must go through as it gradually
develops, in preparation of sundering from its mother.
At this time, the guiding and protecting Daimon of the Human Race was Prometheus, A Titan. The plain of Mekone, where the “dispute”, as well as the first sacrifice was made, comes from the word 'mekon', which means "poppy". Carl Kerenyi believes that this links the growth of early man's self awareness and distinction to the Holy sphere of Demeter and Kore- an idea which I embrace, as did those who believed in the Mysteries of Demeter.
In practically every Indo-European mythology, as well as in Vedic speculation, the act of the primordial sacrifice has the effect of establishing a world order, or the order of an age. This first act of sacrifice, which was done not by humans, but by a titan on behalf of
mankind, established the relationship between Gods and Men, as well as the mental perspective and condition of Mankind, when seen from the distinctly human point of view.
I'm sure you know the story; Prometheus places all of the meat and entrails of a sacrificed ox under its hide, and put the bones and gristle under a huge mound of fat, which was intended to make it look like it was the lion's share of this sacrifice. Zeus knew that
Prometheus was trying to trick him, but chose to take the lesser of the two shares, meaning that mankind from that day forward did not have to give all the good parts of sacrifices to the Gods, but could retain them for their own use.
But the story tells us something very strange- Zeus KNEW full well what Prometheus was up to. So why did he choose the pile he did? There are several explanations. To begin with, there is no way that the All Father, whose mind was, as Kerenyi says, like a mirror that reflected perfectly all things- could have been fooled. ‘Zeus the Wise-
Counseled’ knew full well how cunning Prometheus was. The point is that the All-Insightful All-Father also has a perpetual understanding and knowledge of Fate, and knows how useless it is to try to interfere with the way things are- a wisdom that Prometheus had not yet gained. He allows the deception to go on because he knows that it is part of the Fate of the world.
Prometheus is more than just a Titan that helps out mankind. His "help" to mankind ends up leaving us with as many evils as goods. Kerenyi considers Prometheus to be a symbol of Humanity in general. Like Prometheus, we humans are bound to the Rock that represents the consequences of our actions through Fate, and we suffer like Prometheus the pains of uncertainty and of our sometimes painful existence for manipulating the divine creative power of the Gods, symbolized by the Divine Fire that mankind now possesses, but which has the potential to harm as much as to help. Like the bound
Prometheus, it is the questing Human Soul as it ascends to divine heights through many labors that will unbind each of us- just as Heracles unbinds Prometheus in the myths.
If you look at the myth from the perspective of Prometheus symbolizing the primal involvement of the titanic precursor (and ancestor) of the human mind-complex, you can see that Humans (as Prometheus) were the ones that, through innate cunning, attempted to cheat the Gods of the best share of sacrifices. This means that we humans have had a say (and an effect) on the form and content of sacrifices since the very first mythological one.
But there is more to this story, still, that bears on our considerations. The first sacrifice, to get back to my original point, was the culmination of the primal act of division between man and God. But Karl Kerenyi rightly points out (allow me to paraphrase) that every division pre-supposes a whole, and a common bond between those who do the dividing. And this brings us to another prerequisite for division: a distinction between the sharers. The idea of Greek Sacrifice takes in both- the distinction as well as the common bond between Gods and Men.
Sacrifice becomes not an act of the Gods only, or of Men, but an act between them, and of both of them, celebrating not only distinction, but union. And from the beginning, mankind (and mankind's divine representative) has manipulated the act of sacrifice for his own good.
There are just a few other considerations to remember-
1. That mankind, at this point, was not yet in possession of the Fire of the Gods, that is, not yet truly consequential to his own Fate- also implying not yet totally morally bound by it.
2. An ox was the original sacrifice, but this does not imply some call for a dogmatic, unchanging blood sacrifice requirement. This myth, if it had to be “placed” in a historical timeline, would have taken place a LONG time before agriculture, or the capability for agriculture- which was something that Demeter much later taught to mankind, to "deliver them from savagery", as it was said at Eleusis. The arts of civilization are always connected to agriculture in the Greek mind, and the fruits of agriculture, that is, plant and vegetable matter, as well as fruit, are no less acceptable offerings, in an agricultural society, than an ox was to a pre-agricultural one. Also, do not take the Ox so literally- the Ox appears in all Indo-European mythologies as a symbol of the primal life giving power.
I take the following lessons from the story of the First Sacrifice: That mankind is in control of the shape and form of sacrifice, because mankind is now in the ‘Self-Aware Becoming’ stage of his own fate.
That a sacrifice is done is important, because it celebrates not only distinction between the Gods and Men, which is necessary for piety, but it also celebrates the simultaneous truth of union with the Gods- which is the heart and soul of the Mysteries, and the gateway to transcendental insight and wisdom. This makes sacrifice the vehicle whereby divine power is transferred to the human condition, and from the human estate back again. This makes sacrifice the true miracle of our age.
Anything of value or of nourishing, life-sustaining power that can be divided (like an animal's flesh, OR a wheat bread loaf) can be used to complete the requirement of the Rite. Sacrifice is not something that the Gods pushed onto humans, complete with a list of requirements; it was a primal act that consummated the final growth and sundering of infant humankind from a unified state with the living, divine cosmos that it emerged from. It was an act of Man AND God simultaneously- for isn't that the true nature of man? Are we not possessed of human and divine natures? The ancient Mysteries certainly thought so.”
