Note 159 — Chapter II · THE ANTHESTERIA. The Ritual of Ghosts and Sprites.

P. V. 24. 10 τοῖς γε ἀρχαιοτέροις ἐπὶ ἱερείῳ ἦν καθεστηκὸς ἐφ’ ᾧ τις ὅρκιον ἐποιήσατο μηδὲ ἐδώδιμον εἶναι τοῦτ’ ἔτι ἀνθρώπῳ. Strictly speaking Pausanias ought to have written ἐπὶ σφαγίῳ, but his meaning is sufficiently clear. τόμια are actually σφάγια, not ἱερεῖα. Eustathius, in discussing the sacrifice of Odysseus to the ghosts in the Nekuia, makes the following statement: ὅτι Ὁμήρου εἰπόντος ἱερήια τὰ ἐν Ἅιδου σφάγια ἐπὶ χοῇ νεκρῶν φασὶν οἱ παλαιοὶ οὐκ ὀρθῶς εἰρῆσθαι τοῦτο, ἐπὶ γὰρ νεκρῶν τόμιά φασι καὶ ἔντομα, ἐπὶ δὲ θεῶν ἱερεῖα. Pausanias in the passage cited above (III. 20. 9) uses θύειν where σφαγιάζεσθαι would be more correct. He makes a sort of climax of confusion when, in describing the ritual of the hero Amphiaraos, he says (I. 34. 5): ἐστὶ δὲ καθάρσιον τῷ θεῷ θύειν, when he should have said τῷ ἥρωι σφαγιάζεσθαι.