My understanding about Greek culture was that domestic animals were only ever killed and eaten as sacrifices: it was partly how they legitimized killing them for food. Even then, it was important that certain parts of the animal be burned, while the rest could be eaten.
There was also a distinction between "olympic" and "cthonic" sacrifices: the latter--to gods associated with death or certain sorts of fertility--were supposed to be burned completely and not consumed by anyone. However, olympic sacrifices were more common.
I had no idea that any form of animal sacrifice still existed in Judaism today!
But I can certainly see the idea that no one should eat offerings as something that is partly just a modern invention. Possibly in part because the idea of a professional / full-time priest class doesn't really exist in most modern paganism, for obvious reasons.
In any case, I do like your idea for how to deal with food offerings: that makes a lot of sense to me!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2018-05-09 12:24 pm (UTC)My understanding about Greek culture was that domestic animals were only ever killed and eaten as sacrifices: it was partly how they legitimized killing them for food. Even then, it was important that certain parts of the animal be burned, while the rest could be eaten.
There was also a distinction between "olympic" and "cthonic" sacrifices: the latter--to gods associated with death or certain sorts of fertility--were supposed to be burned completely and not consumed by anyone. However, olympic sacrifices were more common.
I had no idea that any form of animal sacrifice still existed in Judaism today!
But I can certainly see the idea that no one should eat offerings as something that is partly just a modern invention. Possibly in part because the idea of a professional / full-time priest class doesn't really exist in most modern paganism, for obvious reasons.
In any case, I do like your idea for how to deal with food offerings: that makes a lot of sense to me!