[243.1] Weber, Dämonenbeschwörung, etc., p. 29.
[243.2] iv. R2, pl. 26, No. 6; this is the inscription quoted by Prof. Sayce (vide infra, [p. 182], n.) as a document proving human sacrifice. I owe the above translation to the kindness of Dr. Langdon; it differs very slightly from Zimmern’s in K.A.T.3, p. 597.
[243.3] Jeremias, op. cit., p. 29.
[243.4] Renan’s thesis (C. I. Sem., i. p. 229) that the idea of sin, so dominant in the Hebrew and Phoenician sacrifice, was entirely lacking in the Hellenic, cannot be maintained; he quotes Porph. De Abstin., 1, 2, 24, a passage which contains an incomplete theory of Greek sacrifice. The sin-offering is indicated by Homer, and is recognised frequently in Greek literature and legend; only no technical term was invented to distinguish it from the ordinary cheerful sacrifice.
[244.1] Cults, ii. p. 441.
[244.2] Vide K.A.T.3, pp. 434, 599, where Zimmern refers to the monuments published by Ménant, Pierres gravées, i. figs. 94, 95, 97, as possibly showing a scene of human sacrifice. But Ménant’s interpretation of them is wrong; vide Langdon, Babyloniaca, Tome iii. p. 236, “two Babylonian seals”; the kneeling figure is the owner of the seal; the personage behind him is no executioner, but Ramman or Teschub holding, not a knife, but his usual club. The inscriptions published by Prof. Sayce (Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., iv. pp. 25-29) are translated differently by Dr. Langdon, so that the first one (iv. R2, pl. 26, No. 6) refers to the sacrifice of a kid, not of an infant. The misinterpretation of the inscription has misled Trumbull (Blood Covenant, p. 166). The statement in 2 Kings xvii. 31 about the Sepharvites in Samaria does not necessarily point to a genuine Babylonian ritual, even if we are sure that the Sepharvites were Babylonians.
[245.1] Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, p. 95.
[245.2] The excavations at Gezer have revealed almost certain evidence of the early practice of human sacrifice; a number of skeletons, one of a girl sawn in half, were found buried under the foundation of houses (vide Cook, op. cit., pp. 38-39).
[246.1] Stengel, Die griechischen Kultusaltertümer, p. 89.
[246.2] K.A.T.3, p. 599.