¹ Throughout the paper I have, for convenience and case of reference, printed shorter references in parentheses in the text as here. The abbreviations of ancient authors and works and of modern journals and epigraphical collections are the standard ones. Other works are abbreviated as follows: GFR = Nilsson, M. P., Greek Folk Religion (New York, 1940)Google Scholar ; GGR, I² = Nilsson's, , Geschichte der griechischen Religion², Vol. I (Munich, 1955)Google Scholar. PWK, “Opfer,” refers to L. Ziehen's article in Pauly-Wissowa, 17 (1939). LSAM and LSCG are respectively Sokolowski's, F., Lois Sacrées de L'Asie Mineure (Paris, 1955)Google Scholar and Lois Sacrées des Cités Grecques (Paris, 1962)Google Scholar. PZ is von Prott, I. and Ziehen, L., Leges Graecorum Sacrae e titulis collectae (Leipzig, 1896–1906)Google Scholar. Mischkowski = Mischkowski, H., Die heiligen Tische im Götterkultus der Griechen und Römer (Konigsberg, 1917).Google Scholar Meuli, Opferbräuche = Meuli, K., Griechische Opferbräuche, in Phyllobolia f¨r Peter von der Muhll (Basel, 1946)Google Scholar. Stengel, Opferbräuche = Stengel, P., Opferbräuche der Griechen (Leipzig, 1910).Google Scholar

There is no general treatment of trapezomata, or of tables of offering. The following articles in journals and encyclopaedias treat one or another aspect of the subject: W. Deonna, BCH [1934], 1–90 (summary in AJA [1936], 356–60) ; S. Dow and D. Gill, The Greek Cult Table, AJA [1964], 103–14; Kruse, G., Mensa, PWK, 15 (1931), 937–48Google Scholar; Legrand, Ph-E., Sacrificium, DarSag IV (1910), 973Google Scholar; de Ridder, A., Mensa, DarSag III (1904), 1720–21Google Scholar.

² Most of what this section contains is not new, but I do not know that it has previously been put together in one place. Its relevance to the matter at hand will, I hope, become clear in the further course of the exposition.

³ In Iliad 6. 302–03 Theano places a robe “on the knees of Athena.” The robe is an offering; and the meaning seems to be that it was placed on the knees of a seated statue of the goddess. Birds 518ff. indicates that food offerings (σπλὰγχνα at a thysia) were placed in the hands of statues. Cf. also Eccl. 777ff. LSCG, 76–78 and 129, all from Chios, in a context of food offerings, mention τὰ ἐς χɛῖρας and τὰ ἐς γούνατα The expressions have been variously interpreted. Puttkammer thought they referred to food offerings placed on statues. Sokolowski says they are sums of money. For details cf. the latter's commentary on LSCG, 77.

⁴ Cf. Nilsson, M. P., Minoan-Mycenean Religion² (Lund, 1950), 122–44Google Scholar; and the first chapter of Yavis, C. G., Greek Altars (St. Louis, 1949)Google Scholar.

⁵ Dyggve, E., Das Heroon von Kalydon (Kopenhagen, 1934), 67–68 and fig. 104.Google Scholar

⁶ τραπɛζὠματα itself actually occurs only once with this meaning (LSAM, 13.15). θɛομοιρία occurs in SIG, 1026.20 and in Hesyciiius (S.V.) in the forms θɛυμορία / θɛυμορίαζω, on which see the following note, ἱɛρὰ μοῖρα appears in LSAM, 24 A. 33; 40.5; 44.6; 48.17; 52B.6; 63.7 (restored). The verb τραπɛζόω is found in 1G, V, 1, 1390.86 (= PZ, II, 58); IG, XII, 2, 72 (= PZ, II, 118); Julian, Oral. 5. 176d. τὰ παραιθἐμɛνα (ἱɛρά) or its equivalent is the most common designation. In other cases, e.g., IG, II², 1356 (= PZ, II, 24), portions are recognizable as trapezomata from the fact that they are distinguished from the priest's portions and placed on the (god's) trapeza.

⁷ Hesychius' entries under θɛυμορἱα and θɛυμοριαζέτω may reflect the changing practice. The former he defines variously: ἀπαρχή. θυσία. ἤ δ λαμβάνουσιν οἱ ἱɛρɛς κρέας, ἐπɛιδὰν θὐηται. θɛοῦ μοῖρα The latter, he says, is equivalent to θɛῳ γέρας ἀναφɛρέτω. Thus he states, on the one hand, that the θɛυμορία was the portion of the priest, while implying, on the other, that it was for the god. If this latter is not merely a deduction from the etymology of the word, as it well might be, then HESYCHIUS may have been excerpting from two or more sources, some reflecting the earlier, some the later practice.

⁹ ἐλɛός here and in Iliad 9. 215 is rendered “kitchen-table, dresser” by LSJ. In the Iliad passage Patroklos cooks the sacrificial meat and places it ɛἰν ἐλɛῖσιν, which is distinguished from the τράπɛζα on which he puts the bread (no τράπɛζα is mentioned in Od. 14). In Aristophanes, Knights 152, the Sausage Seller enters carrying an ἐλɛόν, on which he stands, in line 169, to get a better view. According to POLLUX (6.90) the primary meaning of the word was “a cook's chopping block.” In Homer the word seems to refer to some sort of board(s) or block(s) or table(s) reserved specially for carving meat.

⁹ It is altogether possible, though not demonstrable, that trapezomata are in fact older than Homer. The Iliad and the Odyssey are aristocratic poems; and, for the most part, they reflect the preferences and beliefs of the kings and nobles whose stories they tell. The sacrifice of Eumaios — a poor swineherd — to the Nymphs and Hermes — local, popular deities — is an almost unique instance in the poems of the religion of the little man. The practice of offering trapezomata which we find there may have been quite common in the popular religion long before Homer. Tn any case, the fact that there are no trapezomata in the other Homeric sacrifices does not necessarily prove that they were just beginning to be offered at the time of the composition of the Odyssey.