Jeffrey H. Schwartz - Sacrifice Quotes

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From a succession of historians we learn of a particularly gruesome component of Carthaginian daily life: the routine and ritualized sacrificing of not just animals—animal sacrifice was a common religious activity of all Mediterranean cultures—but of infants and children.... Greek and Roman historians were unanimous in their abhorrence of the Carthaginian practice...

Jeffrey H. Schwartz

The Phoenicians were the Canaanites. Thus Phoenicia... was invaded by the Israelites, who eventually pushed the Phoenicians to the coastal fringe. Subsequently, the Israelites borrowed various cultural elements from the Phoenicians, including the first alphabet. Some groups of Israelites even adopted the god Ba'al and, presumably, the practice of child sacrifice.

Jeffrey H. Schwartz

Greeks and Romans alike engaged openly in a variety of sanctioned atrocities, including adult human sacrifice.... according to... Cicero, human sacrifice was not restricted to the western Phoenicians but was widely accepted among Mediterranean societies as a pious act that would please the gods.

Jeffrey H. Schwartz