The Gods Got Bones and Fat; the Worshippers Got the Meat

Ancient Greeks—and others in the ancient eastern Mediterranean—sacrificed animals to their gods, rendering the animals to meat offered to the gods and to the worshippers themselves. A typical offering was a thigh bone from cattle, sheep, goats or pigs, wrapped in fat and set ablaze; the worshippers got the rest. The gods, in other words, got smoke and bones, while the humans got dinner.

The ritual was not only a meal transaction. Animal sacrifice served to separate gods and human beings and to define who is who. In other rituals, choice cuts were left raw for the gods, a display that proved to the gods where the meat originated. That is a strange and vivid idea: the offering is also evidence of provenance.