(urth) Soldier of Sidon writeup

[Ab de Vos]

Or possibly all at one as in the scenario that a deformed slave is a 
substitute for the divine king who is about to be slaughtered. Mock 
fighting is often a part of the proceedings like games. I suppose it all 
has to be part of the rite and not external to it. There is a gray area 
in between, I think, to allow activities to evolve separately, less 
tightly bound to ritual and becoming more or less independent.

As for the blood and wine they are both libations. There is the 
christian equivalence in mass. Also when an ox  is sacrificed in Homer 
some grain is poured over its head. An atonement perhaps, a small 
sacrifice within a big one? If the sword represents Ares it seems that 
the blood is dedicated to the sword.  Wielding the sword is dedicating 
the sword to the act of killing. Bringing the blood to the sword is like 
paying a tribute to a king. Maybe they threw the arms in the air to 
imitate the battlefield as well as by pouring wine-blood.

The process of making wine is a violent one because the grape has to be 
destroyed for the wine to be made. The same goes for grain and bread. 
All these activities are originally connected to the dying divinities 
later to be reborn and often suffering dismemberment.

You must be familiar with the term berserker rage. Even now some people 
around here have as their name Berserkeris. It is from the german past 
meaning an extatic state of divine possession of a warrior which enables 
him to keep on fighting even heavily wounded. Comparable to the menos of 
Achilles or his battlefield rage when his looks alone would scare his  
opponents. Is this connected to Ares?


Op 3-4-2018 om 16:48 schreef David Stockhoff:
> even if the victim is a slave, a deformed person, or a king