Menelaos, Leon, and the Tauri: Three Cases of Human Sacrifice in Herodotus’ Histories

Whether or not human sacrifice was practised by the Greeks in Antiquity is a contested topic in modern scholarship. This paper does not seek to add to the abundant scholarship on this debate. Rather, it will discuss the way in which human sacrifice is portrayed and dealt with in Herodotus’ Histories. Thus, this paper will examine three case studies of human sacrifice in connection to the sea from Herodotus’ narrative. I will address Herodotus’ presentation of human sacrifice and its representation in his Histories. These three case studies range from the Archaic to the Classical eras, from times of myth to the Persian Wars, dealing with human sacrifice to the winds, to the gods, and to the sea. First, this paper will discuss Menelaos in Egypt and his mythological sacrifice of two Egyptian children to gain favourable sailing weather. The second case study examines the Tauri tribe, located in Scythia, and their supposed tradition of sacrificing shipwrecked sailors to Artemis. The final case study examines the historical sacrifice of Leon, a great Greek warrior who was sacrificed by the captain of a barbarian ship during the Persian Wars. Through the utilisation of these three case studies, this paper will discuss how Herodotus portrays human sacrifice within the different contexts, contrasting how each sacrifice differed from the others, why they differed, and the overall purpose of the depiction of human sacrifice.