Abstract
In addition to the sacrifices offered in Pylos by Nestor and the feasting of the suitors, the Odyssey also features more modest meals, such as the one offered by the pig keeper Eumaeus to his master, whom he has not yet recognized (Canto XIV). Here again, the verb hiereuein is used to designate what is done with the fat pig taken from the herd for the occasion. The slaughtering of the pig and the treatment of its carcass, right up to the distribution of the portions to the guests, reveal a whole series of ritual gestures that do not correspond to those identified with sacrifices explicitly intended to make contact with a divinity. Is it the animal species that justifies these deviations? Is it the primarily food-related nature of the operation? Or the needs of a plot that creates a striking contrast between the piety of the humble pig keeper and the arrogant excess of Ithaca's gilded youth? The answer to these questions remains uncertain, but the use of the verb hiereuein points to the notion of "immolation" which, when food is emphasized at the end of the slaughter, retains the ritual tone that the Latin origin of the word continues to associate with it. Hiereuein thus points to ritualized slaughter, even if only minimally. But the Homeric vocabulary of sacrifice and immolation, with its emphasis on hiera, the "sacred parts", is gradually replaced by the lexical field of thusia, meaning combustion and fumigation. A few occurrences of terms from this word family - except thusia - are already attested in the Homeric epic and studied here.
