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Lambs of god: an end of human sacrifice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2016

Brent D. Shaw
Brent D. Shaw*
Affiliation:
Department of Classics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, bshaw@princeton.edu
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Extract

Ferrando: … e si rinvenne mal spenta brace… e d’un bambino,

ahimè l’ossame bruciato a mezzo, fumante ancor!

Uomini: Ah scellerata! Oh donna infame! Del par m’investe ira ed orror!

Il Trovatore. Act I, Scene 1

In certain modern sensibilities, played upon here by Verdi's librettist Salvadore Cammarano, infant sacrifice has tended to rouse a basal sense of horror. The moral outrage has usually imputed alien rites and the evils of dreadful barbaric practices. Consider the following descriptions not about the fictions of an imaginary Iberian court, but rather of an actual historical practice.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Roman Archaeology , Volume 29 , 2016 , pp. 259 - 291
Copyright
Copyright © Journal of Roman Archaeology L.L.C. 2016 

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