@memoria.paganorum: AND THE ANSWER IS: Wine poured onto the ground. This type of ritual offering is called a libation: a liquid is deliberately poured out for a deity, the dead, ancestors or other sacred powers. Wine was common, but depending on the culture and ritual, people could also offer beer, mead, water, milk, oil or other liquids. In ancient Greek religion, wine libations were extremely common. They could be poured onto the ground or an altar while invoking a god, and archaeological objects such as the phiale were specifically made for pouring liquid offerings. Greek sources also describe different libations for Olympian gods, chthonic deities and the dead. The Romans practiced libation too. Wine and incense could be poured onto an altar at the beginning of a sacrifice, and libations were also part of domestic worship and funerary rites. In Norse religion, blót could involve offerings of food and drink to gods, ancestors and other powers, with sources describing smaller offerings being poured onto the earth. Baltic pagan traditions also preserve accounts of beer or mead being poured onto the ground, as well as into fire, water or onto sacred places. So “pouring a drink on the ground” could be much more than spilling it: in several pre-Christian religions, giving up part of a valuable drink was itself a ritual act connecting humans with gods, ancestors or the sacred world. #paganism #polytheism #ancientreligion #norsepaganism #History

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Wednesday 02 September 2026 16:25:02 GMT