ABSTRACT
There are three reasons for offering to the gods - the wish to honour them, gratitude and the need for a benefit; so Theophrastus writes in his work on piety (Porphyrins, De Abstinentia 2.24). At first sight, these three reasons might seem to correspond to three types of offerings. But in a description of Greek sacrificial practice no such clear-cut categorization according to motive is feasible. The Greek practice of offering was not built on a logical, theological system, as noticed by Ziehen in his article 'Opfer'. 240 Instead, although not enthusiastically, Ziehen chooses a mechanical categorization of the sacrifices according to the type of object offered. Burkert, in his investigation of the origin of the rituals, emphasizes the basic difference between offering from the first-fruits on one hand and offering from slaughter on the other.241 Even if this may have been the case in its origin, the offering of the first crop is no longer so easy to reduce to a formula in the period dealt with here. Nevertheless, for practical purposes, we shall adhere to Burkert's distinction because it may serve to illustrate important aspects of the offerings of agricultural products.
