Evidence of rituals in urban and rural Greek sanctuaries

In ancient Greece the animal sacrifice (thysia) was an essential civic and ritual act. The carcass was distributed to fulfill the demands of the gods and the social requirements of human participants.

The comparative analysis of faunal findings from remote limestone caves dedicated to the nymphs, Pan, and other entities − deities embodying the seductive, cruel, and uncanny facets of the wild − and from high-altitude frontier sanctuaries reveal a distinct pattern: the presence of hunted wild fauna.

This archaezoological divergence correlates with the sociopolitical framework of the Greek polis: Ephebes were required to hunt and patrol the eschatiai (the frontiers of the city-state) to navigate their transitional status and attain full citizen manhood. Consequently, the marginalization of adolescent males was spatial and symbolic, with caves serving as landscapes for these rites of passage. Concurrently, textual and material evidence indicates that analogous liminal activities and initiatory rituals occasionally integrated adolescent girls as well.

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