A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a deity or spirit, or in memory of the dead. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in cultures today.
Buryat shaman performing a libation.
Relief of libation to a vegetation goddess (ca. 2500 BCE) found in ancient Girsu
Hittite king offering libation to a Storm god, orthostat from Malatya (12th century BCE)
Syrian priest of Palmyra holding a libation vessel and an incense box (176 AD)
Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly existed before that. Evidence of ritual human sacrifice can also be found back to at least pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica as well as in European civilizations. Varieties of ritual non-human sacrifices are practiced by numerous religions today.
Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes: contemporary bas-relief, Capitoline Museum, Rome.
The sacrificial cairn in Janakkala, Finland
Animal sacrifice offered together with libation in Ancient Greece. Attic red-figure oinochoe, c. 430–425 BC (Louvre).
Aztec human sacrifice, from Codex Mendoza, 16th century (Bodleian Library, Oxford).
