The Pharmakos – The Ancient Greek Scapegoat

 

 

The expression “scapegoat”, known as the “pharmakos”, in ancient Greece, describes an innocent person, or group, who is blamed and usually punished in some way, for other people’s wrong-doings or problems, without any evidence whatsoever, with which to back up the allegation; a whipping boy or fall guy if you will.

This practice is nothing new, the ancient Greeks held yearly rituals, during the “Thargelia”, one of the chief Athenian festivals, where a pharmakos – plural pharmakoi (the Greek word for scapegoat); blameless citizens, paid the price for the sins of others and even took the blame for natural disasters!

The term, scapegoat, originates from a Hebrew ritual, when, each year, a priest symbolically handed over the sins of the people of Israel, to a goat.

 

The Biblical Scapegoat

 

 

In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats, sent into the wilderness, carrying with it all sins of Israel, whereas the other, unlucky goat, is sacrificed.

The ritual is told in the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament:

“Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.”

Leviticus 16:21–22, New Revised Standard Version

God informs the people of Israel about the need for an annual Day of Atonement (also known as Yom Kippur) and orders Aaron, the High Priest, to choose two goats, which together, will count as one sin offering.

 

 

The goat is then to be thrown off a cliff, outside the city of Jerusalem.

The ritual was originally enacted to appease the fallen angel, Azazel, who was now a demon roaming the wilderness.

In this way the sins of the people of Israel had, symbolically, been transferred to the goat.

This was an earlier version of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ; the Lamb of God, taking away the sins of the world; our scapegoat, our sin substitute.

 

 

The Lamb of God (Latin – Agnus Dei), is an allusion to Christ’s title as recorded in John’s Gospel (John 1: 29) when John the Baptist describes Jesus as “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World”:

“Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, grant us peace.”

 

The Scapegoat in Ancient Greece

 

 

Ancient Greeks believed that to sacrifice of a couple of individuals, was enough to save a whole society from catastrophe; just as, before civilization, the herd sacrificed its weakest members, in order to survive.

“Scapegoating”, back in ancient Greece, usually occurred when times were extremely tough, such as during periods of famine, drought, or plague, when they feared for their survival.

Ideally, and what is usually suggested in ancient Greek tales, is that a person of high standing, or high importance, such as a king or ruler, should be the one to be sacrificed, in order to avert total catastrophe.

Now, generally, no person of power, was about to offer up, either himself or his family, as a sacrifice for his country or his people, so, the scapegoat would be chosen from the lower classes; a criminal, slave, or poor person.

 Before the sacrificial ceremony, these unfortunates would be treated, at the expense of the public, as kings, or queens; they would be decked out in fine clothes, fed on only gourmet dishes, figs, barley cakes and cheese being the choice of the day.

The rituals varied, in some places the scapegoat, the pharmakos, was simply exiled from the city, whilst in others, they were known to be stoned to death, burned, or thrown off a cliff.

Historians argue about what actually happened during the sacrificing of scapegoats, some state no one was actually executed whilst others were of the opinion of “anything goes”.

It’s been stated, that in Colophon, a city in Ionia, an ancient Greek settlement on the western coast of Anatolia, the pharmakos were chased around the town, whilst being whipped with fig branches, before being hurled from a cliff to drown, their bodies were then retrieved, burned and the ashes thrown into the sea, or over the land, to act as a fertilizer.

In reality, this ancient ritual of “scapegoating”, didn’t make any of the city’s problems go away, however, it did alleviate tensions which had been building up amongst the citizens, diverting possible outburst of anarchy and brought them reassurance that they still had the status of belonging to a group; here we go back to the herd mentality, mentioned at the beginning of the post.

 

The Thargelia

 

 

The ancient Greek annual festival, the Thargelia , principally an agricultural festival and one of the most important Athenian festivals, was held in honour of the divine archers; the twins, Apollo, the sun god and Artemis, goddess of the hunt and celebrated on their birthdays, the 6th and 7th of the month Thargelion (about May 24 and May 25).

The festival included many purifying rituals and offerings of the first-fruits of the earth, both in gratitude to the gods for their harvest and as a sort of “sweetner”, lest it came upon the gods to sabotage the harvest with extreme heat or pestilence.

By far, though, the most important ritual of the Thargelia, was the sacrificing of a scapegoat or two, a custom thought to do away with any bad luck which may be hanging over the city.

Hipponax (late 6th century BC), an Ancient Greek poet, describes in detail for us, in some of his works, how, on the day of the sacrifice, either two ugly men, or a man and a women, were chosen as scapegoats and after a feast of figs, barley soup, and cheese, were chased around the streets, before being whipped with fig branches, (care be taken that they were whipped seven times on parts I would rather not mention), before being chased out of town.

In other accounts, upon reaching the place on the shore, where the sacrifice was to take place, the scapegoats were stoned to death, their bodies burnt and the ashes thrown into the sea.

In later years, it’s said the scapegoat was thrown into the sea, where men in boats were waiting to catch him, who the escorted him out of the city.

 

The Scapegoat is still taking the blame

 

 

Today, the practice of sacrificing scapegoats, is inconceivable, nevertheless, think about it for a minute; how many times does our society still try to lay the blame on someone else for whatever seems to be wrong with the World?

How often are immigrants, the homeless and people of different religions to us, in fact, anyone who is simply different to us, blamed and punished for what is not their fault?

 The psychological justification of pharmakos, the scapegoat, is alive and kicking.

Even today, after sunset, on the Eve of May Day, the ancient ritual of sacrificing a scapegoat is still celebrated in Greece.

 

 

Village women gather together to build a bonfire, when the fire has been lit, they dance around it, singing songs of May and spring.

At the end of the celebrations, as an act of absolution, people jump over the fire three times, a human effigy, made from straw, is then thrown on the fire as a scapegoat, in the belief that this will protect them against all evil, just as they believed thousands of years ago.