pharmakos
1
9.9
- noun
- /fɑrˈmɑːkəs/
- Archaic
- During the purification ceremony, the community selected a pharmakos to bear their sins and restore harmony.
Examples
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Athens and other cities kept on hand a number of surrogate victims (pharmakoi; sing. pharmakos), who were expelled and possibly slaughtered at appointed festivals or when there were threats to the community.
Academic text (1993) -
In his discussion of the pharmakos, Walter Burkett mentions the possibility of human sacrifice: "Among the purification rituals, special attention has long been focused on the expulsion of the Pharmakos, for here at the very center of Greek civilization, human sacrifice is indicated as a possibility, not to say as a fixed institution."
Academic text (1993) -
In ancient Greece, the pharmakos was often driven away to cleanse the city from misfortune.
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Each year, the festival culminated with the selection of a pharmakos, who would be sacrificed to appease the gods.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Pharmakos comes from the Greek pharmakon, which can mean 'remedy' or 'poison', and in ancient rituals a pharmakos was a person chosen to carry away the community's sins or sickness. So a pharmakos is a scapegoat who was expelled or sacrificed to purify the group.