Pollution and purification
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 4 anchored passages
holy water · impure · impurity · miasma · pollution · purify
in the texts
On the Choreutes
The religious concept that homicide, or an unresolved or wrongful killing, pollutes the community and requires purification and exclusion from sacred sites to avert divine displeasure.
and by defying the gods and committing transgressions against them, he would rob himself even of hope, the greatest of human blessings.
The prosecution started by doing their utmost to register a charge at once, on the day after the burial, before the house had been purified or the proper rites performed;
So powerful is the compulsion of the law, that even if a man slays one who is his own chattel and who has none to avenge him, his fear of the ordinances of god and of man causes him to purify himself and withhold himself from those places prescribed by law, in the hope that by so doing he will best avoid disaster.
Iphigenia in Tauris
The Greek religious concept of ritual impurity (miasma) from murder, childbirth, or death, and the purification rites meant to remove it.
and those whom I purify with holy water die.
whichever mortal has engaged in murder, or has touched a woman in childbirth or a corpse, she drives from her altars, thinking him impure;