Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

To Drink Bull´s Blood : An analysis of the Story of Midas

Berndt Ersöz, Susanne LU (2019) In Colloquia Antiqua 24. p.93-108
Abstract
This paper deals with the famous account of how Midas committed suicide by drinking
bull’s blood. There was a widespread ancient belief that you would die from consuming the blood of a bull, but from a medical point of view it is not poisonous to drink bull’s blood. This paper has its point of departure in this erroneous ancient perception, and analyses what may lay behind the idea that Midas as well as other prominent men, like Themistocles and Hannibal, committed suicide by drinking bull’s blood. It is suggested that the concept of drinking bull’s blood had its roots in religion, and parallels are drawn between Phrygian funerary material and the Hittite ritual ‘to drink the soul of the deceased king’ and ‘to drink a god’. On basis of... (More)
This paper deals with the famous account of how Midas committed suicide by drinking
bull’s blood. There was a widespread ancient belief that you would die from consuming the blood of a bull, but from a medical point of view it is not poisonous to drink bull’s blood. This paper has its point of departure in this erroneous ancient perception, and analyses what may lay behind the idea that Midas as well as other prominent men, like Themistocles and Hannibal, committed suicide by drinking bull’s blood. It is suggested that the concept of drinking bull’s blood had its roots in religion, and parallels are drawn between Phrygian funerary material and the Hittite ritual ‘to drink the soul of the deceased king’ and ‘to drink a god’. On basis of the material examined it is plausible that a similar ritual existed in Phrygian religion. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Phrygia in Antiquity: From the Bronse Age to the Byzantine period : Proceedings of an International Conference ‘The Phrygian Lands over Time: From Prehistory to the Middle of the 1st Millennium AD’, held at Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey, 2nd-8th November, 2015 - Proceedings of an International Conference ‘The Phrygian Lands over Time: From Prehistory to the Middle of the 1st Millennium AD’, held at Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey, 2nd-8th November, 2015
series title
Colloquia Antiqua
editor
Tsetskhladze, Gocha R.
volume
24
pages
16 pages
publisher
Peeters Publishers
ISBN
978-90-429-3738-3
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
627b9420-df4a-46e6-801d-a642a4197ce5
date added to LUP
2020-01-27 17:18:07
date last changed
2021-03-22 20:59:52
@inproceedings{627b9420-df4a-46e6-801d-a642a4197ce5,
  abstract     = {{This paper deals with the famous account of how Midas committed suicide by drinking<br/>bull’s blood. There was a widespread ancient belief that you would die from consuming the blood of a bull, but from a medical point of view it is not poisonous to drink bull’s blood. This paper has its point of departure in this erroneous ancient perception, and analyses what may lay behind the idea that Midas as well as other prominent men, like Themistocles and Hannibal, committed suicide by drinking bull’s blood. It is suggested that the concept of drinking bull’s blood had its roots in religion, and parallels are drawn between Phrygian funerary material and the Hittite ritual ‘to drink the soul of the deceased king’ and ‘to drink a god’. On basis of the material examined it is plausible that a similar ritual existed in Phrygian religion.}},
  author       = {{Berndt Ersöz, Susanne}},
  booktitle    = {{Phrygia in Antiquity: From the Bronse Age to the Byzantine period : Proceedings of an International Conference ‘The Phrygian Lands over Time: From Prehistory to the Middle of the 1st Millennium AD’, held at Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey, 2nd-8th November, 2015}},
  editor       = {{Tsetskhladze, Gocha R.}},
  isbn         = {{978-90-429-3738-3}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{93--108}},
  publisher    = {{Peeters Publishers}},
  series       = {{Colloquia Antiqua}},
  title        = {{To Drink Bull´s Blood : An analysis of the Story of Midas}},
  volume       = {{24}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}