Salt in Hellenic Polytheism
I’ve been an advocate for the validity of “simple” offerings such as water and olive oil for a while, and I’ve been struck today with the realization that I’ve completely overlooked salt.
This post is my attempt at correcting this mistake and explaining why you should also consider salt as a potent offering.
On the sacredness of salt
The earliest appearance of the term “sacred salt” is taken straight out of the Iliad (Book 9, 210-215). We can also mention Plato’s Timaeus where he calls it a “substance dear to the gods” (theophiles). It’s no doubt that salt as a substance was precious, whether it is for its culinary, medicinal or economic reasons.
When asked about that specific line in the Iliad, Plutarch goes on to reply (Table Talk 5,10):
“But consider farther, whether its power of preserving dead bodies from rotting a long time be not a divine property, and opposite to death; since it preserves part, and will not suffer that which is mortal wholly to be destroyed. But as the soul, which is our diviner part, connects the limbs of animals, and keeps the composure from dissolution; thus salt applied to dead bodies, and imitating the work of the soul, stops those parts that were falling to corruption, binds and confines them, and so makes them keep their union and agreement with one another. […] Besides, you know that we account lightning to be sacred and divine, because the bodies that are thunderstruck do not rot for a long time; what wonder is it then, that the ancients called salt as well as lightning divine, since it has the same property and power?”
Salt, Aphrodite and sexuality
Plutarch also comments on the aphrodisiac quality of salt, using examples taken from animal breeding methods. But ultimately, we reach this explanation:
“I think the poets had a respect to this generative power of salt in their fable of Venus springing from the sea. And it may be farther observed, that they make all the sea gods very fruitful, and give them large families. And besides, there are no land animals so fruitful as the sea ones.”
In this aspect, the myth of Aphrodite’s birth is an interesting example. While she is often called “Sea-born”, “Ocean-born” or, as her name suggests “Foam-born”, there is a much more obscure epithet that calls her “Salt-born” (Haligenos). This suggest that sea-salt in particular is the cristallization of Ouranos’ sperm, which came to fecundate the foam from which Aphrodite was born.
I will end by saying this: the sacredness of salt is not unique to the Greeks and the Romans. It has an important place to the Egyptians and the Old Testament tells plenty about the importance of salt in the ancient Judaism. If anything, this shared trait should remind us to not forget about such an essential substance.
Bibliography under the cut.
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