I was a priest in the city-state era

To hold a grand sacrificial ceremony for the gods, not only hundreds or thousands of people must be mobilized to participate, but cattle, sheep and other livestock must also be offered as sacrifices to the gods.

In this era of scarcity of supplies, sacrificial ceremonies for gods would only be held during important festivals or when wars were won.

If sacrificial rituals were held for the gods every now and then, it would not take long before all the cattle, sheep and other livestock of the tribe or city-state would be killed as sacrifices.

Theban tribe.

After the song and dance performance dedicated to the earth goddess Mnemosyne, a group of maids led cattle, sheep, chickens, pigs and other livestock to Harmonia.

Harmonia walked up to these sacrifices with a bronze sword. Under everyone's silent gaze, she swung the bronze sword to kill all the sacrifices, letting the blood of the sacrifices flow into the earth.

After beheading the sacrifice, Harmonia looked at the Thebans around her and said.

"My dear people! The great earth goddess nourishes all things. All life comes from the earth goddess, so we must also use our lives as sacrifices to sacrifice to the earth goddess. Today, stupid foreigners invade our territory. We are on the earth Defeat the invaders with the help of the goddess, so we should sacrifice the highest grade sacrifice to the earth goddess."

Hearing Harmonia's words, the surrounding Thebans shouted.

"Kill the strangers! Kill the strangers!"

"Sacrifice the strangers!"

"We want to inject the blood of foreigners into the earth."

Amid the shouts of the Thebans, a group of Theban men brought twelve Phoenician captives before Harmonia.

Seeing that Harmonia wanted to sacrifice the Phoenicians to the goddess Mnemosyne as if they were slaughtering animals——

Roy hesitated for a moment, and finally couldn't help but speak loudly.

"Priest Harmonia, I am opposed to the use of human sacrifices as sacrifices."

Hearing Roy's words, Harmonia turned her head and looked at Roy in surprise.

The surrounding Thebans all glared at Roy.

If Harmonia had not been present, Roy believed that the Thebans around him would have swarmed and killed him.

After all, Roy's blocking of the sacrificial ceremony was undoubtedly a blasphemy against the earth goddess Mnemosyne.

Under the gaze of everyone, Roy plucked up the courage to walk to Harmonia and said to the Thebans around him.

"Dear Thebans! Let me introduce to you, I am Loy, the priest of the Athenian tribe. The god I serve is Metis, the goddess of wisdom and ocean from the sea. The goddess Metis is not only related to the earth goddess Monemo Syne is both a goddess, and the goddess Metis and the goddess Mnemosyne are both goddesses of snakes. Because I am a priest serving the goddess Metis, I know that the goddess has no requirements for human sacrifices. The benevolent goddess won’t mind if there is no sacrifice.”

After Roy finished speaking, in order to prove Roy's identity, Harmonia followed.

"People! Priest Roy is not only a priest who serves the gods with me, but he is also the benefactor who saved me and our tribe of Thebes. It was precisely because of the help of Priest Roy that I was able to kill the invaders. The leader. So I ask you to respect Priest Roy as you respect me.”

After hearing Harmonia's words, the Thebans all stopped looking at Roy with hostility.

Roy glanced at Harmonia with grateful eyes, and then said to the Thebans around him.

"Dear Thebans! I believe you all think like me that the great Mnemosyne is a goddess who is as loving as a mother. So think about it carefully, what would the loving goddess Mnemosyne hope? Do you sacrifice your own kind as sacrifices? In fact, sacrificing captives as sacrifices was a tradition created by the priests and chiefs in the past. The reason why priests and chiefs wanted to turn captives into sacrifices was because there was not enough food to feed their own people. Not enough, of course, there is no extra food to feed the prisoners, so they kill the prisoners as sacrifices to prevent the prisoners from consuming their own food.”

The reason Roy mentioned is indeed one of the reasons for allowing human beings to be used as sacrifices.

But those were ancient times when food was scarce, and priests and chiefs had reason to sacrifice captives.

Now the Thebans were sincere in offering human sacrifices.

If they lost a war with their enemies, the Thebans would even sacrifice the leader's family as sacrifices.

Legend has it that during the reign of King Creon of Thebes, the city of Thebes was besieged by seven heroes. The youngest son of King Creon of Thebes served as a sacrifice, sacrificing his life to the gods in exchange for the gods helping the Thebans defeat the invasion. By.

Because the Thebans now sincerely regard living people as sacrifices, Roy's reasons did not convince the Thebans.

"We can sacrifice animals, and of course we can sacrifice captives."

“Could it be that we use our own people as sacrifices because we don’t have enough food?”

"Human beings are the highest level of sacrifices. Don't hinder our sacrificial ceremony."

Even Harmonia couldn't help but say to Roy.

"Priest Roy, why do you need to be a group of captives and offend all Thebans."

"Because human sacrifice is a cruel ritual that must be abolished."

After responding to Harmonia, Roy turned to look at the top of Mount Helicon and shouted.

"Great goddess Mnemosyne! If you don't agree with the Thebans sacrificing human beings to you, then send a miracle to show your will."

Mount Helicon.

Snow-capped peaks.

There was no sign of any living creature here, but a beautiful female voice suddenly rang out.

"What a bold human! If I don't respond now, I will definitely be regarded as a god who craves human life as a sacrifice."

Thebes tribe.

After Roy finished speaking, he realized that he had used rhetoric to force the goddess Mnemosyne to show miracles, which was undoubtedly an offense and blasphemy to the goddess Mnemosyne.

Seeing Harmonia looking at him with disappointment, Roy couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

At this moment——

Two golden rays of light bloomed from the peak of Mount Helicon in the distance, shining on Roy and Harmonia respectively.

Miracle!

This is obviously the miracle of the goddess Mnemosyne.

Roy immediately said happily.

"People of Thebes! You have all seen that the goddess Mnemosyne has demonstrated her will with miracles. She does not want living people to be her sacrifices."

Harmonia looked at Roy's profile with surprise. She did not expect that the goddess Mnemosyne would respond to Roy.

The Thebans around her knelt down one after another and worshipped the divine light from the goddess Mnemosyne.

"My fellow tribesmen!"

After coming back to her senses from the surprise, Harmonia said to the Thebans around her.

"The great goddess Mnemosyne regards us as her children, so she does not want us to cruelly use living people as sacrifices. Now I will obey the will of the goddess Mnemosyne and abolish the tradition of sacrificing living people as sacrifices."

The goddess Mnemosyne has demonstrated her will with miracles. Of course, no Thebans would be stupid enough to oppose Harmonia at this time.

The twelve Phoenicians who were originally used as sacrifices were lucky to survive.