Libation

A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a deity or spirit, or in memory of the dead. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in cultures today.
Various substances have been used for libations, most commonly wine or other alcoholic drinks, olive oil, honey, and in India, ghee. The vessels used in the ritual, including the patera, often had a significant form which differentiated them from secular vessels. The libation could be poured onto something of religious significance, such as an altar, or into the earth. On the other hand, one or more libations began most meals and occasions when wine was drunk in Greco-Roman and other ancient societies, mostly using normal cups or jugs.

Etymology

The English word "libation" derives from the Latin libatio, an act of pouring, from the verb libare, "to taste, sip; pour out, make a libation".

Religious practice

Antiquity

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt provides some of the earliest and most continuous archaeological and textual evidence for libation practices in the ancient world. Libation was a fundamental ritual practice in ancient Egyptian religion, involving the pouring of liquids as offerings to deities, sacred ancestors, the deceased, living persons who were ritually absent, and the natural environment. Archaeological evidence indicates that libation practices were already established in the Predynastic period, particularly during Naqada I and II, prior to the widespread use of writing in Egypt.
Libations typically consisted of water, beer, wine, milk, or oils and formed a core component of funerary and temple ritual throughout pharaonic history. In Egyptian religious thought, libations functioned to purify sacred space and to sustain the ka, the vital essence of gods and humans, and are among the most frequently depicted ritual acts in Egyptian art, appearing in tombs, temples, and on offering equipment from the Early Dynastic period onward.

Ancient Sumer

The Sumerian afterlife was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground. This bleak domain was known as Kur, where the souls were believed to eat nothing but dry dust. Family members would offer a drink to the deceased by ritually pouring libations into the grave through a clay pipe.

Ancient Greece

Libation was a central and vital aspect of ancient Greek religion, and one of the simplest and most common forms of religious practice. It is one of the basic religious acts that define piety in ancient Greece, dating back to the Bronze Age and even prehistoric Greece. Libations were a part of daily life, and the pious might perform them every day in the morning and evening, as well as to begin meals. A libation most often consisted of mixed wine and water, but could also be unmixed wine, honey, oil, water, or milk.
The typical form of libation, spondȇ, is the ritualized pouring of wine from a jug or bowl held in the hand. The most common ritual was to pour the liquid from an oinochoē into a phiale, a shallow bowl designed for the purpose. After wine was poured from the phiale, the remainder of the oinochoē's contents was drunk by the celebrant. A libation is poured any time wine is to be drunk, a practice that is recorded as early as the Homeric epics. The etiquette of the symposium required that when the first bowl of wine was served, a libation was made to Zeus and the Olympian gods. Heroes received a libation from the second krater served, and Zeús Téleios from the third, which was supposed to be the last. An alternative was to offer a libation from the first bowl to the Agathos Daimon and from the third bowl to Hermes. An individual at the symposium could also make an invocation of and libation to a god of his choice.
Libation generally accompanied prayer. The Greeks stood when they prayed, either with their arms uplifted, or in the act of libation with the right arm extended to hold the phiale.
File:Omphalos pushkin.jpg|thumb|upright|Apollo pouring a libation from a phiale onto the omphalos, with his sister Artemis attending; a bucranium hangs above
In conducting animal sacrifice, wine is poured onto the offering as part of its ritual slaughter and preparation, and then afterwards onto the ash and flames. This scene is commonly depicted in Greek art, which also often shows sacrificers or the gods themselves holding the phiale.
The Greek verb spéndō, "pour a libation", also "conclude a pact", derives from the Indo-European root spend-, "make an offering, perform a rite, engage oneself by a ritual act". The noun is spondȇ , "libation". In the middle voice, the verb means "enter into an agreement", in the sense that the gods are called to guarantee an action. Blood sacrifice was performed to begin a war; spondaí marked the conclusion of hostilities, and is often thus used in the sense of "armistice, treaty". The formula "We the polis have made libation" was a declaration of peace or the "Truce of God", which was observed also when the various city-states came together for the Panhellenic Games, the Olympic Games, or the festivals of the Eleusinian Mysteries: this form of libation is "bloodless, gentle, irrevocable, and final".
Libations poured onto the earth are meant for the dead and for the chthonic gods. In the Book of the Dead in the Odyssey, Odysseus digs an offering pit around which he pours in order honey, wine, and water. For the form of libation called choē, a larger vessel is tipped over and emptied onto the ground for the chthonic gods, who may also receive spondai. Heroes, who were divinized mortals, might receive blood libations if they had participated in the bloodshed of war, as for instance Brasidas the Spartan. In rituals of caring for the dead at their tombs, libations would include milk and honey.
The Libation Bearers is the English title of the center tragedy from the Orestes Trilogy of Aeschylus, in reference to the offerings Electra brings to the tomb of her dead father Agamemnon. Sophocles gives one of the most detailed descriptions of libation in Greek literature in Oedipus at Colonus, performed as atonement in the grove of the Eumenides:

First, water is fetched from a freshly flowing spring; cauldrons which stand in the sanctuary are garlanded with wool and filled with water and honey; turning towards the east, the sacrificer tips the vessels towards the west; the olive branches which he has been holding in his hand he now strews on the ground at the place where the earth has drunk in the libation; and with a silent prayer he departs, not looking back.

Hero of Alexandria described a mechanism for automating the process by using altar fires to force oil from the cups of two statues.

Ancient Rome

In ancient Roman religion, the libation was a religious act in the form of a liquid offering, most often unmixed wine and perfumed oil. The Roman god Liber Pater, later identified with the Greek Dionysus or Bacchus, was the divinity of libamina, "libations", and liba, sacrificial cakes drizzled with honey.
In Roman art, the libation is shown performed at a mensa, or tripod. It was the simplest form of sacrifice, and could be a sufficient offering by itself. The introductory rite to an animal sacrifice included an incense and wine libation onto a burning altar. Both emperors and divinities are frequently depicted, especially on coins, pouring libations. Scenes of libation commonly signify the quality of pietas, religious duty or reverence.
The libation was part of Roman funeral rites, and may have been the only sacrificial offering at humble funerals. Libations were poured in rituals of caring for the dead, and some tombs were equipped with tubes through which the offerings could be directed to the underground dead.
Milk was unusual as a libation at Rome, but was regularly offered to a few deities, particularly those of an archaic nature or those for whom it was a natural complement, such as Rumina, a goddess of birth and childrearing who promoted the flow of breast milk, and Cunina, a tutelary of the cradle. It was offered also to Mercurius Sobrius, whose cult is well attested in Roman Africa and may have been imported to the city of Rome by an African community.

Ancient Judaism

Libations were part of ancient Judaism and are mentioned in the Bible:
In Isaiah 53:12, Isaiah uses libation as a metaphor when describing the end of the Suffering Servant figure who "poured out his life unto death".
Libations of wine were offered at the Jerusalem temple, and a double libation of wine and water was offered during Sukkot, possibly as a rain making ritual.
Idolatrous libations were forbidden, along with the Torah's prohibitions on idolatrous sacrifice and worship generally.

Africa

Libation was part of ancient Egyptian society where it was a drink offering to honor and please the various divinities, sacred ancestors, humans present and humans who are alive but not physically present, as well as the environment. It is suggested that libation originated somewhere in the upper Nile Valley and spread out to other regions of Africa and the world. According to Ayi Kwei Armah, "his legend explains the rise of a propitiatory custom found everywhere on the African continent: libation, the pouring of alcohol or other drinks as offerings to ancestors and divinities."
In African cultures and African traditional religions the ritual of pouring libation is an essential ceremonial tradition and a way of giving homage to the ancestors. Ancestors are not only respected in such cultures, but also invited to participate in all public functions. A prayer is offered in the form of libations, calling the ancestors to attend. The ritual is generally performed by an elder. Although water may be used, the drink is typically some traditional wine, and the libation ritual is accompanied by an invitation to the ancestors, gods and God. In the Volta region of Ghana, water with a mixture of corn flour is also used to pour libation.
Libation is also commonly recognized as the break within the famous performance of Agbekor, a ritual dance performed in West African cultures. It is also poured during traditional marriage ceremony, when a child is born and funeral ceremony. Traditional Festivals like Asafotu and Homowo of the Ga-Adangbe people of Ghana and Togo. Also during installment of kings, queens, and chiefs, libation is poured.
As recently as the 1920s, it was a custom in Lower Nubia for women to go to the graves of relatives every Friday and pour a libation of water into a red bowl at the head of the grave. For widows, it was also once a custom for them to pour a libation of milk on their husband's grave the second day after his death.
Similarly, it has been Coptic tradition for women to visit graves and make water libations, both in intervals during the first 40 days after a death, and during a few annual occasions, such as Nayrouz.