[[ritual]] | [[bovines]] | [[gold]] | [[horns-horned-animals]] *** || |-|-| [Odyssey](odyssey.md) 3.382-384 | "...and I will sacrifice you a yearling cow, with wide forehead, unbroken, one no man has ever led under the yoke yet. I will gild both her horns with gold and offer her to you." (Lattimore) [Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad](brihadaranyaka-upanishad.md) 3.1.1 | Janaka, the king of Videha, once set out to perform a sacrifice at which he intended to give lavish gifts to the officiating priests. ... So he corralled a thousand cows; to the horns of each cow were tied ten pieces of gold. (Olivelle) [Þrymskviða](thrymskvitha.md) 23.1-2 | Gold-horned cows walk here in the yard, jet-black oxen to the giant's delight [Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar](helgakvitha-hjorvarthssonar.md) 4.1-2 | I'll choose a temple with many sanctuaries, gold-horned cattle from the prince's farm ## Original Reddit Thread Source: [Post](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndoEuropean/comments/xiphm9/was_sacrificing_cows_with_goldadorned_horns_an/) by u/Joseon1 on [r/IndoEuropean](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndoEuropean) > My question comes from the practice being described in both the Odyssey and an ancient Indian text from about the same period. Considering the wide geographic spread, is there any evidence that this was a sacrificial practice inherited from earlier Indo-European traditions, or perhaps spread later? Or is it just a coincidence? > > The *Odyssey* 3.382-384 (c. 800-550 BC) trans. Richmond Lattimore > > and I will sacrifice you a yearling cow,with wide forehead, > unbroken, one no man has ever led under the yoke yet. > I will gild both her horns with gold and offer her to you.' > > *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad* 3.1.1 (c. 700-500 BC) trans. Patrick Olivelle > > Janaka, the king of Videha, once set out to perform a sacrifice at which he intended to give lavish gifts to the officiating priests. ... So he corralled a thousand cows; to the horns of each cow were tied ten pieces of gold. > Quick update on stuff I should have checked already: the Odyssey text is the same as The Iliad 10.292-294. _The Iliad: A Commentary_ (ed. G.S. Kirk) proposes that it was an ancient practice of spreading gold leaf on cows' horns, the specifics of which where forgotten by the time of the Odyssey's composition: > > vol iii, p 184 > χρυσον κερασιν περιχευας is evidently a memory of ancient practice. περιχευειν is to spread gold leaf over an object. The poet of Od. 3.432-8 affects to describe the gilding process, but has no real knowledge of it and represents the smith, in a highly inaccurate manner, as using a hammer to apply the gold leaf, see D. H. F. Gray, JHS 74 (1954) 12-13. *** u/BaeconTargaryen added the following observation: > Good find! There may also be allusions to the practice of gilding the horns of sacrificial cattle in Old Norse Eddic poetry (trans. Carolyne Larrington): > > *Þrymskviða* 23.1-2: > Gold-horned cows walk here in the yard, jet-black oxen to the giant's delight > > *Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar* 4.1-2: > > I'll choose a temple with many sanctuaries, gold-horned cattle from the prince's farm *** u/NoNutNovember2029 had this to say: > It is customary even today for priests to be given gifts of cattle and money during religious rituals. The cows mentioned in the text are not sacrifices but rather rewards to the priests for their services.