Abstract
Leaving Athens behind, this lesson explores the dossier of epigraphically attested oaths all around the Aegean Sea. This investigation attests to the omnipresence of commitment rituals involving animals in all aspects of city life, whether internal or external. Despite the fragmentary and fragmentary nature of the documentation, the semantic field of " hieros despite its fragmentary and fragmentary nature, the semantic field of "hieros hieros" enables us to grasp regular juristic processes involving the burning of animal parts, and to refine our interpretation of the type of contact thus made with the superhuman sphere. But combustion is not the rule, and more exceptional procedures mobilize the lexicon of cutting, like the oaths on the stone tomia of the Athens agora. Last but not least, the use of the animal's blood, in the register of sphazein (" égorger "), whether in the context of burning or cutting, is particularly noteworthy .
If we conceive of the treatment of an animal in a ritual context in the form of a spectrum ranging from the thusia at one end to the tomia at the other, there is a whole series of possible gestures between these poles, varying in intensity depending on the context, but inviting us to consider that the concept of " sacrifice " can be applied to the whole spectrum, and that Greece is decidedly a sacrificing culture.
