LIBATION

(Lat. libo, / pour.) The solemn pouring of wine and other liquids in the religious ceremonies of antiquity in; Greek, antvieiv. Libation appears (if our translation is correct) to have been used in the earliest recorded sacrifice; for Abel offered milk (Gen. iv., 4): a daily libation of water was used by the Jews in the Feast ofTatiernacles; the burnt offering instituted by Moses was of wine. (Numb, vi., 7.) The Grecian libations, in like manner, were of unmixed wine; but sacrifices to nymphs, Ceres, Proser pine and some other deities, were attended by libations of oil and wine, . The wine was poured between the horns of victims, on the nltar or on the ground. The ancients had also a u/ell-knovvn custom of pouring out a small quantity of wine, by way of libation to the gods, at the commencement of their banquets; and libation for the emperors became common under imperial Rome. (See this art. in the Kac..Met.) Te muM» ptree, te pro sequitur mero IJefujo palerii. Horace. LIBAVITJB'a [s. 677]