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καλλιρέεσθαι: to offer sacrifice in order to learn the will of the gods (vi. 82. 2; vii. 167. 1); the active καλλιρέειν (impersonal in H.) is used of the sacrifice itself = χρηστὰ γίνεσθαι, vi. 76. 2; vii. 134. 2; ix. 19. 2, 38. 2, 96. 1.

The offering of a horse is genuinely Persian (i. 133. 1; Tac. Ann. vi. 37; Xen. Anab. iv. 5. 35), and water, especially running water, was sacred (i, 131. 2, 138. 2 n.); but Strabo (732) says that when the Persians come to a stream or spring, they dig a pit, and there sacrifice their victim, taking care that the pure water near them is not stained with the blood, since that would be pollution. It would seem then that if H. is right, the Magi were following not Persian but local custom (cf. vi. 97. 2; vii. 43. 2; viii. 133; ix. 37. 1). The Strymon received divine honours from Greeks; cf. C.I.G. 2008 (from Amphipolis) τὸ δ᾽ ἐπιδέκατον ἱρὸν τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ τοῦ Στρυμόνος and ἁγνὸς Στρυμών (Aesch. Supp. 254; Pers. 497). For the worship of rivers cf. vi. 76; viii. 138. 1, and especially of the river Scamander cf. Hom. Il. xxi. 132ζωοὺς δ᾽ ἐν δίνῃσι καθίετε μώνυχας ἵππους”.

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