Milk for the gods: dairy offerings in a religious context in the ancient Roman world

In an article dedicated to the vegetable offerings in the sacrificial rites of the Romans, John Scheid devotes a quick review to the question of milk and its derivatives in the sacrifices. He recalls the ambivalent place of these products, long opposed to animal sacrifice, in ritual operations. Today, it is appropriate to qualify this antagonism erected in the context of the creation of two strictly separate categories of offerings within sacrificial rites, which research has, at least in part, revisited in recent decades, recognising its artificial character. The ancient use of milk to honour the gods is reported by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, where he mentions that Romulus made libations of milk, a gesture still observable at the time of the naturalist. However, although milk products are not absent from ritual activities, they are only mentioned occasionally in the sources, and sometimes seem to be confined to certain ancient celebrations, such as those relating to Jupiter Latiar or Terminus. The present article proposes to return to the circumstances of the milky offering to the gods in order to consider its possible specificities.