Talk:Libation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Religion Portal This article is supported by WikiProject Religion. This project provides a central approach to Religion-related subjects on wikipedia. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards, or visit the wikiproject page for more details.
Start	This article has been rated as Start on the Project's quality scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)

[edit] 2Pac?

In his work "Pour Out a Little Liquor", Tupac asks that, when we drink, we pour out some liquor for his dead homies.

Is this gesture actually a form of libation, or is the similarity coincidental?

--18.252.6.136 22:00, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty unconvinced - I was just about to delete that section, but giving the benefit of the doubt, I'll leave it be. Does anyone have a source? It seems like vandalism to me.

DannyK 14:52, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it is either vandalism or a statement that is particular need of a citation. This practice is clearly "a ritual pouring of a drink as an offering". Where is the disagreement? ike9898 17:24, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

"Pouring a drink for fallen homies" doesnt seem analgous to the ancient practice of making an offering to a god. At the very most, it would be analgous to the Chinese custom of "bai-san" where alcohol, food and "burnt offerings" are made at an ancestors grave. I see that the Chinese custom (which is ancient) is not listed under "libation", yet "pouring one for the homies" is? It stretches the credulity of this entry, if you ask me.

I don't think that all libations are an offering to a god. From the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica, A libation is "a drink offering, the pouring out of a small quantity of wine, milk or other liquid as a ceremonial act. Such an act was performed in honour of the dead (Gr. xoai, Lat. profusiones), in making of treaties (Gr. vrovbj, cirEvbety=libare,, whence virovbai, treaty), and particularly in honour of the gods (Gr. Xoe(3r7, Lat. libatio, libamentum, libamen)" From Encarta, "the pouring out of a liquid, e.g. wine or oil, as a sacrifice to a god or in honor of a dead person". ike9898 23:07, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Thirsty Dead?

"Ancient Greek texts often mention libations. ... This act also known as Laudator Temporis Acti = the thirsty dead."

It should be obvious to anyone with even the tiniest smattering of classical languages (which is all I would claim) that Laudator Temporis Acti does not mean "the thirsty dead" in Latin, still less in Greek. Nor is it the name, in either language, for the act of pouring a libation. Whoever wrote that seems to have visited http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2004/10/thirsty-dead.html and mistaken the title of the day's essay for a translation of the title of the blog as a whole. I'm removing the erroneous sentence, and cleaning up the grammar of the previous one, which asserts that shades in Hades are composed of barley, wine, honey and water.