Hecatomb

Common card · No. 373836

In ancient Greece, a hecatomb (UK: ; US: ; Ancient Greek: ἑκατόμβη hekatómbē) was a sacrifice of one hundred cattle (hekaton "one hundred", bous "bull") to the Greek gods. In practice, as few as twelve could make up a hecatomb. Although originally the sacrifice of a hundred oxen in the religious ceremonies of the Greeks and Romans, later "hecatomb" came to describe a large number of any kind of animals devoted to sacrifice. Figuratively, "hecatomb" is used to describe the mass death by violence, disease, manmade or natural disasters of any large number of persons or animals; and also of the wholesale destruction of inanimate objects, and even of mental and moral attributes.

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