Sacrificial victim

A sacrificial victim (from Latin victima) is a living being that is killed and offered as a sacrifice. It may refer to:

• Animal sacrifice, the ritual killing and offering of an animal, usually as part of a religious ritual or to appease or maintain favour with a deity
  • Sacrificial lamb, a metaphorical reference to a person or animal sacrificed for the common good
• Human sacrifice, the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/priestly figure, spirits or the dead ancestors, such as a propitiatory offerings or as a retainer sacrifice when a king's servants are killed in order for them to continue to serve their master in the next life
  • Child sacrifice, the ritualistic killing of children in order to please or appease a deity, supernatural beings, or sacred social order, tribal, group or national loyalties in order to achieve a desired result
• Sacrifice in ancient Greek religion
  • Sacrificial victims of Minotaur, 14 young noble Athenians (seven young men and seven maidens) chosen to be offered as sacrificial victims to the half-human, half-taurine monster Minotaur to be killed in retribution for the death of Minos' son Androgeos
• Sacrifice in ancient Roman religion
  • Hostia, an offering, usually an animal, in a sacrifice
  • Victima, an animal offering in a sacrifice, or very rarely a human