@inproceedings{627b9420df4a46e6801da642a4197ce5,
title = "To Drink Bull´s Blood: An analysis of the Story of Midas",
abstract = "This paper deals with the famous account of how Midas committed suicide by drinking bull{\textquoteright}s blood. There was a widespread ancient belief that you would die from consuming the blood of a bull, but from a medical point of view it is not poisonous to drink bull{\textquoteright}s blood. This paper has its point of departure in this erroneous ancient perception, and analyses what may lay behind the idea that Midas as well as other prominent men, like Themistocles and Hannibal, committed suicide by drinking bull{\textquoteright}s blood. It is suggested that the concept of drinking bull{\textquoteright}s blood had its roots in religion, and parallels are drawn between Phrygian funerary material and the Hittite ritual {\textquoteleft}to drink the soul of the deceased king{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}to drink a god{\textquoteright}. On basis of the material examined it is plausible that a similar ritual existed in Phrygian religion.",
author = "\{Berndt Ers{\"o}z\}, Susanne",
year = "2019",
language = "English",
isbn = "978-90-429-3738-3",
series = "Colloquia Antiqua",
publisher = "Peeters Publishers",
pages = "93--108",
editor = "Tsetskhladze, \{Gocha R.\}",
booktitle = "Phrygia in Antiquity: From the Bronse Age to the Byzantine period",
address = "Belgium",
}