hecatomb in Greece, originally the sacrifice of a hundred oxen (hekaton bous); the term came to be used even in Homer of any great sacrifice of animals. Hekatombaion was the name of a month at Athens, ‘the time when hecatombs are offered’.

Obscure Words: hecatomb

[fr. L. hecatombe < Gk hekatombe] /HEK uh tome/ (or -tum)
1) an ancient Greek and Roman sacrifice consisting typically of 100 oxen or cattle transf. and fig.: 2) the sacrifice or slaughter of many victims 3) a large number or quantity

Wikipedia: hecatomb

For the collectible card game, see Hecatomb (card game).

In Ancient Greece, a Hecatomb (Ancient Greek ἑκατόμβη / hekatómbê) was the sacrifice to the gods of 100 cattle (hecaton = one hundred).

In the Iliad hecatombs are described formulaically. The following is one instance, from Samuel Butler's translation:

[T]hey ranged the holy hecatomb all orderly round the altar of the god. They washed their hands and took up the barley-meal to sprinkle over the victims [cattle], while [the priest] lifted up his hands and prayed aloud on their behalf.

...

When they had done praying and sprinkling the barley-meal, they drew back the heads of the victims and killed and flayed them. They cut out the thigh-bones, wrapped them round in two layers of fat, set some pieces of raw meat on the top of them, and then [the priest] laid them on the wood fire and poured wine over them, while the young men stood near him with five-pronged spits in their hands. When the thigh-bones were burned and they had tasted the inward meats, they cut the rest up small, put the pieces upon the spits, roasted them till they were done, and drew them off: then, when they had finished their work and the feast was ready, they ate it, and every man had his full share, so that all were satisfied. As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink, pages filled the mixing-bowl with wine and water and handed it round, after giving every man his drink-offering.

Thus all day long the young men worshipped the god with song, hymning him and chaunting the joyous paean, and the god took pleasure in their voices[.]

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more
		Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Hecatomb". Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more

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