Animal and human sacrifices are found throughout ancient mythology, and that’s the case for (hu)man’s best friends, too. (For the dog-lovers, it’s all right: We’re not going to get into the grisly specifics of this one, because there’s nothing that ruins a story like the death of a dog.) Dogs had an incredibly important place in both Roman mythology and the real world: They could not only see the supernatural, but they were also protectors of the home, family, and flock. Unfortunately, when it came time to appease the gods and ensure an abundant harvest, well, dogs were front and center there, too.
The sacrifice of red dogs — and sometimes red puppies — was at the center of a festival called Robigalia. Robigus was the god of not only rust and mildew, but of the kind of blight that can destroy entire fields of crops. He was apparently appeased by the sacrifice of dogs, making him someone that we definitely are putting on a list of some sort… and not a good one.
Dogs were also sacrificed to deities called the Lares Praestites — by priests who would also wear their skins — and to Hontia, an Umbrian goddess of destruction. Those sacrifices were meant in the standard sort of appeasing-evil kind of way, and here’s an extra-terrible footnote: Puppies were considered pure creatures, which made them not only perfect sacrifices, but the ideal main courses in banquets honoring the various gods.
