hecatomb

• The massacre of a few priests and aristocrats confined in the fortress of Pierre-Scixe, was a pitiful sacrifice; and Chalier, ambitious of deeds more decisive, caused a general arrest of an hundred principal citizens, whom he destined as a hecatomb more worthy of the demon whom he served This sacrifice was prevented by the courage of the Lyonnois; a courage which, if assumed by the Parisians, might have prevented most of the horrors which disgraced the revolution. —  Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs
• But come now, let us consult some prophet, or priest, or even one who is informed by dreams (for dream also is from Jove),[12] who would tell us on what account Phoebus Apollo is so much enraged with us: whether he blames us on account of a vow [unperformed], or a hecatomb [unoffered]; and whether haply he may be willing, having partaken of the savour of lambs and unblemished goats, to avert from us the pestilence Footnote 9: The force of ἄρα is noticed by Nägelsbach Footnote 10: Or "white." —  The Iliad of Homer (1873)
• We heard, above our heads, the hissing and cracking of the fire; we contemplated with awe the flames, which were roaring along the edge of the precipice--now rising, now lowering, just as if they would leap over the space and annihilate all life in these western solitudes We were preserved; our fall had been broken by the animals, who had taken the leap a second before us, and by the thousands of bodies which were heaped up as a hecatomb, and received us as a cushion below. —  Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet
• The ancient Pythoness must have a hecatomb, the writing medium a dollar, and the modern Pythoness of the platform a dime. —  Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith Being an Examination of the Evidences of Infidelity
• He created the world in the beginning; and as at the close of each successive year he sets free the current of life to invigorate a fresh circle of being, so in the end of all things he will bring the weary sum of ages as a hecatomb before God, releasing by a final sacrifice the Soul of Nature from her perishable frame, to commence a brighter and purer existence Iamblichus (_De Mys_. —  Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the Same Context