Rituals of the Gods- Marraige of Cadmus & Harmony

A few rituals I noticed when reading Cadmus & Harmony...
"Their sham takes in the admirers of Sparta in other cities, who thus butcher their ears to imitate them, put leather bands around their legs, go to gymnasiums and wear short tunics, imagining that these are the keys to Sparta's supremacy among the Greeks."

"They put earrings on crocodiles. When they died they laid them out in huge subterranean vaults. Cities of the Crocodiles. When there was a fire, the only thing they worried about was saving the cats. And the cats, in turn, threw themselves into the fires."

"They had to respond to that invasion, and in so doing they chose their own way of communication with the gods: they would share the same victim, eating its blood and guts and leaving the smoke to the gods. That was the basis of the "Olympian sacrifice." That is why thyein, "to sacrifice," actually means "to fumigate": it was a slightly hypocritical homage to the divine."

"The most discreet and delicate way of having the gods understand the irreversible, scourge of all mortals, was the libation: you poured a noble liquid onto the ground and lost it forever. It was an act of homage, of course: the recognition of the presence and rights of an invisible power. But it was something else as well: an attempt to make conversation. As if men were saying to the gods, Whatever we do, we are this liquid poured away."

"First they helped Hera to bathe the statue like a bride in the river Asopus. Then they followed the chariot as far as a clearing topped by oaks on the summit of Mount Cithaeron. The goddess ordered them to build a big bonfire. She placed the statue with its torn veils in the middle. And all around, on the trunks forming the bonfire, the faithful heaped up their animals. the richest even offered cows and bulls. They poured on wine and incense. The the goddess set it alight. The statue was reduced to ashes while the shrieks of the animals being burned alive drowned  out the crackling of the flames. Many years later, in the same place, the ceremony was still being performed. Pausanias saw the pyre and said: I know of no fire so high, nor visible from so far off."