Animal sacrifice usuually took place right after a procession through the city along with singing and dancing led by a girl with a basket of grain on her head, which led to the temple. Outside the temple was an altar which the animal (usually a bull; sometimes a chicken ), free of deformity and illness, would have been placed upon and killed by the professional priests and butchers. After the bull was led to the altar, the priests and butchers would then 'purify' their hands by washing them with ordinary water. Then the animal was asked whether or not it wanted to be sacrificed (it always wanted to be), and then the animal would be placed upon the altar. The girl would then pour grain all over the animal's body, and the priest took a knife that was hidden in the basket and cut three hairs off the body of the animal and threw them in the fire. Then two men cut the bull's head from its spine, women would let out a shriek, and the blood was caught in a basin. The purpose of this sacrifice was to please the gods, snd to ask them for something like rain.
Skeen, Bradley. "religion and cosmology in ancient Greece." In Bogucki, Peter, ed. Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Ancient and Medieval History Online. Facts On File, Inc.
http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE49&iPin=ESCAW552&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 10, 2008).
Corinthian. Around 540-530 BC. AD National Archaeological Museum of Athens, No. 16,464."
Athenian red-figure vase, 430-420 BC(now in the Louvre)
Athenian red-figure vase, 430-425 BC(now in the Louvre)
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