hecatomb
Hundred oxen slain
A hecatomb is a great slaughter or sacrifice, originally of a hundred oxen in ancient Greece.
The word now appears in literary or historical contexts describing mass death or destruction: The battle was a hecatomb—thousands fell in a single day.
It carries a sense of ritual or deliberate sacrifice rather than random killing.
Sacred ritual table
- offeringSomething presented or given
- ritualCeremonial set of actions
- oxenCastrated male cattle
- cattleDomesticated bovines kept commercially
immolation · libation · Apollo · temple · consecration · bloodletting · pyre · Greek
Large-scale unlawful killing
- slaughterKilling for meat
- bloodbathEvent of mass killing
- devastationSevere widespread destruction
- annihilationUtter, complete destruction
butchery · decimation · extermination · casualty · warfare · battlefield · genocide · atrocity
altar
Sacred ritual table
cattle · immolation · libation · Apollo · temple · consecration · bloodletting · pyre · Greek · propitiation
massacre
Large-scale unlawful killing
- slaughterKilling for meat
- bloodbathEvent of mass killing
- devastationSevere widespread destruction
annihilation · butchery · decimation · extermination · casualty · warfare · battlefield · genocide · atrocity · holocaust
hundred
Ten squared
countless · innumerable · legion · myriad · wholesale · vast · extensive · monumental · colossal · staggering
hecatombpreservation
Maintaining something's condition
survival · rescue · salvation · deliverance · sparing
hecatombincrease
Growth in amount
population boom · proliferation · baby boom · growth · flourishing