Editing Blood libel (section)

===Possible precursors===
The earliest known antecedent is tenth century, from Damocritus (not [[Democritus]] the philosopher) mentioned in the [[Suda]],<ref>[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3408-blood-accusation#3489 Blood Accusation] in ''Jewish Encyclopedia''. (Richard Gottheil, Hermann L. Strack, Joseph Jacobs). Accessed 31 October 2018. Note that the version of the Jewish Encyclopedia here quoted misspells the name ''Damocritus'' as ''Democritus'', the name of an unrelated philosopher.</ref> who alleged that "every seven years the Jews captured a stranger, brought him to the temple in [[Jerusalem]], and sacrificed him, cutting his flesh into bits."<ref name="Patterson2015">{{cite book |first=David |last=Patterson |title=Anti-Semitism and Its Metaphysical Origins |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F_1DBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |year=2015 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-107-04074-8 |page=1}}</ref> The Greco-Egyptian author [[Apion]] claimed that the Jews sacrificed Greek victims in [[Second Temple|their temple]]. Here, the writer states that when [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes|Antiochus Epiphanes]] entered the temple in Jerusalem, he discovered a Greek captive, who told him that he was being fattened for sacrifice. Every year, Apion claimed, the Jews would sacrifice a Greek and consume his flesh, at the same time swearing eternal hatred towards the Greeks.<ref>Louis H. Feldman, ''Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian'', Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1993. pp. 126–127.</ref> Apion's claim likely reflects already circulating attitudes towards Jews as similar claims are made by [[Posidonius]] and [[Apollonius Molon]] in the 1st century BCE.<ref name=Feldmanp1996p293>Feldman, Louis H. ''Studies in Hellenistic Judaism'', Brill, 1996, p. 293.</ref> This idea is exampled later in history, when [[Socrates Scholasticus]] ({{floruit}} 5th century) reported that in a drunken frolic, a group of Jews bound a Christian child to a cross in mockery of the death of Christ and scourged him until he died.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/syriabloodlibel.html |title=Blood libel in Syria |publisher=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org |access-date=2010-01-23}}</ref>{{bsn|date=April 2025}}