Since ancient times, blood has been regarded as one of the most important fluids secreted by the human body.
A large amount of blood is associated with an ominous death by itself, and the flowing of blood through the body evokes the vivacious power of life.
Blood is such an ambiguity, as it is both impure and a sign of purity.
The ancient Aztecs held a ritual in which human blood was offered to the gods.
A young man was chosen to serve as an incarnation of the god Tezcatlipoca, and his heart and blood were offered to the gods with a prayer for fertility.
Additionally, the ancient Greeks saw a deep connection between blood and the underworld.
In Homer's Odyssey, the 8th-century BC poet describes a scene where the members of Odyssey sacrifice a sheep and makes the dead drink its blood.
After drinking the sacrificial blood, the dead regain enough life force to converse with them.
And, in the same work, Medea, a princess in Greek mythology, draws out all the blood from her father-in-law's body and infuses it with a potion she made herself to restore her youthful vitality.
On the other hand, diseases were also thought to be caused by bad blood in the body.
Bloodletting was frequently used as a treatment, and it was believed that the unclean blood of adults could be purified with the pure blood of children.
It is said that the Roman emperor Constantine soaked himself in the blood of 3000 children when he was ill, which suggests that such a myth was well known at the time. [Couldn't find anything about this.]
A person's total blood volume accounts for 1/13 of their body weight. A loss of a third of this volume is life-threatening, and of half, fatal.
Blood plays an important role in the body, supplying oxygen and nutrients to the cells, flushing waste products out, and regulating the body's water content, making it the very source of human life.
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