tophet

plural tophets

1. archaeologyA Carthaginian monument associated with a cemetery for ritually sacrificed children.

   They are an important factor indicating a corpus of beliefs common to the important central colonies (Carthage, Sousse, Motya, Sulcis, Nora, Tharros), where tophets and accompanying grave stelae have been found.

   1991, John Boardman, The Cambridge Ancient History (part 1, page 490)

1. biblicalA location near Jerusalem in the valley of Gehenna where children were burned alive as sacrifice.

   And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 7:31

2. Hell, Gehenna.

   In this Tophet, they commonly immolated their little children, and sometimes men of more yeers than discretion […]

   1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, section II

   3 more examples

   But already is the day of their avengement begun; the hero is at length arisen who shall send all such as bear enmity to the true Church, or trust in works of their own, to Tophet!

   1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

   It seemed the great Black Parliament sitting in Tophet. A hundred black faces turned round in their rows to peer; and beyond, a black Angel of Doom was beating a book in a pulpit. It was a negro church; and the preacher’s text was about the blackness of darkness, and the weeping and wailing and teeth-gnashing there. Ha, Ishmael, muttered I, backing out, Wretched entertainment at the sign of ‘The Trap!’

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 2”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   “Well,” I says, “I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC