Why did pagans take their meat to pagan priests?
Pagans in Corinth feared demons could enter their bodies through meat. Believing a demon could attach to the food, they brought meat to pagan priests who pronounced a blessing to keep demons off it, so the meat could be eaten safely.
Les explains that pagan religion kept people steeped in superstition and fear of the gods and demons in the air. These idolatrous pagans in Corinth were so aware of the power of the demons of the air that their superstitious minds reasoned a demon could enter the body most easily by getting on the meat. To contradict that fear, they took their meat to their pagan priests, who put some kind of blessing on it to keep the demons off their meat, so they could eat it safely. Les notes similar demonic reality in places like Haiti with voodooism, and that demonism was real at Christ's time and Paul's time.