The gate of the year

The Buphonia

Detail of the marble frieze of the Parthenon, dating to about 480 B.C., now in the Acropolis Museum, Athens. The scene represents a group of men conducting some bulls to the sacrifice. In Athens, in the month of Skirophoriòn (June-July), were held the Dipolia, feasts in honor of Zeus Polieus, protector of the city, during which a sacrifice took place, called Buphonia. The peculiarity of this ritual consisted in the fact that of the various oxen which were brought around the altar, on the upper part of the Acropolis, the first which came near the offerings was slaughtered with an ax, and then the sacrificer threw away the weapon with which he had killed the animal and fled. After the banquet, in which the meat of the victim was consummated, a sort of trial was performed, in the course of which were established the responsibilities for the killing of the animal, and at last the fault fell on the ax itself, which was found guilty and thrown into the sea. The skin of the slaughtered ox was filled with hay, and yoked to a plow, probably to symbolize the rebirth of the animal. It might appear unusual that the sacrificial killing of an animal could bring about a sense of guilt, but the origin myth of the ceremony can help in the understanding. Sopatros, a citizen of foreign origin, had killed an ox for the simple reason that it had come near the altar on which he had just put the offerings from the products of his fields. Repenting, he had fled to Crete, but was called back by the Athenians because an oracle had indicated him as the only one who could put an end to the epidemic which scourged the city. It was then celebrated an expiatory ritual, in which Sopatros repeated the ox’s killing in the presence of the citizenry, which was then followed by a banquet and a trial to determine the culpable. According to Burkert this ritual reveals the traces of ancient hunting rituals, which later on developed into animal sacrifices, but retained the function of cleansing and expiation for the killing of the prey (Burkert 1983).

[Source: http://library.artstor.org/library/]




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The Buphonia Detail of the marble frieze of the Parthenon, dating to about 480 B.C., now in the Acropolis Museum, Athens. The scene represents a group of men conducting some bulls to the sacrifice. In Athens, in the month of Skirophoriòn (June-July), were held the Dipolia, feasts in honor of Zeus Polieus, protector of the city, during which a sacrifice took place, called Buphonia. The peculiarity of this ritual consisted in the fact that of the various oxen which were brought around the altar, on the upper part of the Acropolis, the first which came near the offerings was slaughtered with an ax, and then the sacrificer threw away the weapon with which he had killed the animal and fled. After the banquet, in which the meat of the victim was consummated, a sort of trial was performed, in the course of which were established the responsibilities for the killing of the animal, and at last the fault fell on the ax itself, which was found guilty and thrown into the sea. The skin of the slaughtered ox was filled with hay, and yoked to a plow, probably to symbolize the rebirth of the animal. It might appear unusual that the sacrificial killing of an animal could bring about a sense of guilt, but the origin myth of the ceremony can help in the understanding. Sopatros, a citizen of foreign origin, had killed an ox for the simple reason that it had come near the altar on which he had just put the offerings from the products of his fields. Repenting, he had fled to Crete, but was called back by the Athenians because an oracle had indicated him as the only one who could put an end to the epidemic which scourged the city. It was then celebrated an expiatory ritual, in which Sopatros repeated the ox’s killing in the presence of the citizenry, which was then followed by a banquet and a trial to determine the culpable. According to Burkert this ritual reveals the traces of ancient hunting rituals, which later on developed into animal sacrifices, but retained the function of cleansing and expiation for the killing of the prey (Burkert 1983). [Source: http://library.artstor.org/library/]