Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

Zeus and Bovine Omophagy 659

phagus (?)-relief in the Villa Albani (fig. 506)1 shows portions of
two scenes from Cretan legend. On the right is one of the
Kouretes guarding the infant god. On the left three Titans make
their murderous attack on Zagreus2.

(£) The Cretan Zeus and Bovine Omophagy.

But to the Greek or Roman of classical times human sacrifice
in general and cannibalistic omophagy in particular was a half-
forgotten piece of barbarism3. A possible substitute for the victim
was an ox4. A case in point is the curious sacrifice of a bull-calf
at Tenedos, concerning which Aelian5 writes:

'The Tenedians keep a pregnant cow for Dionysos Anthroftorrhaistes, "Smiter
of Men," and, when it has brought forth, they tend it like a woman in child-bed.
But the new-born young they sacrifice, after binding buskins upon its feet. The
man who strikes it with the axe, however, is pelted with stones by the populace
and runs away till he reaches the sea.'

In this singular rite the calf dressed in buskins was obviously the
surrogate for a human victim in Dionysiac attire. We must suppose
that originally a child, not a calf, was struck by the axe. And
this raises the question whether the axe that struck him was
not the very embodiment of the god, Dionysos 'Smiter of men6.'

1 G. Zoega Li bassirilievi antichi di Roma Roma 1808 ii. iyoff. pi. 81, F. Lenormant
in the Gaz. Arch. 1879 v. 28 f. fig., Reinach Rep. Reliefs hi. 136 no. 3.

2 Helbig Guide Class. Ant. Rome ii. 90 no. 854 takes them to be ' rustics with
beards, whipping a naked boy' ! But why three of them (of the third the left foot only
is seen) ? And why such a frantic attitude on his part ? Very different is the young
Satyr lashed by Silenos on a sarcophagus representing the education of Dionysos (Stuart
Jones Cat. Sculpt. Mus. Capit. Rome p. 1176°. no. 46 a pi. 24). Even if it could be
proved that we have in the Albani relief merely a genre-scene, it would still remain
probable that the type was based on a mythological Vorbild.

3 See e.g. Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 922 ff. and Index s.v. ' Menschenopfer' for the
Greek evidence, Prof. J. S. Reid ' Human Sacrifices at Rome and other notes on Roman
Religion' in the Journ. Rom. Stud. 1912 i. 34 ff. for the Roman.

4 Porph. de abst. 2. 54 f. = Euseb. praep. ev. 4. 16. 2 f. (of the man sacrificed at
Salamis in Kypros to Agraulos or Diomedes) tovtov de tov 6eap.bv AL<pi\os 6 tt}s Kvirpov
j3aai\evs nareXvcre, Kara tovs SeXeu/cov XP0V0VS T°v deoXoyov yevopcevos, to edos els f3ovdvo~iap
ixeraarr}eras. irpoarjKaTO 5' 0 daLfxwv avri dvOpdoirov tov fiovv ovtios iad^Lov eo~Tiv to 8pdo~
fxevov, supra p. 417 n. 5.

5 Ail. de nat. an. 12. 34 TevedtoL de T<p 'AvOpcoiroppaiaTrj Aiovuo~(p Tpe<povai Kvovaav
fiovv, TeKovaav 8e apa avTTjv ola drjirov Ae%cb depaweijovcri. to 8e dpTL-yeves (3pe<pos /cara-
6vovo~lv vTro(!)7)o~avTes Kodopvovs. 0 ye pJqv 7rard£as clvto Tip ireXeKei \L6ols /3dAAercu dq/Aoaia,
Kai eo~Te eiri tt\v Q6Xo.tto.v cpetiyeL.

Strattis the comedian wrote a play entitled 'A.vdpwTroppaio-Ttjs, of which two fragments
are extant {Frag. com. Gr. i. 224, ii. 763 f. Meineke).

6 Farnell Cults of Gk. States v. 164 f. says: 'the cult-term dvdpwiroppaLo-Tiqs.. .must be
interpreted as the "render of men." ' But this is a somewhat inexact translation appa-
rently based on the ritual of Dionysos 'tip-ddios in the same island (supra p. 656). The verb

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