Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

Purpose of the Dipolieia 599

natural kind of animate or inanimate things, most generally to some kind of animal.
Every animal of this kind is looked upon as a brother, is treated with the same respect
as a human clansman, and is believed to aid his human relations by a variety of friendly
services' (ib. p. 124)...'precisely this kind of respect and reverence is paid to domestic
animals among many pastoral peoples in various parts of the globe. They are regarded
°n the one hand as the friends and kinsmen of men, and on the other hand as sacred
beings of a nature akin to the gods; their slaughter is permitted only under exceptional
C1rcumstances, and in such cases is never used to provide a private meal, but necessarily
forms the occasion of a public feast, if not of a public sacrifice' (ib. p. 296). Robertson
Smith was followed by Farnell Cults of Gk. States i. 88 ff., S. Reinach in the Revue
Sc**ntifiquc 13 octobre 1900 ( = id. Cultes, mythes, et religions Paris 1905 i. 18 f.), and
Harrison Themis'1 p. 141 ff. But 'it is not yet certain that the Aryans ever had totemism'
(Frazer Golden Bought: Spirits of Corn and Wild ii. 4, cp. id. Totemism and Exogamy
lv- 12 ff.), and Robertson Smith's theory of sacrifice has been severely handled (W. Schmidt
Origin and Growth of Religion trans. H. J. Rose London 1931 p. 108 f.).
(2) H. von Prott 'Buphonien' in the Rhein. Mus. 1897 lii. 1878". held that the ox
slain at the Bouphonia was an animal surrogate for a man. ' Ich sehe nur eine MSglichkeit:
^er Stier ist an die Stelle eines Menschen getreten.... In der heissen, den Unterirdischen
Seweihten Jahreszeit nach der Ernte ist in alter Zeit dem Stadtschirmer Athens ein
plensch erschlagen1 (* Wahrscheinlich vom Zeuspriester, wie die Diomoslegende ja auch
*eWem povrtiiros kennt) und in eine Grube geworfen worden. Der Priester muss mit
utschuld beladen fliehen, die That wird im Prytaneion untersucht.... Als fur das
1 ienschenopfer wie in so vielen Fallen das Thieropfer eintritt, dauert die alte Sitte in
j n f°rti der Stier wird als Mensch behandelt' (ib, p. 202). B. Laum Das Eisengeld
er Spartaner Braunsberg 1924 p. 47 goes further in the same direction, maintaining that
r'gWally a mystic garbed as a ravpos was killed and eaten. Such views receive some
suPport from the Tenedian cult of Dionysos 'AvdpuiroppataT-qs (supra i. 659 f.), the Chian
and Tenedian cult of Dionysos 'Qp.ddioi (supra i. 656), the Ephesian cult of Poseidon
L n ^v human ToCpoi (supra i. 442), etc. and hardly merit the curt dismissal of
Luf eu',ner Attische Feste Berlin 1932 p. 171 ' Protts Deutung...schwebt ganz in der

Una ist fast allgemein abgelehnt worden.'
th ^ann'iar(lt Mythologische Forschungen Strassburg 1884 p. 68 ff., arguing that

t^6 ate °f the festival (Skirophorion 14: supra p. 576) corresponded with the close of
a . ng in Attike, took the ox killed at the Bouphonia to be the ' Vegetationsdamon' in
(<^y a f°rm. His interpretation has been widely accepted, e.g. by Nilsson Gr. Feste p. 27
koi u" nUn *^as Stieropfer an Zeus Sosipolis [supra i. 717 n. 2] mit Recht durch das
Veri °pfer

an Zeus Polieus [supra p. 564 ff.] mit dem Stieropfer der Buphonien in
str . °-ung gebracht worden ist, kann man sich doch zuletzt gegeniiber den wider-
S0 . . n Meinungen uber dieses Fest entscheiden; denn wenn der Stier des Zeus
,„ ein Korngeist ist, muss der des Zeus Polieus es auch seiu') and Frazer Golden
have Plnls °f Corn and Wild ii. 6 ff. ('The ox sacrificed at the bouphonia appears to
\vnjcjiemD°d'ed the corn-spirit.' 'The mode of selecting the victim suggests that the ox
tirr,e ofaSte<^ tne corn was viewed as the corn-deity taking possession of his own'... 'The
the Tvh t'le ^tnen'an sacrifice, which fell about the close of the threshing, suggests that
characteat ancl harley laid upon the altar were a harvest offering; and the sacramental
"lake itr °f tlle suusequent repast—all partaking of the flesh of the divine animal —would
ai,imal ^ Parallel to the harvest-suppers of modern Europe, in which...the flesh of the
the sacT ° Stands for tne corn-spirit is eaten by the harvesters. Again, the tradition that
of ta^;," lce Was instituted in order to put an end to drought and famine is in favour
tlle stuff8 f aS a harvest festival. The resurrection of the corn-spirit, enacted by setting up
Uee"spirk •°* yolcinS it: to the plough, may be compared with the resurrection of the
P. 208).' sm the P^on of his representative, the Wild Man1 ('See The Dying God,
Cotr>e om ' ' m°re clearlv> perhaps, does the identification of the corn-spirit with an ox
'n honour" f Sacrificial ritual which the Greeks of Magnesia on the Maeander observed
Zeus Sosipolis, a god whose title...marks him as the equivalent of Zeus