Buphonia

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With buphonia or Bouphonia ( ancient Greek βουφόνια , ox murder ' ) refers to an animal sacrifice, which took place in the archaic and classical Athens at the annual festival.

History and legend

The ritual was performed on the 14th day of the Skirophorion ( Σκιροφοριών , June – July), the last month of the Attic year. The sacrifice was presented to Zeus Polieus on the Acropolis , and the ceremonies in which the ritual took place were called Dipolieia ( Διπολίεια or Διπόλεια ). Because of its peculiarity, the ritual has been handed down in great detail. It may have been the sole form or the main form of the Athenian annual festival at times, as in some Ionian calendars the last month of the year is called bouphonion . The Dipolieia took place until the 2nd century AD and were already in force in the 5th century BC. BC as very old, as Aristophanes suggests, who uses the words dipolieia and bouphonia in the clouds to denote "old (meaningless) braid".

The founding legend is handed down by several sources (including Theophrast at Porphyrios and in the Suda ). According to a variant of the legend, which has been handed down differently, at the time of King Erechtheus in Athens only vegetable offerings were offered to the gods. An ox approached the altar during such a sacrifice and consumed the grain consecrated to Zeus. Out of anger for this desecration, a farmer named Thaulon (or Sopatros or Diomos ) struck the ox with an ax and then fled. That was the first ever ox to be killed and was punished by the gods with a plague in the country. The Oracle of Delphi then ordered the sacrifice to be repeated annually. The Thaulonids descend from the "ox murderer".

Course of the ritual

The course of the sacrificial rite is described by several authors, including Pausanias and Porphyrios , with some inconsistencies. A row of oxen - accompanied by girls carrying water, according to Porphyrios - is led around in a procession around an altar that is covered with grain and pastries. The first ox to eat the grain is knocked down on the spot. The "ox-beater" - a thaulonide - throws down the hatchet or ax and flees. Then the animal is cut up and eaten by other participants. Subsequently, a dispute takes place in the Prytaneion , whereby the participants blame each other for the death of the ox: the water carriers (the water was intended for sharpening the ax) blame those who sharpened the ax; these accuse those who carried the hatchet, who in turn accuse the butcher. It is not clear whether the "ox beater" disappeared during the dispute. Ultimately, the blame is placed on the hatchet, which is cursed and thrown into the sea for it. According to Porphyrios, at the end of the ritual the skin of the sacrificed ox is stuffed, it is set up and stretched to a plow.

Religious-historical approaches

The peculiarity of the characteristics of the sacrifice in the ritual of bouphónia is the main reason why the process of the ritual is comparatively well known. These features have been interpreted differently in anthropological research and in research on the history of religion. The occurrence of guilt and quarreling as part of an otherwise common practice for ancient Greeks such as the sacrifice of an animal raises most of the questions.

Karl Meuli downplayed the peculiarity of the buphonia ritual. For Meuli, the ritual shows the usual course of sacrificial rites, only the "innocence comedy" about the killing of the ox emerges abundantly here.

For Walter Burkert , the ritual reflects the fearful tension and guilt that any killing brings with it, especially that of a breeding animal that is essential for survival. The assignment of guilt between the participants and the final banishment of the ax serve to burden the whole community with the guilt and ultimately to exonerate it. These tensions are an expression of the idea of ​​the end and the new beginning, which is typical of the New Year celebrations.

Other interpreters see the guilt of the "ox beater" as a constant reminder that the ox was originally killed on behalf of a person, or they argue that the killing of a working animal was not a common form of sacrifice after all. The expulsion of an object - the ax - was a normal legal act for the Athenians if the object caused the death of a person.

Fred Naiden, following the critics of late antiquity, rejects the version of Porphyry and starts from the representation of Pausanias. According to Pausanias, the ritual process was the origin of jurisdiction over serious crimes in the Prytaneion . Fred Naiden therefore suggests that the Buphonia should remind of the origin of a dish and were not intended as an expression of an original condemnation of the practice of animal sacrifice.

literature

  • Walter Burkert : Homo necans. Interpretations of ancient Greek sacrificial rites and myths. 2nd Edition. De Gruyter, Berlin 1997, pp. 154-161.
  • Albert Henrichs : Bouphonia. In: The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford 1996; De Gruyter, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-044924-2 (accessed from De Gruyter Online), pp. 87-89.
  • Walter Woodburn Hyde : The Prosecution of Lifeless Things and Animals in Greek Law. In: American Journal of Philology . Volume 38, 1917, pp. 152-175, 285-303 ( part 1 , part 2 ).
  • Marilyn A. Katz: Ox-Slaughter and Goring Oxen: Homicide, AnimalSacrifice, and Judicial Process. In: Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities. Volume 4, 1992, pp. 249-278 ( PDF ).
  • Fred Naiden : Bouphonia. In: The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Volume 3. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 2013, p. 1179.
  • Herbert W. Parke: Festivals of the Athenians. Cornell University Press, New York 1977, pp. 162-167.
  • Paul Stengel : Buphonias. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie . New episode. Volume 52, 1897, pp. 399-411.

Remarks

  1. Scholion zu Aristophanes , Der Frieden 419; Etymologicum magnum 210.30.
  2. Aristophanes, The Clouds 984.
  3. ^ Androtion in the Scholion to Aristophanes, The clouds 985.
  4. Theophrast in Porphyrios, de abstinentia 2,29.
  5. Porphyrios, de abstinentia 2:10.
  6. Karl Meuli: Greek sacrificial customs. Schwabe, Basel 1946, quoted by Walter Burkert: Homo necans. Interpretations of ancient Greek sacrificial rites and myths. 2nd Edition. De Gruyter, Berlin 1997, p. 159.
  7. ^ Walter Burkert: Homo necans. Interpretations of ancient Greek sacrificial rites and myths. 2nd Edition. De Gruyter, Berlin 1997, pp. 154-161.
  8. See Herbert W. Parke: Festivals of the Athenians. Cornell University Press, New York 1977, pp. 162-167.
  9. Eusebius of Caesarea , Praeparatio evangelica 2.26; Hesych sv Διὸς θᾶκοι .
  10. Pausanias 1,28,10-11.
  11. Fred Naiden: Bouphonia. In: The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Volume 3. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 2013, p. 1179 ..