Buzygen

The Buzygen or Buzygai ( Greek  Βουζύγαι ) were an Athenian priestly family in ancient Greece. Its name is derived from the hero Buzyges (ancient Greek: "bull hooker"), who was associated with the introduction of agriculture .

Ritual and religion

Every year, the Buzygen was responsible for the solemn opening of the cultivation and, according to several documents, the hereditary priesthood of Zeus Teleios and Zeus at the Palladion. The most important representatives of the sex are Pericles and his father Xanthippus .

According to August Mommsen , Epimenides is considered to be its founder or expander, as he was sometimes referred to as "Buzyges" or inventor of the plow. According to Mommsen, a religion that was independent of the goddess Demeter and the place Eleusis had previously existed among the Buzygen, which was based on the agrarian Athena and possibly also on Zeus . Apparently, through a reform, the buzygic worship was combined with that of Demeter in Eleusis, and in the Proerosia (processions from Athens to Eleusis, in which three holy plowings occurred), plowing by Athena and Demeter was combined. The law of the Athenian-Eleusinian state came out in the proclamations of the Buzygen on the Proerosia Day throughout Attica. The Buzygen was responsible for the care of the holy cattle and it was they who plowed in Eleusis.

The sacred plows were seen as a religious signal to sow. The first plowing was held at a sanctuary of "Athena Skiras" on the road to Eleusis to commemorate the first and oldest sowing. The second took place on the “rare field” near Eleusis, which, according to legend, is the oldest arable farming site. The third was carried out in the service of the "Athena Polias" under the castle (Acropolis) by the Buzygen, where they uttered their violent curses loudly.

Eleusinian

The Eleusinians were part of a ritual asking for the assistance of the gods for the harvest. Especially after a bad harvest, people humbly and remorsefully came to the altar to cast off any sins that might have angered or offended the gods. The Buzyans spoke about these sins on the festival of Proerosia while they plowed through the earth uttering curses that came when a person sinned against certain laws. Whoever wanted to reap the blessings of the gods in the coming year had to prove to be humane, helpful and decent, for example. This included that he did not deny a supplicant water or stove, that he showed the stray wanderer the right way or treated the neighbor as he would like to be treated himself. If he did not obey it, the curses of the Buzygen and the terrible vengeance of the gods hit him. As Athens was still largely dependent on agriculture at that time, the buzygian curses conveyed these simplest commandments of charity to the peasants through the priests.

literature

• Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Buzyges . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, column 839 ( digitized version ).
• August Mommsen: Heortology. Antiquarian studies of the urban festivals of the Athenians. BR Grüner, Amsterdam 1968 (reprint), OCLC 2216285 .
• Johannes Toepffer : Buzygai . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Sp. 1094-1096.
• Walter Burkert: Buzyge and Palladion. Violence and judgment in ancient Greek ritual. EJ Brill, Cologne 1970, OCLC 602460138 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} heortology. Antiquarian studies of the urban festivals of the Athenians on archive.org, accessed on May 10, 2014.