Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

iv] Sanctity of Birds 117
In the last two chapters we have seen that magic takes its
rise, not only or chiefly in any mistaken theory, but in a thing
done, a Spco/xevov, predone. We have further passed in review, in
unavoidable fusion and confusion, three stages of magical development
; we have seen magic as open and public, an affair of the
tribe, we have seen it as the work of a specialized group, and last,
as the work of an individual medicine-man or medicine-king.
Further, we have seen the magical efficacy of birds, as first making,
and then foretelling, the weather. Finally we have seen, in the
figure of Picus, the strange blend of bird-magician and human
king. The cause of these various stages of magic, and the social
conditions underlying the fusion of man and bird or beast will be
examined in the next chapter, when we come to the question of
sacrifice and the social, totemistic conditions that underlay it.
This brings us to the second rite in the Kouretic initiation of
a Bacchos, the omophagia.
Picus Martius.