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

CHAPTEE V.
TOTEMISM, SACRAMENT AND SACRIFICE.
'What meanest thou by this word Sacrament?'
We have seen how the mystic, at his initiation by the
Kouretes, 'accomplished the Thunders.' Another rite remains,
more dread and, to our modern thinking 1
, utterly
repugnant.
Before he can become a Bacchos, the candidate must have
Fulfilled his red and bleeding feasts 2 .
The omophagia or Eating of Raw Flesh was a rite not confined
to the Kouretic initiation of a Bacchos. We meet it again in the
Thracian worship of Dionysos. The Bacchae when they recount
to vofuo-Oevra, their accustomed rites, sing the glory and
joy of the quick red fountains,
The blood of the hill-goat torn 3 .
The Bacchoi in Crete eat of a bull, the Bacchae in Thrace and
Macedon of a hill-goat ; the particular animal matters little, the
essential is that there should be a communal feast of Raw Flesh,
a Scu