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

154 Totemism, Sacrament and Sacrifice [ch.
Here we find ourselves in full Olympianism. The twelve gods,
primitive wooden images though they be, and decked in fine
raiment, are to be present at the festival. Thernistocles, we
remember, was the founder of Magnesia, and these twelve ancient
xoana are the counterpart of the twelve Olympians of the east
Parthenon frieze. But again it is clear that, honoured though
they are as guests, they are not integral to the ceremony. It is
expressly ordered indeed that Zeus Sosipolis should have a ram
sacrificed to him, Artemis a she-goat, and Apollo a young he-goat
(aTTvyos), but for the rest of the twelve no manner of provision is
made.
The added sacrifice of a ram to Zeus is, I think, highly signifi-
cant. The bull, one would have thought, might have sufficed.
But the reason is clear. The bull-sacrifice was at first no giftsacrifice
to Zeus or to any Olympian : it was, as immediately
appears, a dais—a communal meal. When they shall have sacrificed
the bull let them divide it up among those who took part in the
procession 1
. The mandate is clear. The bull is not a gift to Zeus,
but a vehicle of mana for distribution among the people. In him is
concentrated as it were the life of the year : he is the incarnate
ideal of the year; his life begins with the sowing, is cherished
through the winter, and when it comes to full maturity in the
early summer dies to live again in the people through the medium
of the sacrificial banquet. He is sacred rather than divine ; but
divinity is, we have seen, born of sanctification, and sacrifice is but
a sanctification to the uttermost. The bull is Sosipolis, Saviour of
the city, in the making 2 .
The bull-ceremony then had two acts, the dvdhei^ or indica-
tion, and the &u