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

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156 Totemism, Sacrament and Sacrifice [ch.
as best and fairest of the year, fittest vehicle of the life and mana
of the people and the crops, like to a corn spirit, but of wider
content. This holy vehicle of the year's mana, this eWauro?daimon
who died for the people, became at Delphi and in many
other places a bull-god, a divinity born of his own sacrifice,
i.e. of his own sanctification. At Magnesia he remains supremely
sanctified indeed, but mainly the material of a dais, a.sacramental
Feast. To us the sacrifice of a god seems a miracle or a blasphemy,
but when the god is seen to be begotten of the sacrifice the
anomaly is softened.
bull.
It remains to resume our argument as to the sacrifice of the
The bull is slain, not because his death has value to bribe or to
appease, but in order that he may be eaten. He is eaten because
he is holy ; he is holy because of the magical mana within him,
what Homer would call his iepbv fxevo?. You would eat the bull
alive if you could, but eating a bull alive is beset with difficulties.
So you kill him first and have a feast of raw flesh, an a>/j,o