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

162 The Dithyramb, Spring-Festival, etc. [ch.
sequel of the sacrifice. There is, as before said, no hint of a
sacramental banquet ; but there are other means of contact, of
sacramental communion, besides eating and drinking. The blood
of the bull is not drunk by the worshippers ; it is brought and
poured—the liquid is red—by a woman dressed in sacramental
raiment, from a situla into a great two-handled krater which
stands between two obelisks again surmounted by double axe and
bird. The woman celebrant is followed by another woman bearing
two situlae on a pole over her shoulders, and by a man playing
on a lyre. At this point the scene clearly ends. The next figure,
carrying a calf, turns his back and walks in the contrary direction.
The distinction between the two scenes is, in the original, made
clearer by the differing colours of the background 1 .
As to the double cultus-objects, two points must be carefully
noted. The two sets of double axes, or rather double-double axes,
are not quite the same. The one to the right is decorated with
cross stripes, that to the left is plain. The double axe on the
red obelisk on the other side of the sarcophagos has similar cross
markings. Further the obelisk to the right is considerably taller
than the obelisk to the left. This is I think intentional, not due
to either accident or perspective, but to the fact that they stand for
male and female potencies. The most surprising and significant
difference in the cultus-objects of the two sides yet remains.
The obelisk in Fig. 30 is merely an obelisk painted red ; the
two obelisks in Fig. 31 are burgeoning out into leaves, and
they are painted green ; they are trees alive and blossoming.
They are not indeed actual trees 2 , but mimic trees, obelisks decked
for ritual purposes with cypress leaves.
The blood, the fievo