On Abstaining From Living Things, in Which Porphyry Advocates Vegetarianism. Diomos, A Priest of Zeus

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Rites of the Festival of the Ox Murder
The rites of the festival of the Ox Murder (Bouphonia) and their related myths examine the dynamics of
sacrificial ideology. On the fourteenth day of Skirophorion (June), in the god's precinct on the Acropolis, the
Athenians celebrated the Bouphonia during the festival of Zeus Polieus. The use of the double axe and of a
bronze table instead of an altar suggests a Mycenaean origin for the ritual, since these implements were
prominent during the period. The geographer Pausanias' (2nd century A. D.) claim that the murder of the ox
first took place in the time of King Erechtheus implies an early date for the ritual. By the fifth century, the
Bouphonia had become an oddity, but its rites continued to be practiced at least into the second century A.D.
Barley and wheat or meal in honeyed oil were placed unguarded upon a table, and selected oxen were driven
past it. Whichever animal touched the holy things was struck with the axe and skinned with the knife. The
slayer, a cult functionary called the Ox-Murderer or Ox-Smiter, dropped the axe and fled. The axe and knife
are brought to trial, condemned, and cast out of the community; the knife and probably the axe were thrown
into the sea. The ox's hide was stuffed with hay and set in front of the plow. Although the festival was little
understood and likely attended only by those whose duty it was to perform the ceremony, that the rites
belonged to the festival of Zeus Polieus, Zeus in his capacity as protector of the city, indicates their
importance.
The most extensive source for the rituals of the Bouphonia is from a work by Porphyry (A.D. 232/33-c. 305),
On Abstaining from Living Things, in which Porphyry advocates vegetarianism. Diomos, a priest of Zeus
Polieus, first slaughtered the ox because, during the festival of Zeus Polieus when the grain was prepared in
the age-old manner, the ox approached and tasted the sacred meal. Taking the rest who were present as
helpers, he slew it (2.10).
At a public sacrifice in Athens, after the meal in honeyed oil and incense were set out on the table in plain
sight, ready to be sacrificed to the gods, one of the oxen coming in from the fields is said to have eaten some
of the meal and to have trampled on the rest. A certain Diomos or Sopatros, not a native but someone
farming in Attica, became enraged at what had happened. He seized an axe that was being sharpened nearby
and struck the ox. The ox died. When the man recovered from his anger and realized what he had done, he
buried the ox and went of his own accord into exile in Crete as one who had committed impiety. Then the
rain stopped falling, and the grain no longer grew. Delegates were sent by the state to Delphi to inquire of
Apollo. The priestess of Apollo responded:
The exile in Crete will redeem these [drought and barrenness], and vengeance having been taken on the
murderer and the dead having been resurrected in the same sacrifice in which [the dead] died, those who
taste the dead and do not hold back will be better off.
A search was undertaken, and the man responsible for the deed was located. Sopatros reckoned that he would
be released from the unpleasantness of being polluted if they all did these measures in common. He told
those who came to him that the ox must be slain by the city. Since they were at their wits end over who
would be the slayer, he offered them this possibility: if they enrolled him as a citizen, they would share the
murder with him. Agreement was reached on those terms. When they came back to the city, they arranged
the affair in the way in which it remains today.
They chose girls to bring the water. They fetched the water used for sharpening the axe and the knife. After
the sharpening, one man delivered the axe, another struck the ox, and a third thrust the point of the knife into
the throat. They skinned it, and everyone tasted the ox. Afterwards, having sewn up the hide of the ox and
stuffed it with hay, they set it to the plow as if ready for work. Assembling a trial for murder, they
summoned everyone who had participated in the deed to defend himself. The water-fetchers charged that the
sharpeners were more to blame than they. The sharpeners said the same about the axe-deliverer, and this one
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of the throat-cutter, and this one of the knife which, being without a voice, was condemned for murder. . . .
They threw the knife into the sea (2.29-30).
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Rites of the Festival of the Ox Murder

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