In ancient Greece, the Buphonia (Greek: Βουφόνια "ox-slayings") denoted a sacrificial ceremony performed at Athens as part of the Dipolieia, a religious festival held on the 14th of the midsummer month Skirophorion—in June or July—at the Acropolis. In the Buphonia a working ox was sacrificed to Zeus Polieus, Zeus protector of the city, in accordance with a very ancient custom. A group of oxen was driven forward to the altar at the highest point of the Acropolis. On the altar a sacrifice of grain had been spread by members of the family of the Kentriadae, on whom this duty devolved hereditarily. When one of the oxen began to eat, thus selecting itself for sacrifice,[1] one of the family of the Thaulonidae advanced with an axe, slayed the ox, then immediately threw aside the axe and fled the scene of his guilt-laden crime.[2][3]
- ^ "The ox itself thus broke the tabu and sinned against the god and his altar," Burkert explains (Burkert 1983:138).
- ^ "Banishment had been the price for spilling blood since ancient times; the Greeks called it 'flight,' φυγή" (Burkert 1983:139).
- ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Buphonia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 808.
