Section 1. Dionysus, the Goat and
the Bull.
HOWEVER we may explain it, the fact remains that in peasant
folk-lore the corn-spirit is very commonly conceived and
represented in animal form. May not this fact explain the relation in
which certain animals stood to the ancient deities of vegetation,
Dionysus, Demeter, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris? 1
To begin with Dionysus. We have seen that he was represented
sometimes as a goat and sometimes as a bull. As a goat he can
hardly be separated from the minor divinities, the Pans, Satyrs,
and Silenuses, all of whom are closely associated with him and
are represented more or less completely in the form of goats. Thus,
Pan was regularly portrayed in sculpture and painting with the
face and legs of a goat. The Satyrs were depicted with pointed
goat-ears, and sometimes with sprouting horns and short tails.
They were sometimes spoken of simply as goats; and in the drama
their parts were played by men dressed in goatskins. Silenus is
represented in art clad in a goatskin. Further, the Fauns, the
Italian counterpart of the Greek Pans and Satyrs, are described as
being half goats, with goat-feet and goat-horns. Again, all these
minor goat-formed divinities partake more or less clearly of the
character of woodland deities. Thus, Pan was called by the
Arcadians the Lord of the Wood. The Silenuses kept company with
the tree-nymphs. The Fauns are expressly designated as
woodland deities; and their character as such is still further
brought out by their association, or even identification, with
Silvanus and the Silvanuses, who, as their name of itself
indicates, are spirits of the woods. Lastly, the association of the
Satyrs with the Silenuses, Fauns, and Silvanuses, proves that the
Satyrs also were woodland deities. These goat-formed spirits of
the woods have their counterparts in the folk-lore of Northern
Europe. Thus, the Russian wood-spirits, called Ljeschie (from ljes,
"wood"), are believed to appear partly in human shape, but with
the horns, ears, and legs of goats. The Ljeschi can alter his
stature at pleasure; when he walks in the wood he is as tall as the
trees; when he walks in the meadows he is no higher than the
grass. Some of the Ljeschie are spirits of the corn as well as of the
wood; before harvest they are as tall as the corn-stalks, but after
it they shrink to the height of the stubble. This brings out-what we
have remarked before-the close connexion between tree-spirits
and corn-spirits, and shows how easily the former may melt into
the latter. Similarly the Fauns, though wood-spirits, were believed
to foster the growth of the crops. We have already seen how often
the corn-spirit is represented in folk-custom as a goat. On the
whole, then, as Mannhardt argues, the Pans, Satyrs, and Fauns
perhaps belong to a widely diffused class of wood-spirits
conceived in goat-form. The fondness of goats for straying in
woods and nibbling the bark of trees, to which indeed they are
most destructive, is an obvious and perhaps sufficient reason why
wood-spirits should so often be supposed to take the form of
goats. The inconsistency of a god of vegetation subsisting upon
the vegetation which he personifies is not one to strike the
primitive mind. Such inconsistencies arise when the deity, ceasing
to be immanent in the vegetation, comes to be regarded as its
owner or lord; for the idea of owning the vegetation naturally leads
to that of subsisting on it. Sometimes the corn-spirit, originally
conceived as immanent in the corn, afterwards comes to be
regarded as its owner, who lives on it and is reduced to poverty
and want by being deprived of it. Hence he is often known as "the
Poor Man" or "the Poor Woman." Occasionally the last sheaf is
left standing on the field for "the Poor Old Woman" or for "the Old
Rye-woman." 2
Thus the representation of wood-spirits in the form of goats
appears to be both widespread and, to the primitive mind, natural.
Therefore when we find, as we have done, that Dionysus-a
tree-god-is sometimes represented in goat-form, we can hardly
avoid concluding that this representation is simply a part of his
proper character as a tree-god and is not to be explained by the
fusion of two distinct and independent worships, in one of which
he originally appeared as a tree-god and in the other as a
goat. 3
Dionysus was also figured, as we have seen, in the shape of a
bull. After what has gone before we are naturally led to expect that
his bull form must have been only another expression for his
character as a deity of vegetation, especially as the bull is a
common embodiment of the corn-spirit in Northern Europe; and
the close association of Dionysus with Demeter and Persephone
in the mysteries of Eleusis shows that he had at least strong
agricultural affinities. 4
The probability of this view will be somewhat increased if it can
be shown that in other rites than those of Dionysus the ancients
slew an OX as a representative of the spirit of vegetation. This
they appear to have done in the Athenian sacrifice known as "the
murder of the OX" (bouphonia). It took place about the end of
June or beginning of July, that is, about the time when the
threshing is nearly over in Attica. According to tradition the
sacrifice was instituted to procure a cessation of drought and
dearth which had afflicted the land. The ritual was as follows.
Barley mixed with wheat, or cakes made of them, were laid upon
the bronze altar of Zeus Polieus on the Acropolis. Oxen were
driven round the altar, and the OX which went up to the altar and
ate the offering on it was sacrificed. The axe and knife with which
the beast was slain had been previously wetted with water brought
by maidens called "water-carriers." The weapons were then
sharpened and handed to the butchers, one of whom felled the
OX with the axe and another cut its throat with the knife. As soon
as he had felled the OX, the former threw the axe from him and
fled; and the man who cut the beast's throat apparently imitated his
example. Meantime the OX was skinned and all present partook of
its flesh. Then the hide was stuffed with straw and sewed up; next
the stuffed animal was set on its feet and yoked to a plough as if it
were ploughing. A trial then took place in an ancient law-court
presided over by the King (as he was called) to determine who
had murdered the OX. The maidens who had brought the water
accused the men who had sharpened the axe and knife; the men
who had sharpened the axe and knife blamed the men who had
handed these implements to the butchers; the men who had
handed the implements to the butchers blamed the butchers; and
the butchers laid the blame on the axe and knife, which were
accordingly found guilty, condemned, and cast into the sea. 5
The name of this sacrifice,-"the murder of the OX,"-the pains
taken by each person who had a hand in the slaughter to lay the
blame on some one else, together with the formal trial and
punishment of the axe or knife or both, prove that the OX was
here regarded not merely as a victim offered to a god, but as itself
a sacred creature, the slaughter of which was sacrilege or murder.
This is borne out by a statement of Varro that to kill an OX was
formerly a capital crime in Attica. The mode of selecting the victim
suggests that the OX which tasted the corn was viewed as the
corn-deity taking possession of his own. This interpretation is
supported by the following custom. In Beauce, in the district of
Orleans, on the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of April they make a
straw man called "the great mondard." For they say that the old
mondard is now dead and it is necessary to make a new one. The
straw man is carried in solemn procession up and down the
village and at last is placed upon the oldest apple-tree. There he
remains till the apples are gathered, when he is taken down and
thrown into the water, or he is burned and his ashes cast into
water. But the person who plucks the first fruit from the tree
succeeds to the title of "the great mondard." Here the straw figure,
called "the great mondard" and placed on the oldest apple-tree in
spring, represents the spirit of the tree, who, dead in winter,
revives when the apple-blossoms appear on the boughs. Thus the
person who plucks the first fruit from the tree and thereby receives
the name of "the great mondard" must be regarded as a
representative of the tree-spirit. Primitive peoples are usually
reluctant to taste the annual first-fruits of any crop, until some
ceremony has been performed which makes it safe and pious for
them to do so. The reason of this reluctance appears to be a belief
that the first-fruits either belong to or actually contain a divinity.
Therefore when a man or animal is seen boldly to appropriate the
sacred first-fruits, he or it is naturally regarded as the divinity
himself in human or animal form taking possession of his own. The
time of the Athenian sacrifice, which fell about the close of the
threshing, suggests that the wheat and barley laid upon the altar
were a harvest offering; and the sacramental character of the
subsequent repast-all partaking of the flesh of the divine
animal-would make it parallel to the harvest-suppers of modern
Europe, in which, as we have seen, the flesh of the animal which
stands for the corn-spirit is eaten by the harvesters. Again, the
tradition that the sacrifice was instituted in order to put an end to
drought and famine is in favour of taking it as a harvest festival.
The resurrection of the corn-spirit, enacted by setting up the
stuffed OX and yoking it to the plough, may be compared with the
resurrection of the tree-spirit in the person of his representative,
the Wild Man. 6
The OX appears as a representative of the corn-spirit in other
parts of the world. At Great Bassam, in Guinea, two oxen are slain
annually to procure a good harvest. If the sacrifice is to be
effectual, it is necessary that the oxen should weep. So all the
women of the village sit in front of the beasts, chanting, "The OX
will weep; yes, he will weep!" From time to time one of the women
walks round the beasts, throwing manioc meal or palm wine upon
them, especially into their eyes. When tears roll down from the
eyes of the oxen, the people dance, singing, "The OX weeps! the
OX weeps!" Then two men seize the tails of the beasts and cut
them off at one blow. It is believed that a great misfortune will
happen in the course of the year if the tails are not severed at one
blow. The oxen are afterwards killed, and their flesh is eaten by
the chiefs. Here the tears of the oxen, like those of the human
victims amongst the Khonds and the Aztecs, are probably a
rain-charm. We have already seen that the virtue of the
corn-spirit, embodied in animal form, is sometimes supposed to
reside in the tail, and that the last handful of corn is sometimes
conceived as the tail of the corn-spirit. In the Mithraic religion this
conception is graphically set forth in some of the numerous
sculptures which represent Mithras kneeling on the back of a bull
and plunging a knife into its flank; for on certain of these
monuments the tail of the bull ends in three stalks of corn, and in
one of them corn-stalks instead of blood are seen issuing from the
wound inflicted by the knife. Such representations certainly
suggest that the bull, whose sacrifice appears to have formed a
leading feature in the Mithraic ritual, was conceived, in one at
least of its aspects, as an incarnation of the corn-spirit. 7
Still more clearly does the ox appear as a personification of the
corn-spirit in a ceremony which is observed in all the provinces
and districts of China to welcome the approach of spring. On the
first day of spring, usually on the third or fourth of February, which
is also the beginning of the Chinese New Year, the governor or
prefect of the city goes in procession to the east gate of the city,
and sacrifices to the Divine Husbandman, who is represented with
a bull's head on the body of a man. A large effigy of an ox, cow,
or buffalo has been prepared for the occasion, and stands outside
of the east gate, with agricultural implements beside it. The figure
is made of differently-coloured pieces of paper pasted on a
framework either by a blind man or according to the directions of a
necromancer. The colours of the paper prognosticate the
character of the coming year; if red prevails, there will be many
fires; if white, there will be floods and rain; and so with the other
colours. The mandarins walk slowly round the ox, beating it
severely at each step with rods of various hues. It is filled with five
kinds of grain, which pour forth when the effigy is broken by the
blows of the rods. The paper fragments are then set on fire, and a
scramble takes place for the burning fragments, because the
people believe that whoever gets one of them is sure to be
fortunate throughout the year. A live buffalo is next killed, and its
flesh is divided among the mandarins. According to one account,
the effigy of the ox is made of clay, and, after being beaten by the
governor, is stoned by the people till they break it in pieces, "from
which they expect an abundant year." Here the corn-spirit
appears to be plainly represented by the corn-filled ox, whose
fragments may therefore be supposed to bring fertility with
them. 8
On the whole we may perhaps conclude that both as a goat and
as a bull Dionysus was essentially a god of vegetation. The
Chinese and European customs which I have cited may perhaps
shed light on the custom of rending a live bull or goat at the rites
of Dionysus. The animal was torn in fragments, as the Khond
victim was cut in pieces, in order that the worshippers might each
secure a portion of the life-giving and fertilising influence of the
god. The flesh was eaten raw as a sacrament, and we may
conjecture that some of it was taken home to be buried in the
fields, or otherwise employed so as to convey to the fruits of the
earth the quickening influence of the god of vegetation. The
resurrection of Dionysus, related in his myth, may have been
enacted in his rites by stuffing and setting up the slain ox, as was
done at the Athenian bouphonia. 9