Dipolieia / Bouphonia

Overview

On the 14th of Skirophorion, 2 days after Skira, is the festival Dipolieia and the Bouphonia. Zeus Polias was celebrated at this time at his altar located in Acropolis (Parke, 162). The Bouphonia ominously meant “ox-slaying” with the ritual itself believed to be a remnant of an older time. There were several participants: the "ox-slayer" (bouphonos), water-bearers, the goaders, and the carvers. (Burkert, 139-140).

The ox was considered a companion and helper of the farmer, Bouphonia also being the last festival in the calendar year, Parke agrees with Deubner that a yoke-ox was a special sort of sacrifice and therefore not an ordinary ritual (Parke, 166).

Pausanias describes the ritual as follows: “Upon the altar of Zeus Polieus they place barley mixed with wheat and leave it unguarded. The ox, which they keep already prepared for sacrifice, goes to the altar and partakes of the grain. One of the priests they call the ox-slayer, who kills the ox and then, casting aside the axe here according to the ritual runs away. The others bring the axe to trial, as though they know not the man who did the deed.” 1.25.5, Pausanias, Description of Greece

Simon hypothesizes that the altar table and the ox may be indicative of the ritual being from an older practice from the Minoan or Mycenaean age as shown by surviving art of Mycenaean-Minoan bull-offerings on a similar table-like structure (Simon, 9-10).

There are two accounts regarding the trial that followed after the bouphonos fled. Pausanias accounts it is the axe that went to trial and was subsequently thrown in the sea. Another account is by Porphyry in De Abstinentia as follows:

“Then, a trial was held in the court of the Prytaneum concerning the murder, and all those who had a share in the deed were summoned to defend themselves. The water-carriers accused those who sharpened the axe and knife; those who sharpened them accused the man who brought the weapon; he accused the man who struck the blow; and he accused the man who cut the throat; while the latter blamed the knife itself. Because the knife could not speak, they condemned it for the murder and cast it into the sea."

Everyone except the bouphonos would partake in the sacrificial meal before finally, the ox skin was stuffed with and ‘restored to life’ (Parke, 166).

There was many versions of the origins of this festival, possibly Sopatros, Diomos, or King Erechtheus offering the first ox (Parke, 164-166) not to mention the two different version reported by Porphyry and Pausanius but the festival persisted until “the time of the Roman Emperors” (Burkert, 137).

Sources: Parke, H. W. Festivals of the Athenians. Cornell University Press, 1977. Pausanias. Description of Greece. Translated by W. H. S. Jones, ToposText, edited by Brady Kiesling, Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, topostext.org/work.php?work_id=140. Accessed 25 June 2026. Porphyry. On Abstinence from Animal Food. Translated by Thomas Taylor, 1823. ToposText, edited by Brady Kiesling, Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, 2026, topostext.org/work/794. Accessed 27 June 2026. Simon, Erika. Festivals of Attica: An Archaeological Commentary. University of Wisconsin Press, 1983.