Note 659 — Chapter VII · THE DUAL MOTHER RÔLE

The sacramental sacrifice of Dionysus-Zagreus and the eating of the sacrificial meat produced the “νέος Διόνυσος” the resurrection of the god, as plainly appears from the Cretan fragments of the Euripides quoted by Dieterich (Ibid., p. 105):

ἁγνὸν δὲ βιον τείνων, ἐξ οὐ

Διὸς Ιδαίου μύστης γενόμην

καὶ νυκτιπόλου Ζαγρέως βούτας

τοὺς ὠμοφάγους δαῖτας τελέσας.

(Living a blameless life whereby I became an initiate of the Idaean Zeus, I celebrated the carnivorous banquet of Zagreus, the wandering herdsman of the night.)

The mystics took the god into themselves by eating the uncooked meat of the sacrificial animal.