In the Cult of Dionysios, after all the ecstatic dancing was concluded, the dancers finished off with an equally ecstatic frenzy of tearing apart and eating the raw flesh of a goat, small deer or other similar animal. Sparagmos is the ritual dismemberment or tearing apart of an animal, whereas omophagia is the act of eating raw flesh. This was a communion ceremony where the worshiper took in the raw nature of Dionysios. These rites were practiced up to the 5th century and well into Roman times.
Nov 202010