or Dipoleia, or Dipolia, a festival of great antiquity, celebrated annually on the acropolis of Athens, on the 14th of the month Scirophorion (June); on which occasion an ox was sacrificed in honour of Zeus (Jupiter). The origin of the Buphonia is related as follows:—In the reign of Erechtheus, at the celebration of the Dionysia, or according to the Scholiast on Aristophanes at the Dipolia, an ox ate the corn or cakes which had been prepared for the sacrifice; at which one Thalou, or Bauon (or according to others the Boecklos, one of the priests thus designated), was so incensed that he killed the animal, and immediately took to flight. The Athenians, dreading the resentment of the gods, and feigning themselves ignorant of the guilty person, brought the bloody axe before the judges, by whom it was solemnly arraigned, tried, found guilty, and condemned. In memory of this event a festival was instituted under the name of Buphonia, in which it was customary for the priest to fly, and judgment to be given respecting the slaughter of the ox. (Porphyrius, De Abstinent. ii.)

It may be observed, that this legend carries us back to that early period of Grecian history when it had not yet become customary to offer up living victims on the altars of the gods.