of the virgin goddess (compare the analogous idea of the Christian church). The casting of the skin of the god, which we have already mentioned in passing, stands in the closest relation to the nature of the hero. We have spoken already of the Mexican god who casts his skin. It is also told of Mani, the founder of the Manichaean sect, that he was killed, skinned, stuffed and hung up.[125] That is the death of Christ, merely in another mythological form.[126]
Marsyas, who seems to be a substitute for Attis, the son-lover of Cybele, was also skinned.[127] Whenever a Scythian king died, slaves and horses were slaughtered, skinned and stuffed, and then set up again.[128] In Phrygia, the representatives of the father-god were killed and skinned. The same was done in Athens with an ox, who was skinned and stuffed and again hitched to the plough.
In this manner the revival of the fertility of the earth was celebrated.[129]
This readily explains the fragment from the Sabazios mysteries, transmitted to us by Firmicus:[130] [Greek: Tau~ros dra/kontos kai\ patê\r tau/rou dra/kôn][1].
The active fructifying (upward striving) form of the libido is changed into the negative force striving downwards towards death. The hero as zodion of spring (ram, bull) conquers the depths of winter; and beyond the summer solstice is attacked by the unconscious longing for death, and is bitten by the snake. However, he himself is the snake. But he is at war with himself, and, therefore, the descent and the end appear to him as the
- ↑ The bull, father of the serpent, and the serpent, father of the bull.
