omophagy
omophagia

There is another possible instance of omophagia in The Bacchae.

The worshippers of Zagreus may have engaged in omophagia as an initiation rite.

And I inevitably thought of the Cretan ritual called Omophagia.

Sparagmos was frequently followed by omophagia (the eating of the raw flesh of the one dismembered).

The maenads may have eaten the meat of the goat raw (omophagia) or sacrificed it to Dionysus.

Omophagia was the focus of the Dionysiac mysteries, and a component of Orphic ceremonies.

Euripides' play The Bacchae focuses on the worship of Dionysus, including allusions to omophagia, and its companion sparagmos.

In art and myth, this incident is linked to omophagia; however, Euripides may not have intended this meaning in The Bacchae.

All three stories show a common motif of reassembly of body parts following sparagmos and omophagia, and this motif may have been significant for religious ritual.

Omophagia is a large element of Dionysiac myth; in fact, one of Dionysus' epithets is Omophagos "Raw-Eater".

Omophagia may have been a symbol of the triumph of wild nature over civilization, and a symbol of the breaking down of boundaries between nature and civilization.

The rite climaxed in a performance of frenzied feats of strength and madness, such as uprooting trees, tearing a bull (the symbol of Dionysus) apart with their bare hands, an act called sparagmos, and eating its flesh raw, an act called omophagia.

Because Euripides depicts Agave as engaging in sparagmos, he likely intended for the audiences to assume she engaged in omophagia as well: additionally, the character Cadmus compares Agave's actions to the story of Actaeon, who was consumed by his own hunting dogs-this association further suggests that omophagia took place.