tauroboly Gr. Antiq.
(tɔːˈrɒbəlɪ)
[ad. L. taurobolium (also in Eng. use), f. Gr. ταυροβόλος striking or slaughtering bulls, f. ταῦρος bull + stem of βολή cast, stroke, wound. So F. taurobole.]
The slaughter of a bull or bulls; spec. a pagan sacrifice of a bull in honour of Cybele, with its attendant rites, including a bath in bulls' blood; also, the representation of such a slaughter or sacrifice in sculpture, etc.
| 1700 tr. Danet's Dict. Grk. & Rom. Antiq., Tauropolium, or Tauropolion [sic], Sacrifices of Bulls, which were offered to Cybele,..to render Thanks..for her teaching Men the Art to tame those Animals. 1845 Encyl. Metrop. XVI. 114/1 They offered a sacrifice of a bull or ram, (whence the terms Taurobolium and Ariobolium,) in the blood of which the hierophant was also sprinkled. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1884) I. xviii. 187 note, Such were the taurobolies and kriobolies—hideous blood baths. 1882 [see krioboly]. 1889 Farrar Lives Fathers I. ix. 562 He [Julian] washed away the lustral waters of baptism in the reeking horrors of a Tauroboly. 1891 Smith's Dict. Grk. & Rom. Antiq. II. 762/2 A temple of the Magna Mater where these rites of taurobolium were celebrated stood on the Vatican. |