Bouzyges

Bouzyges ("Ox-yoker"^[1]) is a culture hero from Greek mythology, credited with the invention of many agricultural practices; most notably, he was the first man to yoke oxen to a plough and introduced cultivation to Athens.^[1][2] He has sometimes been identified^[1] or confused^[3] with Epimenides, who visited and purified Athens.

He appeared in Athenian literature in the 6th century BC, and Lasus of Hermione, the 6th century BC poet, mentioned him.^[4]

The only ancient depiction of him is on a krater, attributed to the painter of the Naples Hephaistos, showing a nude, bearded Bouzyges driving two bulls (or a bull and an ox) pulling the first plough.^[5] The krater was part of a bequest of David Moore Robinson^[6] to the collection of the Fogg Museum, part of the Harvard Art Museums.^[7]

The name was also used by an order of priests associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries; these priests, collectively known as the Bouzygai, were also the priests of Zeus at the Palladium and Zeus Teleios.^[8] They also served as priests elsewhere, such as Ilissus.^[9]

Bouzygai could also refer to the clan that claimed descent from Bouzyges.^[10] At an annual festival celebrated in his honor at the foot of the Acropolis, a member of the family performed a sacred ploughing rite.^[2][11] At a ceremony for Demeter in Athens, a member was tasked with cursing those who violated certain norms of "good-neighbourliness" that were not otherwise punishable by law.^[10] It is said that Pericles may have been one of the Bouzygai.^[4] However, some scholars dispute this, suggesting that this clan is an inferior counterpart of the Athenian statesman.^[12]