Comment

In the classical era, the expression thysian agein appears only in the texts of the declining authors, Isocrates and Anaximenes of Lampsakos (if he is the author of the Rhetorica ad Alexandrum), and probably for this reason it was missed by Casabona in his Recherches sur le vocabulaire des sacrifices en Grec (the scholar instead includes occurrences of the expressions thysian anagein and thysian prosagein, Casabona 1966: 135). It should be noted that Isocrates is the only one to use the expression thysian agein in the sense of 'to take part in the sacrifice' rather than 'to carry out the sacrifice' (ἕως μὲν γὰρ παῖδες ἦμεν, περὶ πλείονος ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς ἡγούμεθα ἢ τοὺς ἀδελφούς, καὶ οὔτε θυσίαν οὔτε θεωρίαν οὔτ᾽ ἄλλην ἑορτὴν οὐδεμίαν χωρὶς ἀλλήλων ἤγομεν: ἐπειδὴ δ᾽ ἄνδρες ἐγενόμεθα..., "As long as we were children, we remained in greater intimacy with one another than with our brothers, and there was no sacrifice, pilgrimage (theoria), or some other festival in which we did not take part together. And since we became men...", Isoc. 19.10).

The expression is often used where information about the repetition of sacrifices is important from the point of view of the sender (Pl., Alc. 2, 148e; D. H., Antiq. Rom. 2.19.4, Plut. Quest. Gr., 301e, De exilio 601b, Paus. 1.42.7, Hld. 5.13.2). When referring to the sacrifice as a one-time event, the verb agein may be replaced by another, e.g. poiein or epitelein (cf. the two passages in D. H., Antiq. Rom.: θυσίας ἄγουσιν ἀνὰ πᾶν ἔτος, 2.19.4 and τάς τε θυσίας ἐπετέλεσε, 2.30.4).

In many cases the noun thysia is used in contrast to another, e.g. heorte, panegyris or pompe, on the principle of contrasting a point event with an event stretched over time (cf. Casabona 1966: 132). Then thysia is the complement of epitelein, poiein or similar verbs, while agein rules the second noun (X., Cyr. 6.2.8, 8.2.4; D. S., 1.72.2; Eratosth., Cat., 1.13; Lucianus, Syr. D. 1, Zonar. 1.272).

The expression is used three times in the sense of "to rush the animals to the place of their sacrifice". The word thysia is used here metonymically, as totum pro parte: 'sacrifice' instead of 'sacrificial animals' (cf. Apollon's words addressed to the first inhabitants of Delphi: σφάζειν αἰεὶ μῆλα ... ὅσσα τ᾽ ἐμοί κ᾽ ἀγάγωσι περικλυτὰ φῦλ᾽ ἀνθρώπων, "[let everyone] slaughter still the sheep that will bring (agein) to me the famous tribes of men", h. Hom. 3. 536-7).