Late writers on ritual, and it is only late that there are such writers, always explain taboo as consecration rather than prohibition. Festus[208] says ‘they called the juice of the vine _sacrima_ because they sacrificed (or consecrated) it to Liber with a view to the protection of the vineyards and the vessels and the wine itself, just as they sacrificed to Ceres a first harvest from the ears they had first reaped.’ Here the ‘sacramental’ wine is clearly a sacrifice of the Olympian kind; but in the Pithoigia, already discussed, the more primitive notions of release from taboo and ‘aversion’ of evil influences clearly emerge. ‘Libation of the new wine is poured out that the use of the magical thing (φαρμάκου) may become harmless and a means of safety[209].’ In the Thargelia we have no definite information as to a solemn _eating_ as well as offering of first-fruits, but this element will appear when we reach the great harvest festival commonly known as the Eleusinian Mysteries. * * * * * It remains to note some details as to the material of sacrifice. The general principle is clear and simple. The god fares as his worshipper. Porphyry[210], in discussing the various kinds of animals sacrificed, observes with much common sense, ‘No Greek sacrifices a camel or an elephant to the gods, because Greece does not produce camels and elephants.’ It might not be necessary to state a fact so obvious but that writers on the subject of ritual seem haunted by the notion that certain animals are sacrificed to certain gods because they are in some mystical sense ‘sacred to them,’ and this notion has introduced much needless complexity. It is quite true that locally we find certain taboos on the sacrifice of certain animals, the cause of which is unknown, but these taboos are local and by no means uniform. Moreover the animal ‘sacred’ to the particular god is by no means always the material of sacrifice; the owl, for reasons to be later discussed, is ‘sacred’ to Athene, but we hear of no sacrifice of owls. Broadly then, as noted before, the material of sacrifice is conditioned, not by the character of the god, but by the circumstances of the worshipper.