ORIGIN OP TRACTION PLOW— BISHOP 



533 



than to secure the aid of their physical strength which led to their 

 association with the operations of early agriculture. On Egyptian 

 reliefs both bulls and cows are seen employed in traction, and they are 

 still so used in many lands. The use of the ox could only have been a 

 later development. Castration, of bulls as well as of men, probably 

 originated as a feature of those orgiastic fertility cults so common in 

 the ancient Near East ; it symbolized a dedicatory sacrifice — ^a species 

 of ritualistic synecdoche. Only after the practice had become estab- 



FiGUEE 1.— Map showing approximately the distribution of the traction plow prior to the age of discovery 

 (about A. D. 1500). The area indicated very closely coincides with that in which were found in antiquity 

 many other important culture-elements, among them bronze, wheat, and the horse-drawn war-chariot. 



lished could men have learned that animals thus treated are thereby 

 rendered more docile.^ 



The plow itself has often been regarded as a direct gift from the 

 gods. The Egyptians ascribed its origin to Osiris, the great patron 

 of agriculture, while the Vedic Indians believed that the Agvins had 

 taught its use to mankind. In Greece its invention was variously 

 imputed — to Zeus or Dionysos, to Pallas or Demeter. In China its 

 origin came to be attributed both to Shen-nung, the "Divine Husband- 

 man," and to a (mythical) grandson of Hou Chi, "Ruler of the Millet." 



This intimate connection of the ox-drawn plow with religious 

 ideology suggests the query whether it was not itself actually of priestly 



' This question is well discussed by Wundt, op. cit., p. 290 seq. 



