the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition suggested: "The taurobolium was probably a sacred drama symbolizing the relations of the Mother and Attis (q.v.). The descent of the priest into the sacrificial foss (pit) symbolized the death of Attis, the withering of the vegetation of Mother Earth; his bath of blood and emergence the restoration of Attis, the rebirth of vegetation. The ceremony may be the spiritualized descent of the primitive oriental practice of drinking or being baptized in the blood of an animal, based upon a belief that the strength of brute creation could be acquired by consumption of its substance or contact with its blood. In spite of the phrase renatus in aeternum, there is no reason to suppose that the ceremony was in any way borrowed from Christianity." See also Tauroctony Tauromachy Taurocathapsy References Sources Duthoy, Robert. The Taurobolium: Its Evolution and Terminology. (Leiden: E.J. Brill) 1969. Espérandieu, Émile. Inscriptions antiques de Lectoure (1892), pp. 494 if. Hepding, Hugo. Attis, Seine Mythen und Sein Kult (Giessen, 1903), pp. 168 if., 201 Showerman, Grant. "The Great Mother of the Gods", Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 43; Philology and Literature Series, 1.3 (1901). Rutter, Jeremy B. The Three Phases of the Taurobolium, Phoenix, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Autumn, 1968), pp. 226-249, Classical Association of Canada (DOI: 10.2307/1086636) Zippel, Festschrift zum Doctorjubilaeum, Ludwig Friedländer, 1895, p. 489 f. Further reading External links Animal welfare Animal sacrifice Roman animal sacrifice Christianity in the Roman Empire Cybele Cattle in religion