... imagine their gods as blue-eyed and red-haired. The Egyptians imagine their gods as light-complexioned with black hair. If ox-ens and horses and lions had hands, and could paint with their hands, and ... untroubled by the paradox that gods are tradi-tionally the focus of ritual orientation and the recipients of ritual action, notthemselves the instigators of ritual—for where then are focus and recipient? The ... observance; in other words, the ef-fect of the performance is not merely mimetic; it is, rather, generative and at-tributive. The gods sacrifice, rather, on their own behalf—in effect, because of themselves....