thesmophoria

thesmŏphŏrĭa, ōrum, n., = θεσμοφόρια, τά,

• the festival of Demeter or Ceres (as lawgiver) among the Greeks, Plin. 24, 9, 38, § 59; Arn. 5, 173; Macr. S. 3, 12; Hyg. Fab. 147.

thesmophoria, ōrum, n. pl. (θεσμοφόρια), ein Fest zu Ehren der Demeter als Gesetzbringerin bei den Griechen, die Thesmophorien, Plin. 24, 59. Hyg. fab. 147. – verwechselt mit den Eleusinia (s. Eleusis), Arnob. 5, 24.

thesmophoria [CL n. pl. = festival of Demeter as law-giver], (in gl.). t[h]esmaforia, legislatio GlC T 73.

thesmophoria , iorum. n.
酬粮女神之祭。

Suggest a Translation
See an image

THESMOPHORIA

THESMOPHO´RIA(Θεσμοφόρια). The Eleusinia and the Thesmophoria were the two great festivals held in Attica in honour of Demeter. The Athenian Thesmophoria, which is the best known festival of the name, was solemnised exclusively by women at the time of seed-sowing in October in honour of Demeter Thesmophoros. The many points of interest attaching to the festival, over and above the fact that Aristophanes has written an amusing comedy on the subject, will perhaps justify a somewhat lengthened discussion on its nature and significance.

1. Demeter Thesmophloros.

The idea in θεσμοί, θέμιστες (cf. Hesych. s. v.), and words derived therefrom, is ordinances as the expression of the will of a divinity, enactments or injunctions invested with the halo of religion, θεσμὸν τὸν μοιρόκραντον ἐκ θεῶν δοθέντα τέλειον, as Aeschylus says (Eum. 391); and as such the term is sometimes applied even to written laws, e. g. Draco's (Plut. Sol. 19; cf. Grote, 3.76) and Solon's own (Solon, Frag. 36 [25], 16, which shows that Aelian, Ael. VH 8.10fin., is in error). We have been taught by Sir H. Maine (Ancient Law, p. 4 ff.) that the very earliest notion of law was the θέμιστες of Homer, strictly individual (cf. Phot. 87, 16) judgments or dooms, supposed to be imparted by Θέμις to the king, who was a judge, not a lawgiver. The θεσμοὶ we are now referring to are somewhat more universal than these. The θεσμοί, says Preller (Demeter und Persephone, 350), were ordinances given by each god inside his own sphere, so θεσμὸς Ἀδραστείας (Plut. de Fato, 4 = 2.570). They were the law of the early patriarchal ages; and a patriarchal system of rule was the first which emerged when mankind, arrived at the agricultural stage, came to follow a settled mode of life and live in communities. Now, Demeter was the divinity who presided over agriculture and all the settled laws and customs, the civilisation in fact, which it involved (Isocr. Panegyr. 28); the Athenians boasted that corn and laws, πυροὺς καὶ νόμους. were first introduced into their land (Aristot. in Diog. Laert.): Demeter it was who taught men to sow the earth and reap the fruits: Demeter it was who was reported to have founded marriage, itself a kind of husbandry (ἐπ' ἀρότῳ παίδων γνησίων, as ran the Athenian formula of marriage: Lucian, Tim. 17: cf. Aesch. Theb. 753; Soph. O. T. 1498; Eur. Phoen. 18; Plat. Menex. 238; the θεοὶ προηρόσιοι to whom sacrifice was offered before marriage, Plut. adv. Colot. 22 = 2.1119: and the metaphor is retained even in English, cf. Shakespeare's Ant. and Cleop. 2.2, 233), to have thus raised men above the life of savages, to have been the founder of the family, and thus to have rendered the foundation of cities possible, et leges sanctas docuit et cara jugavit Corpora conubiis et magnas condidit urbes, as the Roman poet Calvus sang (ap. Serv. ad Aen. 4.58). As such Demeter is θεσμοφόρος (Diod. 5.5), θεσμία (Paus. 8.15, 1), θεσμόθετις (Cornut. N. D. 28), legifera (Verg. A. 4.58). The priestess of Demeter imparts the πάτριος θεσμὸς to the bridegroom and bride in the nuptial chamber (Plut. Praecep. Cong. init. = 2.138; cf. also Ael. VH 12.47); a woman guilty of illicit connexion was said ἀθέσμως συγγενομένη (Schol. to Aristid. p. 22), opposed to γάμος ἐπὶ παισὶν ἔνθεσμος (Heliod. 1.25); the consummation of marriage is certainly meant by θεσμὸς in the Odyssey (23.296), where Ulysses and Penelope after all their troubles ἀσπάσιοι λέκτροιο παλαιοῦ θεσμὸν ἵκοντο (no matter what Ameis says); the matrons swore by the goddesses of Eleusis to remain faithful to their marriage vow (Alciphr. 3.69); the young girls prayed to Demeter for a husband (ib. 2.2, 6). At the Thesmophoria many references were made to the fruitfulness of marriage; and the invocation (Aristoph. Thesm. 296-300) of γῆ κουροτρόφος and Calligeneia (see below, § 3 h) has a similar reference.

The fundamental principles, then, of an agricultural and therefore settled life, and of the constitution of the family, are the θεσμοὶ Δήμητρος. Little different are the laws of Triptolemus, who was reputed one of the most ancient lawgivers (Porphyr. de Abstin. 4.22, p. 387), which are veritable θεσμοί, viz. to honour one's parents, to delight the gods with an offering of the crops, and not to ill-treat the domestic animals (Paus. 1.37, 6). Another θεσμὸς of Demeter, ἢν μὴ καθάρῃς κἀλέσῃς οὐ μὴ φάγῃς (Diogenian. 5.17: said to be from the Triptolemus of Sophocles, but not given by Dindorf and placed by Nauck, Frag. Trag. p. 868, among the Adespota), recalls the scriptural (2 Thess. 3.10) if any would not work, neither should he eat, and that earliest and justest of θεσμοί (Gen. 3.19), In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Similar laws of Buzyges have been before alluded to under AROTOI HIEROIFinally, to give some indirect evidence that Demeter was the goddess of laws and civil society, it was in her temple that the Amphictyonic assembly at Thermopylae was held (Hdt. 7.200), and meetings of the Achaean League were held under her auspices at Aegium (Paus. 7.24, 3); a pig was sacrificed to Demeter at Athens by the περιστίαρχοι before the assembly opened (Schol. on Aristoph. Ach. 44), and Demeter was one of the goddesses by whom oaths were taken (Demosth. Timarch. p. 747.151; Calipp. p. 1238.9), for she was patroness of the assembly of the people.

The expression of reverence which the Greeks felt towards Demeter for all these blessings is well set forth by Diodorus (Diod. 5.5) in a passage which deserves quotation: οὐκ ἄξιον δὲ παραλιπεῖν τῆς θεοῦ ταύτης τὴν ὑπερβολὴν τῆς εἰς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους εὐεργεσίας. χωρὶς γὰρ τῆς εὑρέσεως τοῦ σίτου τήν τε κατεργασίαν αὐτοῦ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐδίδαξε, καὶ νόμους εἰσηγήσατο καθ' οὓς δικαιοπραγεῖν εἰθίσθησαν. δι' ἣν αἰτίαν φασὶν αὐτὴν θεσμοφόρον ἐπονομασθῆναι · τούτων δὲ τῶν εὑρημάτων οὐκ ἄν τις ἑτέραν εὐεργεσίαν εὕροι μείζονα · καὶ γὰρ τὸ ζῆν καὶ τὸ καλῶς ζῆν περιέχουσι.

2. The origin of Thesmophoric worship.

The worship of Demeter was said to have been introduced into Attica by the Gephyraeans (cf. Hdt. 5.57, 61; Preller, Demeter und Persephone, pp. 391-5). These stated themselves that they came from Eretria originally, but Herodotus thinks that they were Phoenicians. They lived at Tanagra in Boeotia, which had been formerly called Γέφυρα (Etym. M.). When the rest of the Cadmeans were driven out by the Argives and went to the Encheleis, the Gephyraeans remained in Boeotia at first; but later, being expelled by the other inhabitants of that country, they turned to Athens. The Athenians made them citizens on special terms, ἐπὶ ῥητοῖς: which were probably to maintain in repair the bridges over the river Cephisus (Lyd. de Mens. 8. p. 45; Etym. M. s. v. Γεφυρεῖς), for that art was considered recondite in early times (cf. Fr. Lenormant, Voie Sacrée Éleusinienne, p. 247); and with injunctions to keep aloof from the other citizens in many respects. They had temples and rites special to themselves (though these cannot have long remained secret: cf. Schol. on Aristoph. Ach. 708), and among these the temple and rites of Demeter Achaea (Herod. l. c.).

This Demeter Achaea, the mater dolorosa of the ancients, was so called from her mourning (ἄχος), not from the ἦχος of cymbals used in search for Cora (for amongst other reasons the A in Ἀχαιὰ is short), and corresponds to the Ceres deserta mentioned by Virgil (Aen. 2.714: cf. Plut. de Isid. et Osirid. 69; Lobeck, Aglaoph. 1225, note x). Welcker (Griech. Gotterl. 1.359) thinks the original derivation is from γαῖα with a prosthetic a, and that it refers to Demeter's character as Earth-goddess; and he compares such forms as βαθυχάϊος, εὐχάιος, τριχάϊξ. But the derivation is probably onomatopoeic, and similar to that of the obsolete Hebrew to cry ah! ah! whence comes owls, ululae, in Isaiah 13.21. We are, of course, not necessarily to derive the Greek from the Hebrew. Indeed, none of the attempted Semitic derivations have much to support them (cf. Mommsen, Heort. 29, note); but it may be mentioned that Hitzig and Fr. Lenormant identify the Gephyraeans with the Geshurites of Josh. 13.13, 1 Sam. 27.8. and are constantly interchanged in Semitic, θ and φ in Greek, says Lenormant (La légende de Cadmus in Annales de Philosophic chrétienne, xv. (1867), 79), though they draw opposite conclusions, Hitzig maintaining that the Geshurites were Aryans, Lenormant that the Gephyraeans were Semitic.

Again, the worship of Demeter Thesmophoros is connected with Cadmus of Thebes, both of them orderers. The temple of the goddess had formerly been the house of Cadmus (Paus. 9.16, 5). Cadmus and indeed the whole grouping of the city-divinities of Thebes bespeak a Cabirian origin. In Aristoph. Thesm. 300, among the divinities specially connected with Demeter we find Hermes and the Charites. Now, Κάδμος λέγεται ὁ Ἑρμῆς, as Etym. Gud.(s. v.) says; he is the attendant on the Great Goddesses,. like the Cadmilus of Samothrace: and if the Charites (cf. also C. I. A. 5) take the place of Harmonia, that is only parallel to the Lemnian nymphs taking the place of Harmonia in the Cabiric worship of Corinth (Schol. on Pind. O. 13.74). Now, Cadmus is a character partly Pelasgic, partly Phoenician (cf. Maury, 3.234-253; Lenormant, op. cit.). Further, Herodotus (Hdt. 2.59, 122, 123, 155), followed by Diodorus (Diod. 1.13), expresses himself quite decidedly to the effect that Demeter-worship originally came into Greece from the Isisworship of the Egyptians: and he is of the same opinion about the rites of the Thesmophoria (2.171). He relates that the daughters of Danaus taught these mysteries to the Pelasgian women; that on the Doric conquest of Peloponnesus these rites vanished except among the Arcadians who were not dispossessed by the warrior Dorians. So we find Thesmophoric worship traced back through Thebes to the Cabiri of Samothrace, and then further to the East, Phoenicia or Egypt; but into these dark regions we cannot now follow it.

3. The Athenian Festival

lasted for five days, and was conducted partly at Halimus on the coast of Attica, partly in the city. We shall first see who took part in the festival, then describe its various parts, and finally discuss its date.

(a) The participants in the Thesmophoria.--It was to Demeter, chiefly as the goddess presiding over marriage, that the Thesmophoria was celebrated. It was a festival embracing many mystic and secret rites (Aristoph. Thesm. 472; Eccl. 443), in which women alone could take part; but it was open to all free women of respectable character. Accordingly it was, as Maury says (2.223), the national and popular Demeter-festival, in contrast to the Eleusinia, which was the mystical and aristocratic one. From the very nature of the feast to the goddess presiding over marriage, neither slaves (Aristoph. Thesm. 294) nor courtesans were allowed to attend; and Lucian (Dial. Meretr. 2, 1) is to be explained by supposing that Myrtium watched the procession, not that she took part in the ceremonies. But it is not so certain that unmarried girls took no part, as is assumed by Preller (Dem. u. Pers. 343; Fritzsche, p. 580 of his ed. of the Thesm.; Schömann, Gr. Alt. 2.483). For it is explicitly stated that παρθένοι did take part in the Thesmophoria at Athens (cf. Schol. on Theocr. 4.25; Lucian, l. c.; Plant. Aul. Prol. 36). At Catana Demeter was worshipped per mulieres et virgines (Cic. Ver. 4.4. 5, 99); and at Algonus (Strabo, 1.60) παρθένοι also appear to have taken part. Nor is there any reason why they should not, when we remember that young girls, παρθένοι τ' ἔτ' ἄζυγες, took part in the Bacchic revels (Eur. Bacch. 694), and that the ancients in large measure held that to the pure all things were pure (cf. ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ φύσει τὸ σωφρονεῖν ἔνεστιν ἐς τὰ πάντ' ἀεί, ib. 315). Fritzsche explains away the passage from Lucian by referring it to a κανηφόρος who took part in the procession, but not in the mysteries: but the Stenia was not the least coarse part of the festival. We should rather assume that all free adult women could take part in the ceremonies; and if Aristophanes (Thesm. 330) calls them δὐγενεῖς γυναῖκες, he only means that they were fall citizens, as does Plut. Sol. 8when he calls them τὰς πρώτας γυναῖκας.

(b) The preliminaries.--During the first nine nights of Pyanepsion the women who were to take prominent part in the festival were required to observe the strictest chastity (Ov. Met, 10.438); and all sorts of strange customs are related as to the particular kinds of herbs the women used to eat or to lie on so as to allay sexual desire (Schol. on Theocr. 4.25, κνῦζα; Schol. on Nicand. Theriaca, 70, κόνυζα; Plin. Nat.24.59, agnon; Hesych. s. v. κνέωρον; Etym. M. s. v. σκόροδον). The prohibition to eat the pomegranate (Clem. Alex. Protr. 100.12=p. 16 ed. Pott.) belongs generally to Demeterworship; and we have found it already at Eleusis. [ELEUSINIA]

Prior to the beginning of the festival proper, each deme chose two of its richest and most important women, who were required to perform the necessary sacrifices, and also to prepare a feast for their fellow-demes-women (Isaeus, Ciron. hered. § 19); the expense was borne by the husbands, and was of the nature of a λειτουργία (Id. Pyrrh. hered. § 80). Accordingly the wives of the richest only were chosen as presidents; and Aristophanes (Thesm. 834) proposes an alteration in this custom, urging that this post of high honour be bestowed on women who have borne sons who have signally benefited the state.

(c) The Stenia.--This is to be considered as the beginning of the festival proper. The women appear to have gone down during the night of the 10th in small bands to Halimus (cf. A. Mommsen, Heortologie, 296); probably the women of each deme went together under the leadership of their presidents. As they went they exchanged with one another those kinds of jokes and abuse (Phot. 538; Hesych. s. v. στηνιῶσαι) which characterised so many Greek festivals, especially those in honour of Demeter. The abuse and jokes appear to have been very coarse (Cleomed. Cycl. theor. 2. p. 91, ed. 1605; cf. Apollod. 1.5, 3, Diod. 5.4, of the festival of Demeter at Syracuse). The derivation of the name στήνια is uncertain. Schömann (l. c.) supposes it from the haltingplaces of the companies, where the abuse no doubt was peculiarly rife; Preller (op. cit. 339, note 19) from an actual place of that name on the road to Halimus, and he compares the γεφυρισμοὶ at the bridge over the Cephisus in the Eleusinia. The place Στήνια is hypothetical, but the resemblance to the γεφυρισμοὶ is unmistakable.

(d) The Mysteries at Halimus.--Halimus was a village near Phalerum and Colias, on the west coast of Attica. There was a temple there to Demeter Thesmophoros (Paus. 1.31, 1), and also one at Colias (Hesych. s. v. Κωλιάς). Arnobius (adv. Gentes, 5.28) refers to the mysteries at Halimus in these words: Alimontia mysteria quibus in Liberi honorem patris phallos subrigit Graecia et simulacris fascinorum territoria cuncta florescunt --a passage written about A.D. 295, when all the mysteries of Greece had become confused. In order to properly understand, as far as we can, the mysteries of Halimus, we must turn to other sources.

St. Clement of Alexandria (Protrept. 11=p. 14, 21, ed. Pott.) says: Do you wish me to tell of Pherrephatta's flower-gathering and her basket and of her rape, how the earth split in sunder and the swine of Eubulus were swallowed up with the disappearing deities--the reason wherefore at the Thesmophoria they encryptswine and cast them therein (μεγαρίζοντες χοίρους ἐμβάλλουσι)? This story the women celebrate, in their feasts under varied forms, Thesmophoria, Scirophoria, Arretophoria, all in one. shape or another giving a dramatic representation of the Rape of Pherrephatta. [We have. coined a word to express μεγαρίζοντες, which. means to put into crypts (μέγαρα), as with us. pit can mean to put into pits, &c. It appears to have been a ritualistic word, as it is, found in Epiphanius, and in connexion too with, the Thesmophoria: αἱ μεγαρίζουσαι καὶ θεσμοφοριάζουσαι γύναικες, quoted by Lobeck (Aglaoph. 832), whose conjecture, μεγάροις ζῶντας, though brilliant and widely adopted, is unnecessary.]

Even this passage was very obscure till E. Rohde (Rhein. Mus. 25.548 ff.) published a valuable scholion on Lucian (Dial. Meretr. ii. 1) from a Vatican codex. The scholion is very long, but it is of such capital importance that we must reproduce it at length. The θεσμοφορία (accented paroxytone) is a festival of the Greeks containing certain mystic rites, and these rites are also called Scirophoria (σκιροφόρια). It is solemnised on the basis of the somewhat mystical story, that when Cora, as she was gathering flowers, was carried off by Pluto, there at that very place a certain swineherd named Eubuleus was herding his swine, and that they were swallowed up in the chasm (along with the deities). It is in honour of this Eubuleus that swine are cast into the chasms (χάσματα) of Demeter and Cora. When the bodies of the swine which have been cast into the crypts (μέγαρα) are decayed, certain women who are called ἀντλητρίαι, after purifying themselves for three days, descend and bring them up. They go down into the sacred caverns (ἄδυτα), bring up the remains, and place them on the altar; and they believe that the man who takes of this offering and mixes it with his seed-corn will have a good crop. Moreover, they say that there are serpents also below, all about in the chasms (χάσματα), and that these serpents. eat the greater part of what is cast in: wherefore too a rattling is made when the women draw up (ἀντλῶσιν) the bodies and when they put back again those well-known figures (τὰ πλάσματα ἐκεῖνα), so that the serpents, which they believe to be the guardians of the sacred caverns (ἀδύτων), may retire before them. This ceremony is called the carrying of things which must not be spoken of(ἀρρηντοφόρια,), and is performed as equally efficacious for the productiveness of the fruits of the ground and for the generation of human kind. Moreover, too, they bring there sacred emblems which must not be spoken of (ἄρρητα ἱερά) made of dough in the image of serpents and the male organs of generation (ἀνδρῶν σχημάτων). [This is the interpretation given by Rohde, p. 552, comparing the μύλλοι at Syracuse (Athen. 14.647 a): but even so there is no need to emend ἀνδρῶνγτ; into αἰσχρῶν. It would seem as if we should read ἄλλων, but the passage from Arnobius quoted above makes for Rohde's interpretation: cf. Clement, op. cit. 21=p. 29 Pott.] And they take boughs of pine (κώνου), for that tree is prolific; and into the crypts, as these sacred caverns are called (es ἐς τὰ μέγαρα οὕτως καλούμενα ἄδυτα), these offerings (ἐκεῖνα, i. e. both the sacred emblems and the pine-branches) and the swine, as we have already mentioned, are cast, these latter as being so prolific, in order thereby to symbolise the generation of fruit and of human kind--and all as a thank-offering (χαριστηρία) to Demeter, for she gave us her corn and civilised (ἥμερον ἐποίησεν) the race of men. The account of the feast given above is the mythical; the one before us is the rationaldstic (δ δὲ προκείμενος φυσικός). The name θεσμοφορία (paroxytone) arises from the epithet θεσμοφορος applied to Demeter, because she laid down the law or rather her divine injunction (νόμον ἤτοι θεσμόν), whereby man is bound to provide for himself and to get by his own labour his daily sustenance (τὴν τροφὴν πορίζεσθαί τε καὶ κατεργάζεσθαι). Rohde supposes that the Scholiast, finding in his text an allusion to the θεσμοφόρια (proparoxytone), looked up in some book of ritual and copied down what he found under θεσμοφορία (paroxytone). Now, this latter was the name of the day of the mysteries at Halimus, according to the right reading in Photius, 87, 21 (compare with Schol. on Aristoph. Thesm. 80), wrongly altered by Porson to θεσμοφόρια: cf. Fritzsche, p. 578.

Accordingly, in the description by the Schoiliast on Lucian, we have an account of that part of the Thesmophoria which consisted of certain mysteries solemnised by the women at Halimus,--mysteries both striking in themselves and instructive in more points than one.

First of all, let us call to mind other similar sacrifices offered elsewhere to Demeter and Persephone. We read that there was a hole (βόθρος) sacred to Demeter Erinnys at Onceum, near Thelpusa in Arcadia, into which live pigs were cast (Paus. 8.25, 4; cf. Lycophr. Alex. 1225, λωβαῖσιν αἰκισθέντας Ὀγκαίου βόθρου). The people of Potniae in Boeotia (Paus. 9.8, 1) used to throw into crypts as they are called (ἐς τὰ μέγαρα καλούμενα) young pigs, and they relate that these pigs emerged again [ at Dodona, says Pausanias. We do not see how ἐν Δωδώνη can stand, and hesitatingly with Lobeck (Aglaoph. 829, 830) read ἀναδοθῆναι: for a verb is certainly required, and what connexion are the Potnians likely to have had every year with distant Dodona?] at the same season of the ensuing year. At the fountain of Cyane, near Syracuse, a live bull was precipitated, in honour of Cora, into a hole where it was supposed that she had disappeared (Diod. 5.4). Into a gulf near Argos, at certain periods, torches were thrown in honour of Cora (Paus. 2.22, 3).

Next, as regards these crypts, or μέγαρα, as they were technically called, Eustathius (on Od. 1.1387, 17) says, ἰδικῶς μέγαρα κατάγεια οἰκήματα ταῖν θεαῖν ἤγουν Δήμητρος καὶ Περσεφόνης, with the addition of Ael. Dionysius, εἰς δ τὰ μυστικὰ ἱερὰ κατατίθενται: cf. Hesych. s. v. ἀνάκτορον. Especial interest attaches to them, as Sir Charles Newton opened one at Halicarnassus. It had been originally circular in form, and amongst its contents were discovered certain small figures of pigs in marble, and at the very bottom the bones of swine and of some other animals. Taken in connexion with the scholion to Lucian and the passage from St. Clement, it may reasonably be inferred that Sir C. Newton discovered an actual crypt used in the mystic ceremonies of the Thesmophoria. The Scholiast tells both of the live pigs driven down into the crypts and of the images (πλάσματα), probably of pigs, which were placed in the crypts after the flesh of the real swine was removed; and both these were actually discovered at Halicarnassus. (See Newton, Halicarnassus, 383 ff.,391, 422; cf. Plate lviii.)

But the most interesting point of all is the reason given by the Scholiast for the sacrifice. They believed that the flesh of the swine so offered to Demeter would, if mixed with the seed-corn, magically add to its fertility. We seem to be very far from civilised Periclean Athens here. We are away back in savage times and their magic rites. In savage and even bestial forms Demeter appears elsewhere in Greek religion, e. g. Demeter Erinnys (Paus. 8.25, 4), Demeter Melaina (ib. 42, 1-4); but that would be too wide a subject to enter on now. It is more relevant to show by comparison that the custom of mixing blood with the seed-corn is a savage custom; and that has been done by Mr. Andrew Lang in an article Demeter and the Pig (Nineteenth Century, 21.563, April 1887: cf. Myth, Ritual, and Religion, 2.260-276), in which he adduces the examples of the Pawnees of America, who used to mix the blood of a human victim with the seed-corn, and of the Khonds in the hillregion of Goomsar, who sacrificed both a pig and a man for the same purpose;

Mr. Frazer (The Golden Bough, 2.48) relates that in Hessen and Meiningen the flesh of pigs is eaten on Ash-Wednesday or Candlemas, and the bones are kept till sowing time, when they are put into the field sown or mixed with the seed in the bag: but cf. p. 29, This is thought to be an infallible specific against earth-fleas and moles, and to cause the flax to grow well and tall.

and further Mr. Lang shows how, in the two discoveries of Sir C. Newton at Halicarnassus, the whole character of Greek religion, its humane and rational, and its wild and magical aspects, are thus combined in the lovely Cnidian statue of Demeter (cf. Newton, op. cit. p. 399; cf. Plate lvi.), and in the fragments of bones of sacrificed swine and images of pigs which lay in her subterranean cell.

But though these savage rites came soon, under the wondrous alchemy of the Greek imagination, to be transmuted into parts of a poetical drama; still their savage character remained to the end, intertwined with the beautiful legend of Demeter and her lost daughter. For the mysteries at Halimus were a more or less complete dramatic representation of a portion of that story, as is expressly stated by St. Clement, probably the portion which described the rape of Proserpina (Rohde, p. 557). He seems to preserve even the very order of the representations. We think that here, too, the mysterious ceremony called δίωγμα took place (Hesych. s. v.), it being a pursuit after the ravished Proserpina; but this is rendered uncertain by the article in Suidas under Χαλκι δικὸν διωγμα, viz. Θεσμοφορίοις Ἀθήνησί τι νόμιμον ἐν πολέμῳ γυναικῶν εὐξαμένων διωχθῆναι τοὺς πολεμίους καὶ συνέβη φυγεῖν δἰς Χαλκίδα. We confess to have no proper notion what this means: Welcker (Griech. Götterlehre, 2.498) supposes that on one occasion of battle the prayer of the women assembled for the Thesmophoria effected the flight of the enemy to Chalcis. For the calathus sacred in the rites of Proserpina, see Claudian, Rapt. Proserp. 139, and Spanheim ad Callim. p. 652; it was worn also as a head-dress in the rites of Demeter (Saglio in Dict. des Antiq. 1.813). As to the functions of the ἀντλητρίαι, Rohde (p. 554) thinks that they were performed after the festival, as otherwise the flesh of the swine would not have had time to putrefy; but from the complexity and detail observed as regards the drawing up of the flesh, and the subsequent consecration of it on the altars and the mixing it with the seed-corn, we are led rather to suppose that these are the ceremonies performed by the assembled women, and that the casting of the swine into the crypt took place some days before the actual mysteries were celebrated. Mr. Frazer (op. cit. p. 45) holds that the rotted remains of the pigs were not taken up till the next annual festival; and refers to this feature in the ceremony at Potniae to which allusion has been made (Paus. 9.8, 1). This is possible: but it is not likely that, in a scholion which is so explicit, such an important point would have been omitted.

Lastly, it is to be noticed that the pig was the animal especially sacrificed to Demeter. Why it was so different explanations are given. (1) The mythologists said that when Triptolemus first sowed his crop a pig destroyed his work (λυμαντικός, Schol. on Aristoph. Ran. 338); therefore did he seize it, place the fruits on its head, and sacrifice it to the goddess (Serv. on Verg. G. 2.380; Aen. 3.118). Or, again, they tell that the pig effaced the track of Proserpina as she was being carried away (Ov. Fast. 4.405). (2) The Symbolists find in the pig an emblem of fecundity (διὰ τὸ πολυτόκον, Schol. on Lucian). Hence is to be explained the many votive offerings to Demeter of pigs with children on their backs. They are offered to the goddess by parents if haply she will grant them children (Gerhard, Akademische Abhandl. 2.340, note 36). The female womb was called χοῖρος (Aristoph. Ach. 780ff.; Schol. on Vesp. 1353); cf. porcus in Varro, R. R. 2.4, 10. (3) But, besides, the pig was a common and effective purificatory offering (Aesch. Eum. 283), especially at Eleusis; accordingly, both in statues (e. g. that of Demeter Eleusinia in the Louvre: Fr. Lenormant in Dict. des Antiq. i fig. 1321) and coins (Cohen, Méd. Cons. pl. 41.7, 8, Vibia gens) Demeter appears with a purificatory torch and a pig. Each of the initiates at Eleusis sacrificed a pig on the 17th of Boedromion, the day of the Great Eleusinia, which was called θυά (Hesych. s. v.), and so apparently on the same day did each family at Athens (C. I. G. 523, 7). There is a good picture of a family offering a pig to Demeter and Persephone in Baumeister's Denkmäler, p. 416, fig. 457 = D. and S. i. fig. 1310. (4) Mr. Frazer (op. cit. 2.44 ff.) considers that the pig used in the rites of Demeter was nothing else but the goddess herself in animal form (cf. p. 27): for in European folk-lore, as he argues at length (pp. 26 ff.), the pig is the common embodiment of the corn-spirit; the goddess is sacrificed to herself on the ground that she is her own enemy, as was the case with Dionysus. At the Thesmophoria swine's flesh appears to have been eaten (Schol. on Aristoph. Ran. 338), and Mr. Frazer considers that the meal must have been a solemn sacrament or communion of worshippers partaking of the body of the god. We cannot help thinking that the Scholion is too vague and unreliable to base on it such a large conclusion.

(e) The Anodos(ἄνοδος), sometimes called κάθοδος (Phot. 87; Schol. on Thesm. 585).--On this day, the 12th, the women returned to Athens in procession; and, says the Schol. on Theocr. 4.25, they carried on their heads the sacred books of the ordinances of Demeter, and, as it were praying, went off to Eleusis (καὶ ὡσανεὶ λιτανεύουσαι ἀπήρχοντο εἰς Ἐλευσῖνα). The Schol. on Thesm. 585 says that the name ἄνοδος came from the wonen going up to the Thesmophorion, for it lay on a height. We are to explain the strange allusion of the Scholiast on Theocritus to Eleusis, by supposing that the Eleusinion was the goal of the procession (Mommsen, op. cit. p. 300), and that either the Eleusinion was originally called the Thesmophorion, or, more probably, the Thesmophorion was part of the Eleusinion (cf. Milchhöfer in Baumeister's Denkmäler, 1.198-9). The carrying of the books of the laws on their heads was an old custom with the women (Aristoph. Eccl. 222, 3). It was for a long time supposed that Demeter with a volume of laws was represented on one of the metopes of the Parthenon; but this view is given up by Michaelis (Parthenon, p. 134, metope xx.). However, there is no doubt that in a vasepainting (Tischbein, IV xxxvi., reproduced by Fr. Lenormant in Dict. des Antiq. i. fig. 1296) Demeter Thesmophoros does appear holding an open roll of laws.

(f) The Scira(Σκίρα).--Returned to Athens, still on the 12th (Mommsen, op. cit. 299), the women met for the secret conclave called Σκίρα, at which Aristophanes represents them as passing resolutions (Eccl. 18); at any rate there was a president (Thesm. 834). We cannot tell what the nature of the deliberations were; but that the Scira belonged to the Thesmophoria seems certain. Besides the two passages just quoted, we find in the Scholiast to the latter that the Scira were τὰ γινόμενα ἱερὰ ἐν τῇ ἑοτῇ ταύτῃ (sc. Thesmophoria) Δήμητρι καὶ Κόρη.

Such is the opinion maintained by Mommsen as to the position in the Thesmophoria of the part called Scira; and in deference to his authority we have placed it here, but with much hesitation. That Mommsen (287-289) has proved that the Scira belonged to the Thesmophoria, and not to the Oschophoria as is held by K. F. Hermann (Gottesd. Alt. § 56, 7), is certain: but it is not at all clear that the Scira was not part of the ceremony at Halimus. In the first place, we should wish to refer back ( § 3 d) to the passage of St. Clement (Protr. 11), where he speaks of θεσμοφόρια (query -ία), σκιροφόρια ἀρρητοφόρια, where the first probably, and the third certainly, refer to the mysteries at Halimus, and therefore we may presume that the second does too. Again, the scholion on Lucian says that the θεσμοφορία is also called σκιροφορία. [Of course, there is no allusion to the Scirophoria held on the 12th of Scirophorion, about the end of June; it is a mere mistake of St. Clement and the Scholiast, Scirophoria for Scira.] Further the scholion on Thesm. 854 continues, οἱ δὲ ὅτι ἐπίσκυρα θύεται τῆ Ἀθηϝᾷ: for the corrupt ἐπίσκυρα Fritzsche (op. cit. p. 323) conjectures ἐπὶ Σκίρῳ τῆ Ἀθηνᾷ, as in Steph. Byz. s. v. Σκίρος, though the usual form is indeed Σκιράδι Ἀθηνᾷ (Paus. 1.36, 4; 1.1-Z2, 4). For Athena Sciras, see Preller, Griech. Myth. i.3 167 if. The temple of Athena Sciras at Phalerum was quite close to Halimus (Paus. 1.36, 4); and it was natural that, as the primitive Demeter-worship of Halimus came gradually into connexion with the worship of Athena till it was finally adopted into the Athenian statereligion, it should get especially blended with just that side of Athena-worship which expressed gratitude for the gifts of the Earth (cf. Welcker, Gr. Götter. 2.283), and with just that temple of Athena, namely the temple of Athena Sciras at Phalerum, where her worship existed long before it was introduced into the city (Mommsen, 54). In a similar manner the Demeter-worship of the Gephyraeans became blended with the worship of Athena and Poseidon (Paus. 1.37, 2; Preller, de Via Sacra, p. 18), and Demeter-worship in Cyprus became blended with the presiding national divinity, Aphrodite (Engel, Kypros, 2. p. 654;--Paus. 2.34, 11; 7.21-Z2, 4), as indeed it had a certain connexion with the worship of Aphrodite Colias and of Genetyllis (Lobeck, 630), even in Attica (Preller, Dem. u. Perseph. 344; cf. Gr. Myth. 1.299).

(g) Thast(νηστεία) took place on the 13th. At the Thesmophoria, says Cornutus (Nat. Deor. 28), the women fast in honour of Demeter; either it is that they honour her by a peculiar kind of sacrifice, in that they abstain for one day from the gifts which she has given unto them, or it is in heedful commemoration of the need that in days gone by fell upon men at the hands of this goddess. Seated on the ground and in the deepest gloom, the women fasted, and they did not even offer any sacrifice (Plut. de Isid. et Osirid. 69; cf. Aristoph. Av. 1517). Originally they appear to have uttered wild mourning and lamentations, κομμοὶ και ορῆνοι (Iamblich. Vit. Pythag. 100.27, p. 262, ed. Kiessl.). These lamentations point to introduction from the East (cf. Hdt. 6.58), and partook of that piercing (σκληρὸν) and Oriental, unmeasured and intemperate expression of grief which Solon and Epimenides (Plut. Sol. 12, 21) tried to put down; and in this sense perhaps the solemn words of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 479, are to be understood: [ὄργια δ'] οὔπως ἐστι παρεξίμεν οὔτε πυθέσθαι ἀχέειν, μέγα γάρ τι θεῶν ἄχος ἰσχάνει αὐδήν.

Most scholars after Plutarch (de Isid. l. c.; Demosth. 30) place this fast in connexion with the fast of nine days which the initiates at Eleusis observed, in imitation, as is supposed, of the fast of Demeter in her grief for the loss of her daughter--and rightly too in part, though we must remember that Persephone did not play any very prominent part in Thesmophoric worship generally, and that the lamentations and fasting point also in part to the fact that probably the worship of Demeter as a θεὸς χθόνιος had got in some degree mingled with that of the goddess in her other aspects;: and it is to an earth-goddess that Iamblichus refers the κομμοὶ καὶ θρῆνοι before alluded to, The statement made by Lenormant (Dict. des Antiq. 1. p. 1059, note 1182) that the reference was to the miserable state of humanity prior to the possession of the gifts of Demeter is in some measure borne out by the evidence adduced, viz. Cornut. l. c., Aristid. Eleusin. 417 Dindorf. He also tells us that Cornutus (100.28) refers to the absence of fire in the Hephaestia at Lemnos as a parallel to the fast of the Thesmophoria, a point alluded to also by Welcker (op. cit. 2.502, note 19), but we have been unable to find the reference.

In Rome fasts in honour of Ceres were solemnised under Greek influence, e. g. the jejunium Cereris appointed by order of the Sibylline books. in 191 B.C. (Liv. 36.37, 4) to be held every five years (cf. Cic. Balb. 24, 55; Festus, s. v. Graeca sacra, p. 154 M.); also a jejunium Cereris appears in the Calendar of Amiternum for Oct. 4th, a date which nearly coincides with the Thesmophoria (cf. C. I. L. i. pp. 325, 403).

(h) The Calligeneia(Καλλιγένεια).--This was the name given to the last day of the festival, the 14th, the day of rejoicing and holiday after the severe discipline of the previous ceremonies. According to the Schol. on Aristoph. Thesm. 298, Καλλιγένεια was a δαίμων περὶ τὴν Δημήτραν: Hesych. s. v., who says she is an ἀκόλουθος. An important passage of Photius quoted by Kock (Frag. Corn. Att. 1. p. 481 = Frag. Aristoph. 335) tells us that Apollodorus said that Calligeneia was the Earth, others a daughter of Zeus and Demeter. while Aristophanes the comedian represented her as the nurse of Demeter. But the real fact probably is that καλλιγένεια is an epithet of the goddess herself as the mother of a fair child, just as Persephone is the fair child herself (καλλίπαις θεά, Eur. Orest. 964).

But, be that as it may, it is agreed that Calligeneia spoke the Prologue of the Second Thesmophoriazusae of Aristophanes (Kock, l. c.). The First Thesmophoriazusae (the play which we possess intact) had its scene laid on the day of the νηστεία: the Second Thesmophoriazusae probably on the Calligeneia (Fritzsche, p. 585). In Athen. 1.29 we read that Demetrius of Troezen called the Second Thesmophoriazusae Θεσμοφοριάσασαι (cf. Kock, l. c.), i. e. the women who have celebrated, not who are celebrating, the Thesmophoria. But all the Grammarians call our play the πρῶται or προτέραι Θεσμοφοριάζουσαι (Fritzsche, l. c.); while it may be maintained that Demetrius considered that the really essential parts of the Thesmophoria were the mysteries and the fasting, and wished to convey that when they were done the Thesmophoria was virtually over. During the Calligeneia there was much loose jollification, plenty of festivity (cf. Hesych. s. v. πρυτανεῖον), sacrifices (Alciphr. 3.39), and we hear of dances κνισμὸς and ὄκλασμα peculiar to this occasion (Poll. 4.100: yet cf. Rohde, op. cit. p. 555, note), as well as cakes of obscene shapes (κτένας), like the μύλλος at the Sicilian festival (cf. Lobeck, op. cit. 200); unless the κτένες actually point to a rite of the nature of phallic worship, as Theodoretus (quoted by Lobeck) thinks.

(i) The Zemia(ζημία).--The concluding act of the whole festival at the end of the 14th was called ζημία, a sacrifice offered ὑπὲρ τῶν γινομένων (Hesych. s. v.), a kind of sin-offering, probably in atonement for any offences committed during the festival. As such, and as being the last act (ἐπιτελέωμα Harpocr. 122) of the festival, it reminds us of the A πλημοχόαι in the Eleusinia [ELEUSINIA].

(j) The date of the Festival.--The Thesmophoria were held in the middle of Pyanepsion (= latter half of October and first half of November); as to this every one is agreed, but there is some difficulty as to the actual days. Photius says (87, 21), Θεσμοφορίων ἡμέραι δ· δεκάτη θεσμοφορία, ἑνδεκάτη κάθοδος (generally (generally ἄνοδος: see above, e), δωδεκάτη νηστεία, τρσκαιδεκάτη καλλιγένεια: Hesychius (s. v. ἄνδος) refers that part of the festival to the 11th; and the Schol. on Aristoph. Thesm. 80 (ἐπεὶ τρίτη Στὶ Θεσμοφορίων ἡ μέση) says that the day of the ϝηστεία (which is the day certainly alluded to) was the third day counting the Thesmophoria at Halimus, the middle day if you regard only the Athenian part of the festival (δεκάτῃ ἐν Ἁλιμοῦντι Θεσμοφόρια (query -ία) ἄγεται ὥστε τρίτην μὲν ἀπὸ δεκάτης ιβ εἶναι, μέσην δὲ μὴ συναριθμουμένης τῆς δεκάτης); and the days are, 10th Mysteries at Halimus, 11th ἄνοδος, 12th νηστεία (on which day the scene of the Thesmophoriazusae of Aristophanes is laid), 13th καλλιγένεια. The Schol. goes on to state that no one can maintain the far-fetched and artificial interpretation (ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ψυχρεύεσθαί τις δύναται) that τρίτη means τρισκαιδεκαταία, as ἑκταία ἑκαταβόλος σελάνα means ἑκκαιδεκαταία. Nearly all scholars are in agreement with the scholiast: e. g. Schömann (2.483), Maury (2.227), Schäfer (Demosthenes und seine Zeit, 3.359). [Of course, the statement Plut. Dem. 30, that the νηστεία was on the 16th, is quite in error.]

But there is much to recommend the farfetched and artificial interpretation, and it is well supported by A. Mommsen (op. cit. 293 ff.). He holds that τρίτη = τρίτη ἐπὶ δέκα. Not to mention the fact that τρισκαιδεκάτη would be troublesome to get into verse and very cumbrous, we know that the days of the month are often given without the decade to which they belonged being specified (Aristoph. Nub. 1128; Demosth. Fals. Leg. 359, § § 58, 59). If this is so in the present case, the city festival will be on the 12th, 13th, and 14th, and the 13th will be the middle day of the city festival. Further, this will allow that the nine nights of strict chastity which were enjoined on the women (see above, b) should all be in Pyanepsion, the Stenia not beginning till the 10th. Again, the 13th of months generally was considered an unluckly day (cf. Hes. Op. 780); no decree is ever found to have been passed on it; while the fourth day of each decade was a lucky day for begetting children (ib. 794). Finally the Thesea, which we know in Roman times were lengthened, will not overlap the Thesmophoria if we allow that the latter did not in any sense begin till the 10th. We confess to thinking Mommsen's view the more satisfactory; but must add that Preller (Gribech. Myth. 1.640, note 1), with that view before him, deliberately rejects it, though he gives no reasons for so doing.

As regards Θεσμοφορίων ἡ μέση in Aristophanes (cf. Athen. 7.307 f, ἡμεῖς νηστείαν ἄγομεν Θεσμοφορίων τὴν μέσην), the day of the νηστεία appears to have been the middle day of the strict Athenian festival. For the whole Thesmophoria, as it existed in Attica in Aristophanes' time, was a blending of the original Mysteries at Halimus, where Demeter-worship was first introduced into Attica, and an Athenian festival. The first two days (the Stenia and the Mysteries) belonged to the former, the last three days to the latter.

We subjoin a table of the dates of the several parts of the festival, according to the ordinary reckoning and to Mommsen.  Ordinary reckoning. Mommsen.Stenia9Pyanepsion (=Oct. 22)10Mysteries at Halimus10Pyanepsion (=Oct. 23)11Anodos and Scira11Pyanepsion (=Oct. 24)12Stenia12Pyanepsion (=Oct. 25)13Calligeneia and Zemia13Pyanepsion (=Oct. 26)14

4. Thesmophoric worship outside Attica.

(a) Greece. The house of Cadmus in Thebes became the temple of Demeter Thesmophoros (Paus. 9.16, 5), and Xenophon (Xen. Hell. 5.2, 29) tells us that the Theban women (ἐν τῆ Καδμείᾳ θεσμοφοριάζειν (cf. Plut. Pel. 5). At Drymaea in Phocis the Thesmophoria was a yearly festival (Paus. 10.33, 12), Megara had a temple to Demeter Thesmophoros (ib. 1.42, 6), and at Argos the daughters of Danaus were said to have taught the Pelasgian women the rites of the goddes (Hdt. 2.171). The temples of Demeter at Aegina (Hdt. 6.91) and Troezen (Paus. 2.32, 7) had ceremonies connected with them analogous to those of Demeter in Attica: for we hear of a λιθοβολία at Troezen (ib. § 2), in which probably resembled the βαλλητὺς of the Eleusinia; and at Aegina of the ribald abuse (Hdt. 6.83), which was characteristic of the γεφυρισμὸς in the Eleusinia and of the Stenia in the Attic Thesmophoria. At Troezen, Epidaurus and Aegina, Demeter and Cora appear under the names of Damia and Auxesia (Hdt. 5.82). At Agila in Laconia there was a temple of Demeter to which women only were admitted (Paus. 4.17, 1), which perhaps points to Thesmophoric worship, and Hesychius (s. v. τριήμερον) speaks of Thesmophoria at Sparta (cf. possibly C. I. G. 1435, of a priestess who served ταῖν Θεαῖν). About seven miles from Pellene in Achaea was a temple of Demeter Mysia (Mysius was a man who had entertained Demeter in her sorrow), in which a festival was held lasting for seven days. On the third day not only the men, but all male animals were excluded from the temple, and the women performed mystic rites during the night (δρῶσιν ἐν τῇ νυκτὶ ὁπόσα νόμος ἐστὶν αὐταῖς). The next day the men came back; and a contest of abuse ensued (Paus. 7.27, 9, 10). In Arcadia Herodotus says (2.171), the old original worship of Demeter Thesmophoros survived, as it remained unassailed by the Dorian invaders. No doubt Demeter-worship in Arcadia presented very striking peculiarities and forms, such as are to be gathered from the stories told by Pausanias of Demeter Erinnys at Thelpusa (8.25, 4-5) and of Demeter Melaina at Phigalia (ib. 42, 1-4); but these have little affinity with the lawestablishing goddess, and even the worship in the great temples of Demeter at Acacesion and Megalopolis show not so much Pelasgian survival as Eleusinian influence; for we know that a considerable missionary propaganda of the Great Goddesses spread itself abroad from Eleusis about the time of Epaminondas (cf. Paus. 8.37, 1-7; 31, 1-7; Lobeck, Aglaoph. 1251; Preller, Dem. u. Perseph. 148 ff.). However, about half a mile from Megalopolis there was a temple of Demeter in the Marsh (ἐν ἕλει, Paus. 8.36, 6), where women alone had the right to enter, which points to Thesmophoric worship, and about four miles above Pheneus in Arcadia was a temple of Demeter Thesmia (ib. 15, 4).

(b) The Islands and the Colonies.--With regard to the Thesmophoria at Eretria, Plutarch (Quaest. Graec. 31 = 2.298) asks why the women cook their meat in the sun and not on the fire, and why they do not invoke Calligeneia (καὶ Καλλιγένειαν οὐ καλοῦσι); and gives the unsatisfactory answer that it was because the captive Trojan women on the return from Troy were sacrificing the Thesmophoria there, when suddenly a favourable wind sprang up and they had to leave the ceremonies uncompleted. Crete was a very old seat of Demeter-worship [ORPHICA] (cf. Hom. Hymn. to Demet. 123; Hes. Th. 971), having among its months two called Eleusinios and Thesmophorios. From Crete it passed to Paros, where it was in the highest degree important (Hdt. 6.134-5): we read that there Timo was ὑποζάκορον τῶν χθονίων θεῶν, guarding τὸ ἕρκος θεσμοφόρου Δήμητρος, and was accused of having shown to Miltiades sacred emblems which should not have been disclosed to any one of the male sex. The archives of Paros were kept in the temple of Demeter (C. I. G. 2557, 22). Cabarnus, who in the legend was said to have pointed out to Demeter where Persephone had been carried off, was the reputed ancestor of the Parian Demeterpriesthood (C. I. G. 2384). Perhaps this Parian Demeter-worship was originally a family one; and when later it became a public worship, the family retained the chief priesthood of it, like some of the priesthoods at Eleusis. From Paros it passed to Thasos (Paus. 10.28, 3), if the worship referred to here is Thesmophoric. At Delos there was certainly a Thesmophoria (Athen. 3.109), where a cake called ἀχαΐνη was used (Lobeck, op. cit. 1063); and in Cyprus there was a Thesmophoria lasting for nine days (cf. Engel, Kypros, 2.653-4). We hear of Thesmophoric worship in Asia Minor at Ephesus (Hdt. 6.16), Miletus (Steph. Byz. Μίλητος), Laodicea (C. I. G. 4000, a curious inscription, where see Boeckh's notes), Smyrna (ib. 3194, 3211), Priene (ib. 2907); in Macedonia (Plb. 15.29, 8); in Thrace at Abdera (Diog. 50.9.43); and even so far away as Panticapaeum (C. I. G. 2106-2108). Demeter-worship came into Sicily from Greece, and at Syracuse there was a Thesmophoria in spring (also called Demetria, Diod. 5.4), at which μυλλοὶ cakes of sesame and honey in the shape of ἐφήβαια γυναικεῖα were eaten (Athen. 14.617); and a Coreia in summer, which was a very splendid feast: in it appeared the traditional αἰσχροχλογία (Diod. l. c.). At Catana there was a worship of Demeter by women only,--her statue was never even heard of by men till Verres stole it (Cic. Ver. 4.4. 5, 99); and at Agrigentum there was a Thesmophoria (Polyaen. 5.1). In Naples and the adjoining country the worship of Demeter was widespread (C. I. G. 5799, and perhaps 5838 with Boeckh's note). The rites of Ceres were the only foreign mysteries tolerated by the Romans (Cic. de Leg. 2.9, 21); but they readily accepted her rites, making the Greek priestesses of Demeter (who almost all came from Naples or Velia) Roman citizens (cf. Cic. Balb. 24, 55). At Cumae to be priestess of Demeter Thesmophoros was the highest honour to which matrons could aspire (Plut. Virt. Mul. 26 = 2.262); and an inscription of a priestess of the same goddess has been found at Pompeii (C. I. G. 5865).

The chief work on the worship of Demeter Thesmophoros is Preller, Demeter und Persephone, 335-365; also his Griechische Mythologie, i.3 639-641. As regards the Athenian festival, see A. Mommsen, Heortologie der Athener, 287-302; and Fritzsche's edition of the Thesmophoriazusae. For further, compare Welcker, Griechische Götterlehre, 2.495-540; Maury, Histoire des Religions de la Grèce antique, 2.222-229; Schömann, Griechische Alterthümer, 2.482-6; K. F. Hermann, Gottesd. Alterthümer, § 56, 12-27; Mr. J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, 2.44 f., and Encyclopaedia Britannica(ed. 9), s. v. Thesmophoria; and, above all, Lenormant's article on CERES in Daremberg and Saglio's Dict. des Antiquités, 1.1021-1078.

[L.C.P]