Agrionia
Agrionia was an ancient Greek religious festival in honor of Dionysus Agrionius. It was celebrated annually, especially at Orchomenus in Boeotia.[1]
According to Plutarch, agrionia was celebrated at night with only women accompanied by the priests of Dionysus, who often wore black garments.[citation needed] Women pretended to search for Dionysos and then declared that he has fled to the Muses and hidden there.[1] After that they feasted and begun to present and solve riddles.[citation needed]
According to legend, oleaia, the daughters of king Minyas of Orchomenus, who had despised the Dionysian rites, were seized with a desire to eat human flesh of one of their children.[1] They cast lots to decide which of their children they would eat and selected Hippasus, son of Leucippe.[citation needed]
Plutarch also explains that the festival included a human sacrifice. At this festival it was originally the custom for the priest of the god to pursue a woman of the Minyan family with a drawn sword and kill her.[2] This practice was later discontinued after the occurrence of bad omens.[citation needed]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chisholm 1911.
- ↑ Chisholm 1911 cites Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. 102, Quaest. Graecae 38.
- Attribution
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