Agrionia

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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 began to present and solve riddles.[ citation needed ]

According to legend, the Minyades or Oleiai (Ὀλεῖαι), 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 ]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Chisholm 1911.
  2. Chisholm 1911 cites Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. 102, Quaest. Graecae 38.

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