Plynteria

Title
Plynteria
Publication Date
2013
Author(s)
Dillon, Matthew P
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6874-0513
Email: mdillon@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:mdillon
Editor
Editor(s): Roger S Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B Champion, Andrew Erskine and Sabine R Huebner
Type of document
Entry In Reference Work
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Place of publication
Chichester, United Kingdom
Edition
1
DOI
10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah17340
UNE publication id
une:14437
Abstract
Throughout the Greek world, women had charge of washing and dressing the statues of goddesses. Callimachus in his 'Fifth Hymn' describes details of the Argive women preparing to take Athena's statue to the river to bathe it. Best known is the specific Plynteria ("washing") rite at Athens in late summer (the twenty-fifth of the month Thargelion), when the ancient wooden statue of Athena on the acropolis was undressed, washed, and given a fresh, expensive, robe by women of the Praxiergidai genos ("clan"). The temples were closed for the day; no meetings of the public assembly took place. It was considered unlucky when Alkibiades arrived in Athens in 407 BCE on the Plynteria.
Link
Citation
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, v.X. Pl-Ro, p. 5368-5368
ISBN
9781405179355
9781444338386
Start page
5368
End page
5368

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