Reminder: Arrephoria + sacrifices at Erchia

Today, on the third of Skirophorion, the Arrephoria (Ἀρρηφόρια) festival would have taken place. The festival wasn't a state festival; young girls in the service performed a ritual for Athena Polias as a public service, but beyond those girls, their mentors, and perhaps their parents, no one was very concerned with it.

As said in the post on coming of age ceremonies, young girls had only a minor but never the less important role to play in household worship: tending the fire. The family only had them with them for thirteen to fifteen years, on average, after that, she joined her rightful place at the oikos of her husband, where she carried more (religious) responsibility. Outside of the home, however, young girls were placed in service of female deities quite often, especially in city-states like Athens. The girls who were selected for this were in service of Athena Polias for an entire year and were called 'Arrephoros' (Ἀρρήφορος), arrephoroi as a group, consisting of four members.

As a special part of their service, the arrephoroi performed the Arrephoria. During the Arrephoria, the priestess of Athena Polias gave the young arrephoroi sealed baskets to carry to a nearby cave. Here, the girls were supposed to enter, walk the corridor, set down their baskets at the end and pick up ones which have stood there for a year. When they returned with the baskets, it signalled the end of their year of service and they were dismissed. They were replaced with new girls who would serve the Theia.

The Arrephoria is an intricate rite, which has lost much of its meaning today, but it's still an important day to Athena. For much more information about the Arrephoria, please see here.

Also today was a sacrifice to Kourotrophos, Athena Polias, Aglauros, Zeus Polieus, Poseidon & possibly Pandrosos at Erchia, a town in the Attic deme. The Kourotrophos (κουροτρόφος, child nurturer) are (mostly) female deities who watched over growing children--and especially boys. Gaea, Artemis, and Hekate come to mind. The Kourotrophos received a pig, Athena Polias a sheep, the heroin Aglouros received a sheep as well, but the remains of which were not to be removed from the bomos, which was equally true for the sheep Zeus Polieus received. Poseidon and Pandrosos, daughter of the Athenian king Cecrops, also received sheep. All animals were the gender of the deity in question.