Thesmophoria
an ancient festival held exclusively by women in several districts of Hellas, especially Athens and Arcadia, in honor of Demeter Thesmophoros ("the lawgiver") as the foundress of agriculture, and thereby of ordered civil life, with the institution of marriage.
At Athens the festival extended to three days, beginning with Oct. 24. On the first day there was a procession to the temple of Demeter at Halimos, S. E. of the city; on the second a strict fast; and on the third day, called Kalligeneia ("the bearer of a fair offspring") a joyous and unrestrained carousal. The licentiousness of the Thesmophoria is caricatured in the "Thesmophoriazouzai" of Aristophanes.
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