Anthesteria

The festival celebrated the beginning of spring, particularly the maturing of the wine stored at the previous vintage,[3] whose pithoi (storage-jars) were now ceremoniously opened.

During the feast, social order was interrupted or inverted, the slaves being allowed to participate, uniting the household in ancient fashion.

[3] The Cambridge ritualist A. W. Verrall, however, glossed the name as a Feast of Revocation (ἀναθέσσασθαι, anathessasthai, to "pray up") in reference to the aspects of the festival where the dead were considered to walk among the living.

Its ritual marriage of a queen to Dionysus recalls myths concerning Theseus and Ariadne,[8] but this is no longer considered a dependable sign that the festival had been celebrated in the Minoan period.

[d] The jars of wine (pithoi) from the previous year were opened, libations offered to Dionysus, and the entire household (including slaves) joining in the festivities.

[9] The days on which the Pithoigia and Choës were celebrated were both regarded as apophrades (ἀποφράδες, 'unlucky'; Latin equivalent nefasti) and miarai (μιαραί, 'defiled'), necessitating expiatory libations.

Merrymaking continued: people dressed themselves gaily, some in the figures of Dionysus's entourage, and paid a round of visits to their acquaintances.

The day also marked a state occasion: a peculiarly solemn and secret ceremony in the sanctuary of Dionysus 'in the marshes' (ἐν λίμναις, en límnais), which was closed throughout the rest of the year.