[1] At Athens the Apaturia took place on the 11th, 12th and 13th days of the month of Pyanepsion (mid-October to mid-November), on which occasion the various phratries, or clans, of Attica met to discuss their affairs.
The ancient folk etymology associated it with ἀπάτη ("deceit"),[4] a legend claiming that the festival originated in 1100 BC as a commemoration of a single combat between a certain Melanthus, representing King Thymoetes of Attica, and King Xanthus of Boeotia, in which Melanthus successfully threw his adversary off his guard by crying that a man in a black goat skin (identified with Dionysus) was helping him.
[2][5] On the first day of the festival, called Dorpia or Dorpeia (Δορπεία), banquets were held towards evening at the meeting-place of the phratries or in the private houses of members.
On the second, Anarrhysis (from ἀναρρύειν, "to draw back the victim's head"), a sacrifice of oxen was offered at the public cost to Zeus Phratrius and Athena.
[2] On the third day, Kureōtis (κουρεῶτις), children born since the last festival were presented by their fathers or guardians to the assembled phratores, and, after an oath had been taken as to their legitimacy and the sacrifice of a goat or a sheep, their names were inscribed in the register.