Thesmophoria

It was held annually, mostly around the time that seeds were sown in late autumn – though in some places it was associated with the harvest instead – and celebrated human and agricultural fertility.

[2] The best evidence for the Thesmophoria concern its practice in Athens, but there is also information from elsewhere in the Greek world, including Arcadia,[3] Sicily and Eretria.

[4] The festival was dedicated to Demeter and her daughter Persephone[5] and was celebrated in order to promote fertility, both human and agricultural.

[4] This corresponds to late October in the Gregorian calendar, and was the time of the Greek year when seeds were sown.

[9] In other places the festival lasted for longer – in Syracuse, Sicily, the Thesmophoria was a ten-day long event.

Herodotus mentions the Thesmophoria in the second book of 'the Histories' and compares it to a similar Egyptian mystery ritual.

However, he claims that the rite was introduced to the Pelasgian women in Greece by the daughters of Danaus, a mythical king of Libya.

Herodotus further claims that knowledge of the Thesmophoria was nearly lost following ethnic cleansing of the Pelasgians by the Dorians in the Peloponnese.

[15] Some time later, the rotten remains of these sacrifices were retrieved from the pits by "bailers" – women who were required to spend three days in a state of ritual purity before descending into the megara.

Semi-circular painting showing a procession of women, dressed in white robes. A Greek temple is partially visible in the background.
Painting of the Thesmophoric procession by the American artist Francis Davis Millet .
Detail of a Greek red-figure vase. There are two rows of figures. On the top row, two men stand to the left; in the centre two leopards pull a chariot which an armoured man in climbing on to; on the right stands a woman, arm outstretched. On the bottom row, four horses pull a chariot carrying a man and a woman in the centre; a female figure stands to the left, and a male figure stands to the right.
The Thesmophoria commemorated the kidnap of Persephone by Hades, and her return to her mother Demeter. Hades and Persephone ride the chariot on the lower part of this vase which depicts the myth; Demeter is shown on the top right corner.