Agrionia

Agrionia was an ancient Greek religious festival in honor of Dionysus Agrionius. It was celebrated annually, especially at Orchomenus in Boeotia.^[1]

According to Plutarch, agrionia was celebrated at night with only women accompanied by the priests of Dionysus, who often wore black garments.^{[citation needed]} Women pretended to search for Dionysos and then declared that he has fled to the Muses and hidden there.^[1] After that they feasted and began to present and solve riddles.^{[citation needed]}

According to legend, the Minyades or Oleiai (Ὀλεῖαι), the daughters of king Minyas of Orchomenus, who had despised the Dionysian rites, were seized with a desire to eat human flesh of one of their children.^[1] They cast lots to decide which of their children they would eat and selected Hippasus, son of Leucippe.^{[citation needed]}

Plutarch also explains that the festival included a human sacrifice. At this festival it was originally the custom for the priest of the god to pursue a woman of the Minyan family with a drawn sword and kill her.^[2] This practice was later discontinued after the occurrence of bad omens.^{[citation needed]}

Attribution:

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Agrionia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 424.