December
02
/ 2019
In the most highly anticipated religious festival of the year, women came from far and wide to gather in their cities to celebrate the Thesmophoria, the oldest and most widespread of all ancient Greek religious festivals. Comprising as many as 50 cities; it spanned from Sicily in the west to Asia Minor in the east; from Macedonia in the north to North Africa in the south. Scholars believe that its expansive nature within the Greek world is testament to its prehistoric origins. Primarily a fertility cult, the Thesmophoria ushered in the sowing season and was one of a series of fertility cults devoted to human as well as crop fertility. In Athens, it was celebrated in the month of Pyanopsion
