Amphidromia

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Amphidromia ( ancient Greek ἀμφιδρόμια "circulation") were in ancient Athens and Attica the festival of the cultic admission of a newborn into the household.

The Suda According to the festival was held on the fifth day after birth. The women involved in the birth came together and ritually cleaned their hands. During the ceremony, the newborn was carried around the hearth by the father or a wet nurse, hence the name. According to a scholion to the Lysistrata des Aristophanes , the name comes from the fact that the participants of the festival danced around the hearth while the child was named. The hearth was sacred to the goddess Hestia and the sacred center of the house and the household community.

Dekate ( Δεκάτη "tenth"), the festival of naming, took place as the name suggests on the tenth day after the birth. It is unclear whether Amphidromia and Dekate are two separate festivals or two names for a ceremony.

In his banquet of scholars, Athenaios gives (culinary) details about the course of the festival, quoting the Geryones of Ephippus of Athens : Garlands were hung in front of the door, there was toasted cheese, boiled radish, lamb, pigeons, thrushes and finches , as well a dish made from shredded squid , octopus and other cephalopods . These gifts were obviously important, as seafood is also mentioned as a traditional festive gift in the Suda. Finally - also very important - there are still numerous bowls of unmixed wine to drink. At this point, Athenaios also mentions that shortly after the birth, the mother was given cabbage as a kind of medicine .

In Plato's dialogue Theaetetus , Socrates speaks metaphorically of the amphidromia as the point in time when the newborn is finally examined by the father, who then decides whether it should be abandoned . In practice, such an assessment will only be formally carried out at the time of the festival after a decision against the suspension had already been made.

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literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cynthia Patterson: "Not Worth the Rearing": The Causes of Infant Exposure in Ancient Greece. In: Transactions of the American Philological Association, 115: 105f (1985)