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DAPHNEPHORIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 826 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DAPHNEPHORIA , a festival held every ninth See also:

year at See also:Thebes in See also:Boeotia in See also:honour of See also:Apollo Ismenius or Galaxius. It consisted of a procession in which the See also:chief figure was a boy of See also:good See also:family and See also:noble See also:appearance, whose See also:father and See also:mother must be alive. Immediately in front of this boy, who was called Daphnephoros (See also:laurel See also:bearer), walked one of his nearest relatives, carrying an See also:olive See also:branch hung with laurel and See also:flowers and having on the upper end a See also:bronze See also:ball from which hung several smaller balls. Another smaller ball was placed on the See also:middle of the branch or See also:pole (called Kaslrw), which was then twined. See also:round with See also:purple See also:ribbons, and at the See also:lower end with See also:saffron ribbons. These balls were said to indicate the See also:sun, stars and See also:moon, while the ribbons referred to the days of the year, being 365 in number. The Daphnephoros, wearing a See also:golden See also:crown, or a See also:wreath of laurel, richly dressed and partly holding the pole, was followed by a See also:chorus of maidens carrying suppliant branches and singing a hymn to the See also:god. The Daphnephoros dedicated a bronze See also:tripod in the See also:temple of Apollo, and See also:Pausanias (ix. 10.4) mentions the tripod dedicated there by See also:Amphitryon when his son Heracles had been Daphnephoros. The festival is described by See also:Proclus (in See also:Photius See also:cod. 239). See also A. See also:Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen (1898) ; C.

O. See also:

Muller, Orchomenos (1844) ; See also:article in Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire See also:des antiquites.

End of Article: DAPHNEPHORIA

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