amarynthia

AMARY´NTHIAor AMARY´SIA(Ἀμαρύνθιαor Ἀμαρύσια), a festival of Artemis Amarynthia or Amarysia, celebrated, as it seems, originally at Amarynthus in Euboea, with extraordinary splendour; but it was also solemnised in several places in Attica, such as Athmone (Paus. 1.31.3); and the Athenians held a festival, as Pausanias says, in honour of the same goddess, in no way less brilliant than that in Euboea. (Hesych. s. v. Ἀμαρύσια; comp. Schol. ad Pind. O. 13.159.) The festival in Euboea was distinguished for its splendid processions; and Strabo himself (10. p. 448) seems to have seen, in the temple of Artemis Amrynthia, a column on which was recorded the splendour with which the Eretrians at one time celebrated this festival. The inscription stated that the procession was formed of three thousand heavy-armed men, six hundred horsemen, and sixty chariots.