Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

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Lustratio

（κάθαρσις). A purification

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1.

as preliminary to entering holy places;

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2.

to remove the taint of blood-guiltiness;

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3.

at birth, marriage, and death;

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4.

a purification of houses, temples, cities, or people on special occasions—e. g. in Greece at each meeting of the Ecclesia (q.v.), at the Mysteries (see Eleusinia), and at Rome at the Lupercalia (q.v.) or the formal lustrum (q. v.). See Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii. 388, and Lustrum.