AMPHIDROM´IA
AMPHIDROM´IA (
ἀμφιδρόμια), a family festival of the Athenians at which the
newly born child was introduced into the family, and received its name. No
particular day was fixed for this solemnity; but it did not take place very
soon after the birth of the child, for it was believed that most children
died before the seventh day, and the solemnity was therefore generally
deferred till after that period, that there might be at least some
probability of the child remaining alive. According to Suidas, the festival
was held on the fifth day, when the women who had lent their assistance at
the birth washed their hands, but this purification preceded the real
solemnity. The friends and relations of the parents were invited to the
festival of the amphidromia, which was held in the evening, and they
generally appeared with presents, among which are mentioned the cuttle-fish
and the marine polyp. (Hesych. and Harpocr. s. v.) The house was decorated
on the outside with olive branches when the child was a boy, or with
garlands of wool when the child was a girl; and a repast was prepared, at
which, if we may judge from a fragment of Ephippus in Athenaeus (ix. p. 370;
comp. ii. p. 65), the guests must have been rather merry. The child was then
carried round the fire by the
[p. 1.106]nurse, and thus, as
it were, presented to the gods of the house and to the family, and at the
same time received its name, to which the guests were witnesses. (Isaeus,
de Pyrrhi Hered. § 30.) The carrying of the
child round the hearth was the principal part of the solemnity, from which
its name was derived. But the Scholiast on Aristophanes (
Aristoph. Lys. 758) derives its name from
the fact that the guests, whilst the name was given to the child, walked or
danced around it. This festival is sometimes called from the day on which it
took place: if on the seventh day, it is called
ἑβδόμαι or
ἑβδουάς if on
the tenth day,
δεκάτη, &c.
(Hesych.; Schol.
Aristoph. Birds 923;
K. F. Hermann,
Gottesd. Alterth. § 48, n. 6.)
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