Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1859-09-03
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER g. 1859.
From Frasers Magazine.
THE ANTHESPHORIA AT
ATHENS.


} to commemorate Persephone's return from
the dark world of Hades. It was beautiful
festival one of the loveliest where all was
lovely rich in Hellenic combinations of youth
and beauty and sunshine, flowers, music,
, love, and mirth; rich in gentle associations
and tender memories, in bright hopes, and re-
grets so soft the heart could not wish them
exchanged for even the pleasures Of possess
sion. It contained all the best elements of
Grecian iife and was one of the many charms
by which the HELENE brought down to earth
the blessedness of Olympus, and made his
own the exquisite enjoyments of heaven
Less grave than the Adonia, and less mystic
, than Dionysia, but still containing meaning
! in its meaning in its ceremonies deeper than
the mere form, the Antheaphoria was the dar-
ling festival of the women, and the one to
which they crowded the most willingly.
Other states of Greece celebrated this feast
with greater pomp of arrangement than did
Athens but none with more beauty. In Si-
cily, where, being the home of the loved and
lost her memory was dearer than elsewhere,
il was one of the most important ceremonies
of the year; for each state andeach city hon
ored its local deities above the general gods
of the country, and made its sectional tradi
tions of more value than. the myths of the
universal theocracy. rhe same procession
one of the flowers borne by women-was
made elsewhere to the honor of other divini-
ties as to Here at Argos, and to Aphrodite at
Cnossus. And beautiful, indeed, must it have
been wherever practised To see the maids
and matrons crowding forth in the early
spring morning, while the air was fresh and
( the dew still lay sparkling on the grass, them
selves more bright, and fresh and fair, than
the lustre flung by Eos on her way to see
them, when out through the city-gates, throw
| aside that stately grave reserve, with which,
covered as by veil, they had walked thro'
the thronged town, and spread themselves
about the fields in merry groups of youth and
| love; and then to watch their plant forms
bending, like sweet nymphs discovered, over
the beds of fragrant flowers, plucking the
, loveliest to wreathe into garlands for the sta.
} tue of the innocent Persephone. Then re-
, turning homewards, as the hours drew on and
? the procession was about to be formed, their
. mirthfulness sobered into awe, and the whis-
4 pers ran from each to each, and young eyes
looking fearfully round, when the bolder
o spoke of the dark gods love, and wondered
Q whether he were crouchad behind the willow
Q tree yonder, listening to their voices, and per-
9 haps meditating some second ravishment from
2 earth and then-the baskets filled, the gar
4 lands wreathed, many sandalled loot per-
Q fumed with the crushed rose leaves and the
t broken cyclamens, and inanya robe-hem dyed
: with the meadow-safffon and the purple or
: chis--they returned to the town again, so
9 sweetly grave, so gracefully slow--oh, in
/ faith of love and beauty, it was a sight al
9 most too fair for earth and earth's dull sons,
: this concourse of gentle Grecian womenl-
g Not olympos' self might have scorned to hold
= them guests;' not even the ''well-tressed''
o goddesses--not Here, with her large and
/. queenly eyes; nor. Aphrodite, caressing, low
9 ing kind; nor Artemis, so ehaste and virgin.
e al; nor Athena, majestic, noble, serene; mol
Hebe, with her rosy cheek; nor Eos, with hel
bounding step; not the silver-ankled Thetis,
a nor the syift-footed Iris, might have disdain
4 ed as attendant graces these beautiful women
+, of Athens. The hierophants knew what they
, did when they selected the canephorai for the
public professions They knew how much
! man owes to externals for causes of belief
= and they knew that beauty and its offspring
: love- were the most powerful of these causes