Amphidromia

Amphidromia (Greek ἀμφιδρόμια " circulation" ) was in ancient Athens and Attica in the celebration of the cult recording of a newborn in the household.

According to the Suda, the festival took place after the birth of the fifth day. The women involved in the birth came together and ritually cleansed their hands. During the ceremony the baby from the father or a nurse, therefore, the name was borne by the stove. According to a scholium to the Lysistrata of Aristophanes, the name therefore stir that the participants of the festival danced around the hearth, while the child was named. The hearth was the goddess Hestia holy and the sacred center of the house and the household.

Dekate ( Δεκάτη " tenth " ), the festival of naming was, as the name implies instead of after birth on the tenth day. Whether Amphidromia and Dekate are two separate festivals or two names of one ceremony, is unclear.

Athenaeus is in his Banquet of scholars ( culinary ) Details of the course of the festival, where he cites the Geryones of Ephippus of Athens: Before the door garlands were hung, there was toasted cheese, boiled radish, lamb, pigeons, thrushes and finches, as well as a dish of shredded squid, octopus and other cephalopods. These gifts were obviously important as seafood are mentioned as traditional festival gift in the Suda. Finally - and very important - are still numerous shells unmixed wine to drink. It was on the site of Athenaeus also mentions that the mother got to eat as a kind of medicine carbon shortly after birth.

In Plato's dialogue Theaetetus, Socrates speaks metaphorically of the Amphidromia than the date on which the newborn is finally reviewed by the father, who then decides whether it should be suspended. In practice, such an assessment at the time of the festival will be carried out only formally, after a decision against the suspension was already taken.

Swell

• Athenaeus Deipnosophistai IX, 370 c
• Scholium to Aristophanes Lysistrata 757
• Perseus.tufts.edu: Plato, Theaetetus, section 160e
• Suda, keyword Ἀμφιδρόμια, Eagle Number: alpha 1722, Suda Online