ANFIDROMIE (ἀμφι-ἄβρωμα). – An Attic family festival intended to purify the newborn child and all those who had come into contact with it from the ritual impurity associated with birth. The ceremony consisted in running around the hearth (hence the name: ἀμφι, around, and ἄβρωμα, running); it seems that the person carrying the child had to be naked. The ceremony took place on the fifth day after birth; if it was postponed by a few days, it was combined with the naming ceremony. A banquet was, naturally, associated with the festival.
BIBL.: Stengel, s. V. in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl. der klass. Altertumswissenschaft, I, II, col. 1901 ff.; E. Samter, Die Familienfeste der Griechen und Römer, Berlin 1901, pp. 59-62. Paolino Mingazzini