ANFIDROMIE (ἀμφιδρομία). — An Attic domestic festival whose purpose was to purify the newborn and all who had come into contact with it from the ritual impurity associated with birth. The rite consisted in running around the hearth (whence the name: from ἀμφί, “around,” and δρόμος, “race”); the bearer of the child appears to have been required to be naked. The ceremony took place on the fifth day after birth; if delayed by a few days, it was combined with the naming ceremony. A banquet naturally accompanied the festival.
BIBL.: Stengel, s. V. in Pauly-Wissowa, Realeincycl. der klass. Altertumstheisenchaft, I, II, col. 1901 sg.; E. Samter, Die Familienfeste der Griechen und Römer, Berlin 1901, pp. 59-62. Paolino Mingazzini