BRAURONIE (Bрәцрѝчıв)
Festivals in honor of Artemis, celebrated at Brauron on the eastern coast of Attica and particularly intended for women. The priestesses of the goddess were the *arktoi*, young Athenian girls between the ages of 5 and 10, dressed in saffron-colored robes; they recall other animal-named priesthoods in Greece and Asia Minor. For some, they would be a remnant of animal disguises such as frequently appear in Minoan cult; for others, they would testify that the goddess originally had an animal form. At the Brauronia, a goat was sacrificed; the festival included *kanēphoroi*, which presupposes a procession to the sanctuary. Every five years, the Brauronia were celebrated in a more solemn form: Athens sent delegates, and it is likely that the rhapsodic contests which Pisistratus seems to have taken as a model for the Panathenaea took place then. The Brauronia are connected with the legend according to which Pelasgian, Lemnian, or Tyrrhenian pirates abducted the Attic women who had attended the festival.