MUNICHIE (Μουηχία). — Festivals celebrated in Attica on the 16th of Munichion in honor of Artemis Munichia, on the peninsula of the same name at Piraeus. They must have been of considerable importance and date back to great antiquity, not only because they gave their name to the month (= March–April), but also because the myths connected with them contain some reference to human sacrifice.
It was related, in fact, that because a bear (ἄρχτος), an animal sacred to Artemis Munichia, had been killed in the goddess’s temple, she demanded that, in order to put an end to the resulting epidemic, someone should sacrifice his own daughter to her: the sacrifice, however, was cunningly replaced by an animal (cf. Suda, s. V. ἐμβάρος). Nevertheless, this mythological connection between Artemis Munichia and the bear found a counterpart in the cult, since, while such animals were also sacrificed to her (to Artemis Laphria, in Achaea; cf. Pausanias, VII, 20, 12–13), the girls consecrated to her before marriage were called precisely ἄρχτοι: bears. Over the course of time, however, the M. must have lost their original significance, especially when people sought to identify them with the commemoration of the battle of Salamis (which took place in September), understanding that “Artemis should be consecrated the 16th of Munichion, since at that time the moon-goddess shone upon the Greeks victorious at Salamis” (Plutarch, De glor. Athen., 349 F): that day, in fact, was the day of the full moon, and was therefore sacred to Artemis πυναξέχτος.
The festival was celebrated by bringing to the goddess’s sanctuary (where she was represented as a huntress), in a festive procession, several cakes surrounded by lit candles (called ἀμφορῶντες, a clear connection with the full moon). The ephebes also took part in the procession and sacrifice; on “sacred” vessels they held a regatta and later, in the imperial period, even a naumachia. Artemis Munichia was also known at Sicyon (where there was an ancient wooden image of her) and near Ephesus.