PLINTERIE (Plinteria). — From τόλους “lavo,” a purification festival celebrated—probably on the 25th of Thargelion (May–June)—in honour of ATHENA as a second cleansing of the temple in Athens, after the first which took place at the Kallynteria on the 19th of the same month.
Between the two festivals there must have been a certain religious (purificatory) connection, inasmuch as at the Kallynteria (festival of sweeping) the temple of Athena Polias (the Erechtheion) was swept and cleaned, whereas at the Plinteria the principal ceremony consisted in the cleansing of the ancient wooden statue (ἀκρόατον) of the goddess; this image, veiled, was carried from the temple down to the sea-shore near Phalerum, where two maidens (δετὰ λιωπίδες “washers”) were charged with washing it in the sea-water. The statue was brought back to the temple in the evening by the ephebes, lighted by torches. A sheep was sacrificed to the goddess as a rite of purification. During this festival the city suspended all business, since it was considered to be without the goddess’s protection, and the days on which it lasted were reckoned ἀποφράδες, i.e. unlucky.