PLINTERIE (Πλυντήρια). - From πλύνω, “I wash,” a purification festival celebrated—probably on 25 Thargelion (May-June)—in honour of Athena as the second cleansing of the temple at Athens, after the first, which took place at the Kallynteria on the 19th of the same month.
There must have been a certain religious (purificatory) connection between the two festivals, since at the Kallynteria (the festival of sweeping) the temple of Athena Polias (the Erechtheion) was swept and cleansed, whereas at the p. the principal ceremony consisted in cleaning the ancient wooden statue (ἔξανον) of the goddess; this image, wrapped in a veil, was carried from the temple to the seashore near Phaleron, where two young girls (called πλυντρίδες, “washerwomen”) had the task of washing it in seawater. The image was brought back to the temple in the evening by the ephebes, by torchlight. A sheep was sacrificed to the goddess as a rite of purification. During this festival the city suspended all business, since it was considered deprived of the goddess’s protection, and the days on which it lasted were regarded as ἀποφράδες, that is, ill-omened.