TESMOFORIE. – A Greek festival connected with the fertility of the Earth Mother (v.) and hence with that of woman. It was celebrated throughout the Greek world in honour of Demeter, who was worshipped under the aspect of Thesmophoros, i.e. as the giver of the Law, inasmuch as she was the institutor of agriculture.
The details of the Thesmophoria are obscure; their development is better known in Attica, where the festival lasted three days. It took place about the middle (11th–13th) of the month Pyanepsion, i.e. at the time of the winter sowing, and was celebrated only by married women (men and girls were rigorously excluded); two women from each deme organised it, while their husbands were bound to defray the expenses.
On the first day, called “Αὐθός εἰκός καλάς” (now commonly termed καθός, “descent”), it seems that the matrons went in procession to the Thesmophorion, situated (Aristophanes, Thesmophor., 624) on the hill of the Pnyx, where they halted beneath specially constructed leafy huts. The second day of the Thesmophoria, the most important, was called Νεστέλα, i.e. the “fast”, during which no sacrifice was offered and it was a day of mourning. On this same day the women drew up from a pit the Skira, i.e. remains of piglets and pine branches and other symbols of fertility, which had been buried there on the occasion of the festival of the Skirophoria (v.), celebrated four months earlier; these remains, mixed with the new seed, were apparently put back into the ground to ensure greater fertility of the earth. On the third day, finally called Καλλάγνεια, the women celebrated
TREASURES
of the thing, but who makes it visible to the human eye, taking possession of it in some way.
Even according to today’s positive laws, which have followed the line traced by Roman law, in principle the treasure belongs to the finder. However, various cases are distinguished which, depending on the circumstances, modify this guiding principle of natural law. Moralists, not always uniformly, have judged and continue to judge the obligatory nature in conscience of such laws, especially due to the imperfections of civil legislation on the matter.
1) If the treasure is found on one’s own land, it undoubtedly belongs to the owner upon discovery.
2) If the treasure is found on another’s land by chance, in many civil codes it is divided equally between the finder and the direct owner or emphyteutic tenant, but not with the usufructuary or lessee, that is, with those who have only the beneficial ownership of the land. However, not everywhere and always has legislation been thus: to give an example, under the Carolingians three-fourths of the treasure went to the fisc, one-fourth to the finder. If the land belonged to the Church, then one-third went to the bishop and two-thirds to the fisc. The Swiss code attributes the treasure to the owner, with half of its value constituting the maximum compensation.
3) If the treasure is found on another’s land but sought and industriously uncovered without the owner’s knowledge, then, according to many legislations, everything belongs to the owner.
4) If the treasure is discovered on ecclesiastical land, more than the civil law of the respective nation, natural law may and, according to some moralists, must be applied, as the case falls under the exceptions provided by canon 1529. If the discovery is made by the beneficiary himself, the treasure belongs to the respective prebend or church, because the beneficiary is not considered the direct owner of the benefice.
5) If the treasure is found in a public place (square, etc.), in many legislations it is divided between the finder and the State, according to the particular laws of the place.
6) There are laws that reserve certain things of historical and artistic value to the State.