500 - 300 BC Greece

Athenian girls during classical period

In Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata, performed in Athens at the end of the fifth century BC, a chorus of old women recalls the ritual roles they had performed as children, between the ages ranging from seven to fifteen years old: 

“When I was seven years old, I was arrephoros (carrier of sacred objects), then, at ten, aletris, grinding the grain for the goddess. With a saffron dress, I was a bear in the festivities of Brauron and kanephoros when I was a beautiful maid, wearing a necklace of dried figs” (Lysistrata, 641-647).

Of the four rituals mentioned in Lysistrata, 'acting like the bear' (arkteuein) in the sanctuary of the goddess Artemis in Brauron seems the closest to a rite of passage to prepare girls for adult life. The name alludes to the girls danced like 'bears' as an act of substitution for the previous death of a bear consecrated to the goddess.

These rituals, like the participation of the girls in the choirs that regularly competed in the religious festivals, dancing and singing, contributed to the socialization of the girls and the recognition of their participation in the collective responsibility.

Picture: Arkteuein. Illustrated by Iñaki Diéguez.