The Name Anthesteria

Extract

The conventional interpretation of the name Anthesteria as festival of flowers, or of the wine-bloom, and the derivation from ἄνθος always insecure and unsatisfactory, will need to be reconsidered in the light of Miss Harrison's paper in the present volume of the Journal on the origin and nature of the festival itself. Even from the Dionysiac point of view, it does not appear that either flowers or the ἄνθος of wine were connected with the season or the ceremonies in such a way as naturally to give a name to the whole: and still more doubtful is the supposed formation of the word. Nouns in -τηριο- are normally formed from verb-stems, through the ‘noun of the agent’ in -τηρ and take their sense from the action described by the verb, as σωτήριος λυτήριος βουλευτήριον etc. The names of festivals ending in -τηρια are no exception to this rule. They describe the action in which the ceremony consisted, or with which it was chiefly connected. Thus ἀνακλητήρια is a feast or ceremony of ἀνακλησις ἀνακαλυπτήρια of ἀυακἀλυψις and so on.