The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

Chapter II. Demeter And Persephone. 65Great Mysteries, which began on the fifteenth or sixteenth ofBoedromion, a month corresponding roughly to our September.Another name for the festival was Proarcturia, that is, “BeforeArcturus,” 176 which points to a date either before the middleof September, when Arcturus is a morning star, or before theend of October, when Arcturus is an evening star. 177 In favourof the earlier date it may be said, first, that the morning phaseof Arcturus was well known and much observed, because itmarked the middle of autumn, whereas little use was madeof the evening phase of Arcturus for the purpose of dating; 178and, second, that in an official Athenian inscription the Festivalbefore Ploughing (Proerosia) is mentioned immediately beforethe Great Mysteries. 179 On the other hand, in favour of the later [052]date, it may be said that as the autumnal rains in Greece set inabout the middle of October, the latter part of that month would bea more suitable time for a ceremony at the opening of ploughingthan the middle of September, when the soil is still parched withthe summer drought; and, second, that this date is confirmedby a Greek inscription of the fourth or third century B.C., foundat Eleusis, in which the Festival before Ploughing is apparentlymentioned in the month of Pyanepsion immediately before thefestival of the Pyanepsia, which was held on the seventh day ofthat month. 180 It is difficult to decide between these conflictingarguments, but on the whole I incline, not without hesitation,to agree with some eminent modern authorities in placing theFestival before Ploughing in Pyanepsion (October) after theMysteries, rather than in Boedromion (September) before theMysteries. 181 However, we must bear in mind that as the176 Hesychius, s.v. προηρόσια.177 August Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum, p. 194.178 August Mommsen, l.c.179 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 2 No. 521, lines 29 sqq.180 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 2 No. 628.181 The view that the Festival before Ploughing (Proerosia) fell in Pyanepsion