Bendis: Thracian goddess

A festival of Thracian origin celebrated by Greeks and Thracians. It is mentioned by Plato: The festival was of a bacchanalian character. From Thrace it was brought to Athens, where it was celebrated in the Piraeus, in the month Thargelion. The temple of Bendis was called Βενδίδειον.

A festival celebrated by the Athenians in honour of Boreas, which, as Herodotus (vii. 189) seems to think, was instituted during the Persian War, when the Athenians, being commanded by an oracle to invoke their γαμβρὸς ἐπίκουρος, prayed to Boreas. The fleet of Xerxes was soon afterwards almost entirely destroyed by a north wind, near Cape Sepias, and the grateful Athenians erected to his honour a temple on the banks of the Ilissus. Possibly, however, this merely revived an earlier celebration. A similar festival of Boreas was celebrated annually at Megalopolis, and by the Thurians. See Aelian, V. H. xii. 61.

Bouphonia (τὰ βουφόνια). A festival held in honour of Zeus at Athens. The legend connected with this festival is a singular one. Among the laws given by Triptolemus to the Athenians, three more especially remarkable were: “Reverence your elders—Honour the gods by offerings of the first fruits—Hurt not the labouring beast,” i. e. the beast employed in agriculture. The first who offended against this last command was a person named Thaulon, who, at the feast of Ζεὺς Πολιεύς, observing a steer eating the sacred πόπανον on the altar, took up an axe and slew the trespasser. The expiation-feast (βουφόνια), instituted for the purpose of atoning for this involuntary offence, it was found afterwards expedient to continue. The ceremonies observed in it are not a little amusing. First was brought water by women appointed for the office, for the purpose of sharpening the axe and knife with which the slaughter was to be committed. One of these women having handed the axe to the proper functionary, the latter felled the beast and then took to flight. To slay the beast outright was the office of a third person. All present then partook of the flesh. The meal finished, the hide was stuffed, and the beast, apparently restored to life, was put to the plough. Now commenced the steer-trial. A judicial assembly was held in the Prytaneum, to which all were summoned who had been partakers in the above transaction. Each lays the blame upon the other. The water-bearers throw the guilt upon the sharpener of the axe and knife; the sharpener of the knife casts it upon the person delivering it to the feller of the beast; the feller of the beast upon the actual slaughterer, while this last ascribes the whole guilt to the knife itself. The knife, unable to speak, is found guilty and thrown into the sea.