Haloa

Abstract

Most of the Haloa festival, honoring the deities Demeter, Kore, and Dionysos, was carried out in secrecy by citizen women. It was celebrated at Eleusis, south of Athens, during the winter (the 26th day of the month Posideion). The name of the festival might come from 'haloi', threshing floors, a reference to its possible location. While feasting and drinking copious quantities of wine, the women handled male genitalia made from dough and the Eleusinian priestesses whispered adulterous comments into their ears. Participants indulged in ribald comments about sexual intercourse, all this promoting fertility in late winter when another cycle of farming was about to begin.