Plutarch[290] tells us that it was on a day of ill-omen that Alcibiades returned to Athens: ‘On the day of his return they were solemnizing the Plynteria to the Goddess. For on the 6th day of the third part of Thargelia the Praxiergidae solemnize the rites that may not be disclosed: they take off the adornments of the image, and cover it up. Hence the Athenians account this day as most unlucky of all, and do no work on it. And it seemed as though the Goddess were receiving him in no friendly or kindly fashion, as she hid her face from him and seemed to banish him from her presence.’ At the Plynteria, as at other ‘unlucky’ festivals, the sanctuaries, Pollux[291] tells us, were roped round. The object was in part to keep out the common herd, perhaps primarily to ‘avert’ evil influences. Photius[292] discusses the two festivals, the Kallynteria and the Plynteria, together, placing the Kallynteria first; they have indeed practically always been bracketed in the minds of commentators as substantially identical in content. The Plynteria, it is usually stated, was the washing festival. The image of Pallas was taken in solemn procession down to the sea, stripped of its gear, veiled from the eyes of the vulgar, washed in sea-water, and brought back. At the Kallynteria it was re-dressed, re-decked, ‘beautified.’ This simple explanation of the sequence of rites presents only one trifling difficulty. Photius expressly tells us that the Kallynteria preceded the Plynteria; the Kallynteria took place on the 19th of the month Thargelion, and the Plynteria on the second day of the 3rd decade, i.e. on the 22nd[293]. It would be strange if the image was first ‘beautified’ and then washed. The explanation of the seeming incongruity is of course a simple one. The word καλλύνειν means not only ‘to beautify’ but to brush out, to sweep, ‘to give a shine to.’ The Greek for broom is καλλύντριον, also καλ<λ>υντρόν in Hesych. s.v. σαρόν; and καλλύσματα, if we may trust Hesychius[294], means sweepings (σάρματα). In a word the Kallynteria is a festival of what the Romans call _everruncatio_, the festival of ‘those who do the sweeping.’ They swept out the sacred places, made them as we say now-a-days ‘beautifully clean,’ and then, having done their sweeping first like good housewives, when the house was ready they washed the image and brought it back in new shining splendour.