No attempt will be made to examine all the festivals, for two practical reasons, lack of space and lack of material; but fortunately for us we have adequate material for the examination of one characteristic festival in each of the agricultural seasons, the Thesmophoria for autumn, the Anthesteria for spring, the Thargelia for early summer, and in each case the ceremonies of the several seasons can be further elucidated by the examination of the like ceremonies in the Roman calendar. To make clear the superposition of the two strata[52], which for convenience’ sake may be called Olympian and chthonic, the Diasia has already been examined. In the typical festivals now to be discussed a like superposition will be made apparent, and from the detailed examination of the lower chthonic stratum it will be possible to determine the main outlines of Greek religious thought on such essential points as e.g. purification and sacrifice. It would perhaps be more methodical to begin the investigation with the autumn, with the sowing festival of the Thesmophoria, but as the Thesmophoria leads more directly to the consummation of Greek religion in the Mysteries it will be taken last. The reason for this will become more apparent in the further course of the argument. We shall begin with the _Anthesteria_. CHAPTER II. THE ANTHESTERIA. THE RITUAL OF GHOSTS AND SPRITES. Our examination of the unpromising Diasia has so far led us to the following significant, if somewhat vague, results. The festival in all probability did not originally belong to Zeus, but to a being called Meilichios, a snake god or demon. The worship of this being was characterized by nightly ceremonies, holocausts which the sun might not behold, it was gloomy in character, potent for purification. The name of the festival is probably associated with _dirae_, curses, imprecations. The Diasia, gloomy though it is, is a spring festival and its significance will be yet more plainly apparent if we examine another, _the_ other spring festival of the Greeks, i.e. the Anthesteria, which gives its name to the first spring month Anthesterion. If we know little about the Diasia, about the Anthesteria[53] we know much. Apollodorus, quoted by Harpocration, tells us that the whole festival collectively was called _Anthesteria_, that it was celebrated in honour of Dionysos, and that its several parts, i.e. its successive days, were known as Pithoigia (cask-opening), Choes (cups), Chytroi (pots). The exact date of the festival is fixed, the three successive days falling from the 11th to the 13th of Anthesterion[54].