Agrionia

{{Short description|Ancient religious festival in Orchomenus}}

Agrionia was an ancient Greek religious festival in honor of Dionysus Agrionius. It was celebrated annually, especially at Orchomenus in Boeotia.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

According to Plutarch, agrionia was celebrated at night with only women accompanied by the priests of Dionysus, who often wore black garments.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} Women pretended to search for Dionysos and then declared that he has fled to the Muses and hidden there.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} After that they feasted and began to present and solve riddles.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}

According to legend, the Minyades or {{proper name|Oleiai}} ({{lang|grc|Ὀλεῖαι}}), the daughters of king Minyas of Orchomenus, who had despised the Dionysian rites, were seized with a desire to eat human flesh of one of their children.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} They cast lots to decide which of their children they would eat and selected Hippasus, son of Leucippe.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}

Plutarch also explains that the festival included a human sacrifice. At this festival it was originally the custom for the priest of the god to pursue a woman of the Minyan family with a drawn sword and kill her.{{harvnb|Chisholm|1911}} cites Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. 102, Quaest. Graecae 38. This practice was later discontinued after the occurrence of bad omens.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}