Agrionia was an ancient

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 religious festival in honor of Dionysus

Dionysus

Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...

 Agrionius

Agrionius

Agrionius was an epithet of the Greek god Dionysus, under which he was worshiped at Orchomenus in Boeotia, and from which his festival, the Agrionia, in that place derived its name. The epithet itself means "fierce", and is derived from a Greek root word indicating things relating to the wild. ...

. It was celebrated annually, especially at Orchomenus

Orchomenus

-Greek mythology:*Orchomenus, a king, the father of Elara*Orchomenus, one of the twenty sons of Lycaon*Orchomenus, son of Zeus and Isonoe, father of Minyas and Kyparissos*Orchomenus, a son of Athamas and Themisto-Ancient Greek geography:...

 in Boeotia

Boeotia

Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...

.

According to Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

, agrionia was celebrated at night with only women accompanied by the priests of Dionysus, who often wore black garments. Women pretended to search for Dionysos and then declared that he has fled to the Muses and hidden there. After that they feasted and begun to present and solve riddles.

According to legend, oleaia, the daughters of king Minyas

Minyas

Minyas may refer to:*Minyas , a moth genus*Minyas , the founder of Orchomenus*Minyas , a Greek epic poem*according to Nicolas of Damascus, a region of Armenia, see Minyans...

 of Orchomenus, who had despised the Dionysian rites, were seized with a desire to eat human flesh

Cannibalism

Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

. They cast lots to decide which of their children they would eat and selected Hippasus

Hippasus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Hippasus is the name of nine characters.*Hippasus, father of Hippomedon, by the nymph Ocyrrhoe, and also of Charops, Socus, Agelaus, and Pammon.*Hippasus, son of Eurytus...

, son of Leucippe

Leucippe

In Greek mythology, Leucippe is the name of the following individuals:*One of the Minyades, three sisters who were driven by Dionysus to kill Hippasus, the son of Leucippe...

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Plutarch also say that the festival included a human sacrifice

Human sacrifice

Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...

. The priest pursued virgins, descendants of Minyas, that had gathered for the festival, captured one and killed her with a sword. This practice was later discontinued after bad omens.