An ''Arrephoros'' () was a girl

acolyte An acolyte is an assistant or follower assisting the celebrant in a religious service or procession. In many Christian denominations, an acolyte is anyone performing ceremonial duties such as lighting altar candles. In others, the term is used f ...

in the cult of

Athena Polias Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...

on the

Athenian Acropolis The Acropolis of Athens (; ) is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens, Greece, and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the P ...

. They were seven to eleven years old. According to Pausanias,Pausanias
1.27.3.
/ref> two ''Arrephoroi'' lived for a year on the Acropolis and concluded their term with a mystery rite called the

Arrhephoria Arrhephoria was a feast among the Athenians, instituted in honor of Athena. The word is derived from the Greek term Ἀρρηφόρια, which is composed of ἄρρητος, "unspoken, not to be divulged", and φέρω, "I carry". This feast wa ...

: they carried unknown objects into a cavern, and there exchanged them for other unknown objects. The lexicon of

Harpocration __NOTOC__ Valerius Harpocration ( or , ''gen''. Ἁρποκρατίωνος) was a Greek grammarian of Alexandria, probably working in the 2nd century AD. He is possibly the Harpocration mentioned by Julius Capitolinus (''Life of Verus'', 2) as ...

states (s.v. Arrêphorein) that there were four ''Arrephoroi'' and that two supervised the weaving of the Panathenaic

peplos A peplos () is a body-length garment established as typical attire for women in ancient Greece by , during the late Archaic Greece, Archaic and Classical Greece, Classical period. It was a long, rectangular cloth with the top edge folded down ab ...

Notes

Sources

* Joan Breton Connelly, ''Portrait of a priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece'', p. 27 {{authority control Ancient Athenian religious titles Athena Ancient Greek priestesses Obsolete occupations