Note 383 — Chapter IV · THE WOMEN’S FESTIVALS. Thesmophoria, Arrephoria, Skirophoria, Stenia, Haloa.
Reading edition
The rites at Eleusis were probably at first confined to women. Dionysios of Halicarnassos (Ant. Rom. I. 331) says in speaking of the cult of Demeter in Arcadia, ἱδρύσαντο δὲ καὶ Δήμητρος ἱερὸν καὶ τὰς θυσίας αὐτῇ διὰ γυναικῶν καὶ νηφαλίους ἔθυσαν ὡς Ἕλλησι νόμος ὧν οὐδὲν ὁ καθ’ ἡμᾶς ἤλλαξε χρόνος.