Feasts dedicated to Demeter in the Megarian colonies at Pontus Euxinus
The study focuses on the comparative research of the feasts dedicated to Demeter in Megara and its Pontic colonies (Byzantion, Mesambria, and Callatis). In Megara and in the Megaran Pontic colonies Demeter was adored with a multitude of epicleses: Thesmophoros, Malophoros, Chthonia, and Ploutodoteira. The feasts consecrated to Demeter (Chthonia, Thesmophoria, Malophoria) in the Megaran Pontic city states display an agrarian character. On those occasions Demeter was celebrated under the guise of a chtonian deity and a goddess of soil fertility and agriculture. The Pontic colonies of Megaran origin have adopted the cycle of feasts set through the Megaran tradition.
