in Greek religion, one of the chief festivals of Apollo at Athens, celebrated on the sixth and seventh days of Thargelion (May-June). Basically a vegetation ritual upon which an expiatory rite was grafted, the festival was named after the first fruits, or the first bread from the new wheat.

On the first day of the festival, two men (or a man and a woman) were chosen for their ugliness; acting as scapegoats for community guilt, they were draped in figs and led through the city before being cast out. (See also pharmakos (pharmākos).) Occasionally, as in times of heavy calamity, they were sacrificed, being either thrown into the sea or burned on a funeral pyre. On the second day of the festival, there was a thanks offering, a procession, and the official registration of adopted persons.