PLYNTERIA, a Grecian festival in honour of Aglauros, or rather of Minerva, who received from the daughter of Cecrops the name of Aglauros. The word is derived from πλύνειν, lavare, because during the solemnity they undressed the statue of the goddess and washed it. The day on which it was observed the people looked upon as unfortunate and inauspicious; and therefore no person was permitted to appear in the temples, which were purposely surrounded with ropes. The arrival of Alcibiades in Athens on that day was thought very unfortunate, but the success which ever afterwards attended him proved it to be otherwise. It was customary at this festival to bear in procession a cluster of figs, thus intimating the progress of civilization amongst the primitive inhabitants of the earth, as figs served them for food after they had contracted a dislike for acorns.