PLYNTERIA (πλύντιον, from πλύνω, to wash), a Grecian festival in honour of Athena, who received from the daughter of Cecrops the name of Aglauros. During the solemnity they undressed the statue of the goddess and washed it. The day on which it was observed the people regarded as unfortunate and inauspicious; and therefore no person was permitted to appear in the temples, which were purposely surrounded with ropes. 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.