COTYTTO, or Cotrys, the goddess of lewdness. Her worship was originally introduced into Greece from Thrace, and was celebrated at Athens, at Corinth, and in various other cities. Her festivals, called Cotyttia, are said by Strabo to have resembled those of the Cabiri and the Phrygian Cybele. They took place at night, and were notorious for the licentiousness and gross debauchery that prevailed on the occasion. Those who celebrated the Cotytta were called Baptæ, in allusion to the purifications originally connected with the solemnity—a term that has usually, but erroneously, been supposed to denote the priests of Cotytto.
Cotyttia were also celebrated in Sicily, where the votaries of the goddess carried about boughs hung with cakes and fruit, which it was lawful for any one to pluck off.