APATURIA, in Antiquity, a solemn feast celebrated by the Athenians in honour of Bacchus. The word is usually derived from ἀπάτη, fraud. It is said to have been instituted in memory of a fraudulent victory obtained by Melanthus of Messenia, over Xanthus, king of Bœotia, in a single combat, which they agreed upon to put an end to a debate between the Athenians and Bœotians respecting their frontiers.
Other authors give a different etymology of this feast. They tell us that the young Athenians were not admitted into the tribes on the third day of the apaturia, till their fathers had first sworn that they were their own children; and that till that time they were supposed in some measure to be without fathers, ἀτρόποι; whence the feast, say they, took its name. Xenophon, on the other hand, informs us that the relations and friends met on this occasion, and joined with the fathers of the young people who were to be received into the tribes; and that from this assembly the feast took its name; that in ἀπατρόποι, the α, far from being a privative, being here a conjunctive, signifies the same thing with ἀμα, together. This feast lasted three days: the first day those of the same tribe made merry together; and this they called δορία. The second day, which they called ἀννέστες, they sacrificed to Zeus and Athena. The third day, which they called κπερότες, such of their children as had not been registered were admitted into their tribes. The following day, as in other festivals, was called τρίββα.