in Grecian antiquity, a ceremony which made part of a feast celebrated by the Athenian virgins, on the eve of their marriage-day.

At Athens, the canephoria consisted in this; that the maid, conducted by her father and mother, went to the temple of Minerva, carrying with her a basket full of presents, to engage the goddess to make the marriage-state happy; or, as the scholiast of Theocritus has it, the basket was intended as a kind of honourable amends made to that goddess, the protectrix of virginity, for abandoning her party; or a ceremony to appease her wrath. Suidas calls it a festival in honour of Diana.

CANEPHORIA is also the name of a festival of Bacchus, celebrated particularly by the Athenians, on which the young maids carried golden baskets full of fruit, which baskets were covered, to conceal the mystery from the uninitiated.