in Grecian Antiquity, a ceremony which formed 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 married 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, perhaps, as a ceremony to appease her wrath. Suidas calls it a festival in honour of Diana.

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