Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Canephora

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CANE'PHORA or CANE'PHOROS (κανηφόρος). The basket-bearer; a young Athenian maiden, who walked in the procession at the festivals of Demeter, Bacchus, and Athena, carrying a flat basked (canum, or canistrum, Festus, s. v.) on her head, in which were deposited the sacred cake, chaplet, frankincense, and knife employed to slay the victim. Young women are frequently represented in this capacity by the ancient artists and similarly described by classic authors, with their arms raised up, and in the exact attitude of the figure (Canephora/1.1) here engraved, from a statue at Dresden. Cic. Verr. ii. 4. 3. Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 4. n. 7. Compare Ovid, Met. ii. 711 — 713.

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  Canephora/1.1