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Cotyttia

Cotyttia or Cottytes (Kotuttia, Kottutes). A festival which was originally celebrated by the Edonians of Thrace, in honour of a goddess called Cotys or Cotytto (Strab.x.). It was held at night, and, according to Strabo, resembled the festivals of the Cabeiri and the Phrygian Cybele. But the worship of Cotys, together with the festival of the Cotyttia, was adopted by several Greek States, chiefly those which were induced by their commercial interest to maintain friendly relations with Thrace. The priests of the goddess were formerly supposed to have borne the name of baptae; but Buttmann has shown that this opinion is probably groundless. Her festivals were notorious among the ancients for the dissolute manner and the debaucheries with which they were celebrated (Suidas, s. v. Kotus; Hor. Epod.xvii. 56; Theocr. vi. 40). Another festival of the same name was celebrated in Sicily where boughs hung with cakes and fruit were carried about, which any person had a right to pluck off if he chose; but we have no mention that this festival was polluted with any of the licentious practices which disgraced those of Thrace and Greece, unless we refer the allusion made by Theocritus to the Cotyttia, to the Sicilian festival.

This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks