Apellaia


The apellaia were the offerings made at the initiation of a young man at a meeting of a family-group of the northwest Greeks. Apellaios is the month of these rites and oferrings, and Apellon, is the megistos kouros.
The brotherhood, the phratry, controlled the access to civic rights. There was a three-day family-festival, with initiation ceremonies, not concerning the state. The father introduced his young child, then again as a child who would become a grown-up kouros, and the husband his wife after the marriage. The three-day festival of the northwest Greeks was called Apellai, and was similar with the Ionic Apaturia. The three relative offerings of Apellai at least in Delphi were paideia, apellaia, and gamela.
According to Plutarch: "It was a custom for those who from children were initiated to grown-up kouroi, to go to Delphi and offer there the hair of their head to the god. Theseus went there, and he only shaved the forepart of his head." "Apollo is the unshorn Phoibos." A similar offering was made in the Apaturia, which was called koureion. and corresponds to apellaion