It is worth your while, men of Athens, to consider this also—that you punished Archias, who had been hierophant, The high-priest of the temple at Eleusis. when he was convicted in court of impiety and of offering sacrifice contrary to the rites handed down by our fathers. Among the charges brought against him was, that at the feast of the harvest Literally, the feast of the threshing-floor. This was celebrated in the month Poseideon (the latter half of December and the prior half of January). he sacrificed on the altar in the court at Eleusis a victim brought by the courtesan Sinop, although it was not lawful to offer victims on that day, and the sacrifice was not his to perform, but the priestess’.