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But when Theseus settled the people in one city and established the democracy, and the city became populous, the people none the less continued to elect the king as before, choosing him from among those most distinguished by valor; and they established a law that his wife should be of Athenian birth, and that he should marry a virgin who had never known another man, to the end that after the custom of our fathers the sacred rites that none may name may be celebrated on the city’s behalf, and that the approved sacrifices may be made to the gods as piety demands, without omission or innovation.
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This law they wrote on a pillar of stone, and set it up in the sanctuary of Dionysus by the altar in LimnaeA district in the southern part of Athens, though topographers differ widely as to its location. It was doubtless originally a swamp (λίμνη).(and this pillar even now stands, showing the inscription in Attic characters, nearly effaced). Thus the people testified to their own piety toward the god, and left it as a deposit for future generations, showing what type of woman we demand that she shall be who is to be given in marriage to the god, and is to perform the sacrifices. For this reason they set it up in the most ancient and most sacred sanctuary of Dionysus in Limnae, in order that few only might have knowledge of the inscription; for once only in each year is the sanctuary opened, on the twelfth day of the month Anthesterion.Anthesterion corresponds to the latter half of February and the prior half of March. It was in this month that the Feast of Flowers (τὰ Ἀνθεστήρια) was celebrated in honor of Dionysus.
