by unknown
(25 Metageitnion) A sacrifice to Zeus Epoptes (the overseer) in the Attic demos of Erchia.
According to Sarah Iles Johnston (45), in the first line of the ‘Choephoroi’, Orestes invokes Hermes Chthonios, in his capacity as the god who controls the dead, precisely as”patroi’ epopteuon krate”, which means “‘watching [my] ancestral powers”, so perhaps the role that Epops or Epopeus, his “watching” hero, played in Erchia, like that he played in Sciyon, involved controlling the dead, and it was for this reason that he received special offerings at the festival of Genesia. If so, then this was a day during which the dangerous dead were controlled or averted.
Source:
Johnston, Sarah Iles, “Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece”